Activities of Jean LAMBERT related to 2014/2059(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2014 priorities (debate)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2014 priorities
Amendments (30)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas in 2010 the Member States committed themselves to the EU2020 goals for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy as the direction in which the EU is to develop; whereas there is a lack of consistency between policies in the economic, employment and social field with recommendations often contradicting each other;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. wWhereas the labour market is now one of the major causes of inequality between Member States and between different sectors, owing to divergences in access to employment, working conditions, or wage levels insufficient to guarantee decent living standards; and growing polarisation between low and high-skilled work which can prevent movement within the labour market;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. Whereas the Commission has acknowledged that, contrary to the Europe 2020 targets, poverty has increased by 10 million between 2010 and 2012 instead of being reduced;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the fact that the focus of the 2014 country-specific recommendations (CSRs) has shifted from solely boosting fiscal consolidation to strengthening the conditions for sustainable growth and employment; recalls that within the current Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) there are still margins intended to facilitate economic growth in the EU, and that differences in the Member States’' economic and social situations need to be taken into account; calls for greater flexibility margins in order to boost job creation with special focus on green jobs and in line with a resource efficient economy; takes the view, however, that some of the structural reforms promoted by the Commission – especially labour reforms, wage devaluation, pension reforms, etc. – may result in the same contractionary effects on the economy or on internal demand as the excessive austerity conducted up to now; calls on the Commission, therefore, to assess the economic and social impact of such policies before recommending them;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Underlines that while wages are an important variable in resolving euro-area macro-economic imbalances, they are not merely a tool for economic adjustment, but above all the income that workers need to live on; calls on the Commission to ensure that recommendations in the field of wages do not increase in-work poverty or wage inequalities within Member States, or harm low-income groups;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Highlights the job potential of the green economy which according to Commission estimates could create 5 million jobs by 2020 in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors alone, provided that ambitious climate and energy policies are put in place; calls on the Member States to ensure sufficient levels of investment in these sectors and to anticipate future skills of workers; calls on the Commission to include the exploitation of the job potential of the green economy as a key priority in the Annual Growth Survey of 2015;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is deeply concerned that, up to now, the recommendations made as part of the European Semester have taken us further away from achieving the employment and social targets of the Europe 2020 strategy; calls on the new Commission, with especially the poverty reduction target lagging behind as poverty is increasing rather than decreasing; calls on the new Commission to adopt a consistent approach and to ask immediately that the Member States report on national progress on the Europe 2020 strategy and its targets and correct this discrepancy in their national reform programmes (NRPs) to be presented as part of the next European Semester and to aim Country Specific Recommendations at poverty reduction in all those Member States where more should be done in this area; furthermore calls for more transparency and policy coherence with regard to the overlapping EU level economic and employment strategies;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls for ex-ante coordination of fiscal, economic and social policies recommended under the European Semester and in particular in the Annual Growth Survey and the Country Specific Recommendations;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the Commission’s use of the new employment and social scoreboard for this year’s CSRs; considers it regrettable, however, that these indicators have not been made binding in view of the current employment and social emergency; calls on the Commission, therefore, to put them on an equal footing with macroeconomic indicators, and to include additional indicators – such as child poverty levels, access to healthcare, homelessness, and a decent work index – in the scoreboard in order to allow more effective analysis of Member States’ employment and social concerns; calls on the Commission and Council to continue to improve indicators to monitor the social, environmental and innovation dimension of the EU 2020 Strategy in the framework of the European Semester;
Amendment 81 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the new Commission to make the employment recovery a true priority by establishing an ambitious and holistic strategy for quality job creation, and to promote access for excluded groups through integrated active inclusion approaches, which should involve all the new Commissioners; takes the view that, to this end, each Commissioner should draw up a quality employment plan for their specific policy area, including concrete measures, a budget allocation and a calendar for its implementation, also urges the Commission to demand from each Member State a National Job Plan for decent/quality job creation as agreed by Member States at the 2012 Spring Council;
