Activities of Jean LAMBERT related to 2017/2260(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: employment and social aspects in the Annual Growth Survey 2018 PDF (397 KB) DOC (94 KB)
Amendments (39)
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 a (new)
Citation 13 a (new)
– having regard to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 b (new)
Citation 13 b (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 13 December 2017 on the Recommendation following the inquiry on money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion,
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 c (new)
Citation 13 c (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 4 July 2013 on the Impact of the crisis on access to care for vulnerable groups (2013/2044(INI)),
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 d (new)
Citation 13 d (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 8 July 2015 on the Green Employment Initiative: Tapping into the job creation potential of the green economy (2014/2238(INI)),
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 e (new)
Citation 13 e (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 13 September 2016 on creating labour market conditions favourable for work- life balance (2016/2017(INI)),
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 f (new)
Citation 13 f (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 11 June 2013 on social housing in the European Union (2012/2293(INI)),
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the employment rate in the EU is increasing and has reached 235.4 million people in jobs in the second quarter of 2017, which constitutes an employment rate of 72.3 %, meaning that the EU is on track toa progress towards reaching the 75 % employment rate target specified in the Europe 2020 strategy; whereas 18.9 million people are still without a job, investment still remains too low, wage growth is subdued and in-work poverty remains on an increasing trend;
Amendment 40 #
B. whereas although the EU unemployment rate is at its lowest level in nine years and stands at 7.5 %, the share of long-term unemployment remains alarmingly high at above 45%;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas, although a certain amount of progress in reducing poverty and social exclusion can be observed, there are still disadvanone out of four Europeans is still affected by (the risk of) poverty, leaving the EU far off track in achieving the EU2020 targed groups in society and regional disparities persist; t and regional disparities persist; whereas income inequality continues to grow; whereas high levels of inequality remain an obstacle to equal opportunities in access to education, training and social protection, and therefore are detrimental to social justice, social cohesion and sustainable economic development;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas the number of children experiencing poverty remains alarmingly high in Europe, currently standing at more than 25 million;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
Gb. whereas fiscal policy in Member States plays a role in the stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment, while also having other objectives such as fiscal sustainability and redistribution functions;
Amendment 77 #
Ha. whereas, in accordance with Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, a high level of human health protection should be ensured in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities; whereas this would contribute to social inclusion, social justice and equality; whereas this requirement is currently being challenged by high prices of medicines;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the inclusion of the European Pillar of Social Rights in the Annual Growth Survey 2018 as an important part of the European investment process, based on a strategy of investment, structural reforms and responsible public finances; calls on the Member States to take account of the priorities identified in the survey in their national policies and strategies to promote growth, employment andsustainable economic development, quality employment and high levels of social protection;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the need for socially and economically balanced structural reforms aimed at improving inclusive labour market and social policies, in order to boost investment and create quality jobs, to help the workforce to acquire the skills they need and to promote equal opportunities in the labour market, fair working conditions, increasing labour productivity to support wage growth, and sustainable and adequate social protection systems; Reminds that structural reforms should take account of distributional effects on different people; Calls for measures preventing a race to the bottom in terms of taxation and social standards, which leads to an increase in inequalities;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls for boosting social investment in view of their economic returns and social benefits. Reminds that economies with a higher degree of social investment are more resilient to shocks and that adequately resourced social protection systems can work as automatic stabilisers;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Calls on the Commission and Member States to allow room for public social investment at national level in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact, and to support this, calls on the Commission to carry out a more in-depth assessment of which types of spending can definitely be considered as social investment;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Welcomes the Commission's support for investment to enhance environmental sustainability and the acknowledgement of its potential across the economy; agrees that support for the transition towards a circular and green economy has a high net job creation potential;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes in this regard the Interinstitutional Proclamation on the European Pillar of Social Rights and believes its 20 key principles regarding equal opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions and social protection and inclusion should serve as a point of referenceframework when implementing the European Semester policy coordination cycle;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Recognises the efforts to strengthen the social dimension of the Semester; calls for further actions to balance social and economic priorities and to improve the quality of monitoring and recommendations in the social area;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the new scoreboard, which provides for 14 headline indicators to screen the employment and social performance of Member States, along three broad dimensions, identified in the contextreflecting part of the 20 principles of the Social Pillar; underlines the fact, that for the EU on average, 11 of the 14 