17 Amendments of Göran FÄRM related to 2012/2000(BUD)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. AcknowledgesTakes note of the fiscal consolidation efforts undertaken by some Member States with the aim of addressing thebecause of the financial and budgetary crisis; underlines however the fact that the EU will never be able to respond properly to the economic and social crisis without common instruments and the resources to make them work; insists, that economic recovery requires measures to strengthen solidarity and boost sustainable growth and employment; welcomes the fact that the European Council now recognises this in its statement of 30 January 2012, but insists on the need for concrete measures to be taken, notably by making use of the EU budget as a common instrument; underlines that priorities singled out in the above mentioned statements are precisely the ones defended by the European Parliament during the 2012 budgetary procedure;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Continues to be concerned at the unprecedented global crisis that has seriously damaged economic growth and financial stability and provoked a strong deterioration in the government deficit and debt position of the Member States; sharacknowledges the Council’s concern regarding economic and budgetary constraints at national level and insists that 2013 will be a key year for economic recovery;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Takes the view that the promotion of growth and jobs require specific actions and enhanced budgetary efforts to support a sustainable and long term industrial policy, competitiveness, innovation and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), since most of the EU economic potential lies in SMEs, which, according to latest studies, created 85 % of net new jobs in the EU between 2002 and 2010 and are the backbone of our economic growth;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines the fact that the results of the Europe 2020 Strategy depend to a large extent on today’s youth, which is the highest-educated, most technically advanced and most mobile ever, and therefore is and will be the biggest asset for growth and jobs in the EU; this being the case, stresses that every effort must be made at EU and national level to ensure that growth and jobs are a reality, especially for young people, who represent the EU’s common future; equally highlights the need to address urgently the challenges of unemployment and poverty in the spirit of the flagship initiative “European Platform against poverty and social exclusion”;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Welcomes the European Commission's proposal to redirect the money still to be programmed under all EU structural funds (the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund) into helping SMEs and combating youth unemployment for an amount of EUR 82 billion; requests to be kept duly informed about this initiative, its implementation and its eventual impact for the 2013 budget;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses that well coordinated, coherent and timely implementation of political commitments and priorities shared at national and EU level requires national and European institutions to work together to prioritise public spending on growth areas, assess ex ante the effects of planned actions, increase synergies between them and ensure that they have a positive impact by removing obstacles and tapping into under-utilised potential; underlines its commitment to continuing to organise interparliamentary debates on the common budgetary orientations of the Member States and the Union in order to ensure that there is coordination between the national and EU budgets in the general framework of Parliament’s upgraded activities in the European Semester in order to enhance its democratic legitimacy as demanded in the resolution of 1 December 2011 on the European Semester for Economic Policy Coordination;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for the adoption of a responsible and result-oriented budget, based on good- quality spending and optimal and timely use of existing EU financing; in thise spirit, welcomes of the statement of 30 January 2012 by the Members of the European Council outlining, emphasises the need to invest in growth and jobs, especially in terms of SMEs and young people; underlines its intention of engaging, together with the specialised parliamentary committees, not only in the identification of concrete areas where actions need to be strengthened, but also in identifying possible negative priorities;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Stresses that the EU budget represents an investment solely directed towards policies and actions demonstrating EU added value; draws attention to the fact that the EU budget – which cannot run into deficit – has a leverage effect on growth and employment much higher than that of national spending, as does its capacity to gear up investment, deliver stability in Europe and help the EU out of the current economic and financial crisis; underlines the fact, mohowever the necessity of leveraging more investments in order not to endanger key projects for economic recover, that newy and competitiveness; highlights in this context the fact, that developing new and improved financial instruments could further enhance the leverage effect of EU spending’s contribution to growth;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Recalls that between 2000 and 2011, national budgets in the EU increased on average by 62% while the EU budget payments increased by slightly less than 42%, whereas the EU enlarged from 15 to 27 Member States;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Welcomes