Amendment 97 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Welcomes the Commission's Country Specific Recommendations in the field of environmental taxation and calls on Member States to implement this recommendation while ensuring that this will benefit lower incomes in particular; highlights the positive budgetary, employment, social, and environmental impacts of shifting taxation from labour to environmental taxation and of the phasing out of environmentally harmful subsidies; calls on the Commission to make environmental taxation a priority in the upcoming Annual Growth Survey;
Amendment 106 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission, as a matter of urgency, to give tangible form to the promised EUR 300 billion investment plan, and calls for an assessment as to whether this figure is sufficient to restore the EU’s full potential for growth and quality job creation; recalls the Commission's recognition of the health and social care sectors as holding significant potential for growth and representing crucial areas for investment in pursuit of sustainable economies; invites the Commission to report on progress in developing initiatives, as part of the Europe 2020 Strategy, for investment in the health and social care sectors with regards to quality employment;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Is concerned that, in many Member States and sectors, job losses are coupled with a decline in job quality, an increase in precarious forms of employment and a deterioration in basic labour standards; stresses that the Commission and the Member States need to make dedicated efforts to address the increase in involuntary part-time employment and temporary contracts, payless internships and apprenticeships, and bogus self- employment, together with the activities of the black economy; believes that all types of contractual arrangements should give workers access to a core set of rights; reiterates its call on Member States to ensure that people with precarious, temporary or part-time contracts or who are self-employed have adequate social protection, pension rights and access to life-long learning;
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Calls on the Commission to ensure that in their policy guidance labour market reforms are aimed at, amongst others, reducing segmentation, promoting transition between jobs, advancing the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the labour market, reducing in-work poverty, promoting gender equality, strengthening the rights of workers with a-typical contracts and provide more social protection for self-employed workers;
Amendment 144 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes the January 2014 proposal for a EURES (European Job Mobility Portal) regulation; calls for Parliament and the Council to deliberate on the reform as a matter of urgency so that EURES can become an effective instrument for boosting freedom of movement and for promoting diversity; recalls that mobility must remain voluntary and must not limit efforts to create jobs and training places on the spot;
Amendment 158 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Highlights the rising number of workers, particularly young people, departing their countries of origin for other Member States in search of employment opportunities, and is deeply concerned about the persistent divergences between those Member States creating employment and those supplying a low-cost labour force; urges the Commission to develop a better legal framework for cross-border movement of workers in order to ensure freedom of movement while consecrating the principle of equal treatment and safeguarding wages and social standards; in view of combatting in-work poverty, calls for the establishment in each Member State, either by law or through collective bargaining having the force of law, of a minimum wage equivalent to at least 60 % of the respective national average wage;
Amendment 173 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Welcomes the mentioning of the Youth Guarantee in the majority of the country specific recommendations; however, calls for more transparency in the monitoring of the implementation and for more ambition with regard to addressing the Member States showing no progress in this regard; calls on the European Commission to closely monitor the challenges that have been identified in the 2014 Country Specific Recommendations, regarding the quality of offers, the lack of active outreach to NEETs, the administrative capacity of Public employment services and the lack of effective engagement with all the relevant partners; stresses that the Youth Employment Initiative should be regarded as an incentive to all Member States to use the European Social Fund to finance broader projects related to youth, especially on poverty and social inclusion;
Amendment 192 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Urges the Member States to go above and beyond the March 2014 Council recommendation for a Quality Framework for Traineeships in order to prevent discrimination and exploitation of young workers; calls for the adoption of a directive on decent conditions and minimum standards for internships and traineeships, giving interns and trainees clearly defined rights that include access to social protection, binding written contracts and fair remuneration and introducing limits on the use of trainees and interns in companies so as to prevent abuses;.
Amendment 197 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Observes with concern that female unemployment rates are higher than the total rates (11.7 % in the EU-18 and 10.4 % in the EU-28, compared with 11.5 % and 10.2 % respectively); calls, therefore, for specific decent-job creation plans with targeted measures for women; calls for the establishment of specific recommendations with a view to reducing the gender pay gap and gender pension gap, which is not only a drag on the economy and on competitiveness but also a sign of social injustice;
Amendment 202 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Welcomes the recommendations addressing the low participation of women in the labour market; calls on the Commission to include a broader gender equality perspective beyond employment rates in in the next Annual Growth Survey; calls on the Commission to address labour market segregation, unequal distribution of care responsibilities and the effects of fiscal consolidation on women in its policy guidance;
Amendment 210 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Is deeply concerned that long-term unemployed people and senior workers are experiencing higher unemployment rates and additional difficulties in re-entering the labour market; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make full use of the European Social Fund to help these workers; urges the adoption of a directive on decent working conditions, defining core labour rights for all workers and introducing common minimum standards so as to prevent this kind of labour discrimination; calls on Member States to ensure that employment policies reach also those furthest away from the labour market, including people with migrant background and the Roma and to take action to ensure that anti-discrimination legislation relating to employment matters is implemented;
Amendment 219 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Welcomes those CSRs aimed at increasing the adequacy and coverage of minimum income schemes and social protection, and the number of CSRs relating to labour market inclusion policies; takes the view, however, that the uneven and fragile growth expected by the Commission in 2014 and 2015 will not by itself be able to tackle the severe impact that austerity measures and the crisis have had on the fight against poverty and social exclusion and on the achievement of the Europe 2020 goals; demands that the Member States follow up closely the recommendations, deliver on them and propose specific, targeted measures within their NRPs with a view to tackling poverty, especially child poverty;
Amendment 223 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. Calls on the Commission to link the European Semester more closely to the Europe 2020 social objectives; National Reform Programmes (NRPs) should report on progress on the national poverty targets demonstrating the contribution to the commonly agreed headline poverty target under Europe 2020; Calls on the Commission to issue CSRs on fighting poverty to all MSs in the future; Calls on Member States to have specific social inclusion and anti-discrimination measures in place to reduce poverty aiming groups most at risk from social exclusion;
Amendment 234 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Considers it regrettable that very few CSRs tackle the issue of in-work poverty; calls on the Commission to explicitly address in-work poverty and poverty among people with limited or no link to labour market in the AGS 2015; points out that new forms of poverty affecting the middle and working classes are emerging in some cases, with difficulties in paying mortgages and high energy prices creating energy poverty and giving rise to an increasing number of evictions and foreclosures; is concerned by evidence that levels of homelessness and housing exclusion are increasing; recalls that this represents a violation of fundamental rights; recommends that the Member States and their local authorities introduce neutral housing policies favouring social and affordable housing, tackle the issue of housing vacancy and implement effective prevention policies aimed at reducing the number of evictions;
Amendment 242 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29 a. Agrees with the Commission that Member States must confront homelessness through comprehensive strategies based on prevention, housing- led approaches and reviewing regulations and practices on eviction and stopping criminalisation of homeless people; calls for improvement with regard to transnational exchange of best practices and mutual learning and acknowledges the role of PROGRESS in this context;
Amendment 247 #
Draft opinion
Title 2 a (new)
Title 2 a (new)
2 a. Democratic legitimacy
Amendment 248 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Reiterates its call for increased and structured involvement of civil society and trade union stakeholders at EU as well as national level, so as to safeguard the legitimacy and improve the effectiveness of the European Semester process by developing concrete guidelines and monitoring mechanism; looks forward, in this connection, to the Commission’'s planned involvement of the social partners in the context of the Social Dialogue Committee prior to the adoption of the 2015 Annual Growth Survey and the improvement of the involvement of civil society at EU level as well as expansion of national pilot projects for involvement of civil society at national level;
Amendment 252 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Criticises the fact that not all the Member States have involved both their national parliament and their national social partners and civil society in the drafting of their NRPs., calls on the Member States to include a detailed overview in their NRP explaining who was involved in what manner; calls on the Commission to take stock of the different national practices of parliamentary procedures and stakeholder involvement in the European Semester;
Amendment 254 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33 a. Expresses its concern about the fact that no recommendations have been made on the Europe 2020 objectives to those Member States with a financial assistance programme; calls on the Commission to assess the impact of the economic adjustment programme on progress towards the Europe 2020 headline targets and to propose modifications designed to bring the adjustment programme into line with the Europe 2020 objectives;
Amendment 255 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 33 b (new)
Paragraph 33 b (new)
33 b. Calls on the Commission and Council to enter into an inter-institutional agreement with Parliament in order to give Parliament a full role in the drafting and approval of the Annual Growth Survey and the Economic Policy and Employment Guidelines;