the fact that the European Commission in presenting the latest version of the financial programming 2012-13 respected EP 2012 budgetary priorities by not having offset past increases; asks for the 2013 draft budget to follow the same line;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. Recalls that the allocation for EU external actions within the current financial framework is insufficient to meet the policies approved as priorities by Parliament, the Council and the Commission; recalls moreover, that the appropriations allocated for some policies have had to be revised several times in order to meet new goals and tasks, making the use of the Flexibility Instrument necessary in almost every annual budget; underlines that the financial needs for EU external actions will not be less during 2013, especially with regards to pre-accession, development cooperation and crisis response as well as neighborhood policy; stresses that it will not accept longstanding EU political commitments to be jeopardized;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recalls that the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2007-2013 was designed to improve the prosperity and quality of life of our citizens and to exploit all the potential of enlargement, yet since 2008 the EU has experienced an unprecedented crisis, which has also impacted on each of the annual budgets; underlines against this background the fact that the 2007-2013 finsubstanctial framework was not revised to accommodate additionglobal margins have been left under the overall ceilings of the Multiannual fFinancing needs stemming from the economic and financial crisisal Framework in every annual budget since 2007 and that, to that extent, all the annual budgets have been contained and austere; stresses that the corresponding payments should therefore at least be disbursed according to the normal budget cycle; recalls that payments are dissociated from commitment appropriations only because of the time lag, in the case of multiannual programmes, before the actual disbursement of the funds;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that the level of payments, which, being the mere result of past commitments, should be determined on the basis of technical criteria such as implementation figures, absorption forecasts or the level of outstanding commitments (RALs), has become the main political issue within the Council in the past few budgetary procedures; points to the growing level of RALs at the end of 2011, amounting to € 207 billion, which represents almost 7 % more than the level at the end of 2010; insists that Council refrain from deciding a priori the level of payments without taking account of actual needs and legal obligations;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines the fact that a pure ‘net EU budget contributor/net EU budget beneficiary’ approach does not take due account of the great positive spill-over effects the EU budget produces between EU countries to the benefit of common EU policy goals; is deeply concerned at the very moderate increases in payments in the two last budgets, which in the case of the 2012 budget were even below the level of inflation, at a crucial time when all the investment programmes should be unfolding their full potential and running at full speed;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Stresses that under-budgeting should be avoided as a matter of sound financial management, and that appropriations need to be aligned to realistic estimates of absorption capacity; points out the fact that artificially lowering the level of appropriations as against the Commission’s realistic estimates may, conversely, prevent the final level of budgetary implementation to reach its full potential; recalls that the level of payment appropriations proposed by the European Commission in its draft budget is determined mainly by the Member States own forecasts and their implementation capacity, since Member States co-manage, together with the Commission, more than 80% of EU funding;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Recalls that Council decided by unanimity that "An orderly ratio between appropriations for commitments and appropriations for payments shall be maintained to guarantee their compatibility1"; reiterates its call to the Council to refrain from making artificial cuts in payments during the budgetary procedure, and stresses that this seems to be leading to an unsustainable level of payments; requests, in the event of such proposals being made, that the Council clearly and publicly identify and justify which of the 1 Council Decision n°2007/436/EC of 7 June 2007 on the system of the European Communities’ own resources, OJ L163.17, 23.06.2007 EU’s political prioritiEU’s programmes or projects it believes could be delayed or dropped altogether;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Welcomes the agreement reached on financing the additional costs of ITER in December 2011; urges the Commission to respect the joint conclusions in this agreement in their entirety and to make concrete proposals on the amount of EUR 360 million in the 2013 draft budget, making full use of the provisions laid down in the Financial Regulation and in the IIA of 17 May 2006 andwhile excluding any further ITER-related revision of the MFF; reiterates its strong conviction that securing the amount of EUR 360 million in the 2013 budget should not impair the successful implementation of other EU policies during this last year of the programming period; underlines that the European Commission foresees in its financial programming a margin of EUR 47 million in Heading 1a which partially covers the needs for ITER;