headline indicators recorded an improvement over the last available year, confirming the steady improvement in the labour market and social situation which has accompanied the economic recovery; Recommends the development of indicators to cover also the Social Pillar principles that are not covered yet, so that the Pillar can be used in a meaningful way; Calls for the use of indicators in a way that allows triggering corrective action;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls on the Commission to take into account the Social Development Goals when proposing policy recommendations in the context of the European Semester;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Welcomes the focus in the 2018 AGS on adequate social housing and other housing assistance as essential services, including protecting people in vulnerable situations against unjustified forced eviction and foreclosures, and tackling homelessness; calls for re- enforced monitoring of homelessness and housing exclusion in the Semester and recommendations as required; calls for greater consistency within the Semester between the consideration of housing from macroeconomic and social rights perspectives;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Agrees with the Commission that "Social protection systems should ensure the right to minimum income benefits"; calls on Member States to set adequate minimum income above the poverty line and to ensure it is easily accessible to all people who need it; considers that to be effective in the fight against poverty, minimum income schemes should be accompanied by access to quality services and measures to facilitate entry or re- entry in the labour market for people in vulnerable situations, if they can work; urges the Commission to use the European Semester to demand from all Member States to introduce adequate minimum income schemes where these are not yet in place and to progressively improve the levels of existing schemes to be above the poverty line;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to maximise their efforts in investing in high-quality education and training in order to guarantee that the skills acquired will match labour market demand; underlines, in this respect, the growing demand for digital and other transferable skills and insists that the development of these skills is urgent and particularly necessary; calls for additional efforts to ensure that benefits of globalisation and technological changes, including digitisation, are distributed in a socially just way among people, notably to support low-skills workers and young people;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to tackle the multidimensionality of poverty and inequalities and to propose an integrated anti-poverty strategy in order to achieve the Europe 2020 targets; reiterates its call for a green paper on inequalities and how this is hampering economic recovery; calls on the Commission and Member States to step up their work on the monitoring and implementation of the Recommendation on Investing in children; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States for a child guarantee placing children in the centre of existing poverty alleviation policies and ensuring special dedicated resources necessary for its full implementation;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to take all the necessary measures to improve the services and legislation that are important for a proper work-life balance; calls for the development of accessible and affordable childcare and early education services, and for the creation of favourable conditions for parents and carers by allowing for advantageous family leave take-up and flexible working arrangements which tap into the potential of new technologies; underlines, in this respect, the potential of public-private partnershipimportant role of social service providers and social economy enterprises;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to introduce targets on care for elderly persons, persons with disabilities and other dependants, similar to the Barcelona targets, with monitoring tools to ensure these targets are met; calls on the Commission and Member States towards qualitative standards for all care services, including on their availability, accessibility and affordability; calls on Member States and the Commission to take up the EPSCO Council conclusions on enhancing community-based support and care for independent living, and develop a clear strategy and strong investment to develop modern high- quality community-based services and to increase support for caregivers, especially family carers;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Underlines the potential of SMEs in job creation and the economy as a whole; considers it vital to support entrepreneurship and to improve the business environment by removadjusting administrative burdrequirements, improving access for micro-entrepreneurs to social protection and to finance, and supporting the development of tax models and simplified tax compliance procedures favouring SMEs, entrepreneurs, micro- entities and start-ups;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission to use the EU Semester to support green job creation; calls on the Commission to issue country-specific recommendations that can contribute to higher employment and smaller ecological footprints, and calls for detailed independent studies on the costs and benefits of a shift in tax burdens (e.g. from labour to environmental taxation); Stresses that such recommendations must not have unwanted repercussions on social security systems or impact disproportionately those on low incomes;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Emphasises the need for more tax policy coordination and for improving the efficiency and transparency of tax systems in terms of tax collection and redistribution to support the proper financing of social systems;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to invest in and promote the development of new production technologies and services in the framework of a just transition; underlines their potential to increase productivsustainability, create new quality jobs and stimulate long- term growthdevelopment;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Considers demographic decline, which affects EU regions to different extents, to be among the serious obstacles hindering EU growthdevelopment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to introduce measures designed to address this challenge; underlines the fact that demographic decline requires a holistic approach, which should include the adaptation of the necessary infrastructure, quality jobs with decent wages, and the enhancement of public services and flexible working arrangements;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recalls that increasing life expectancy requires the adaptation of pensions systems in order to ensure a good quality of life for elderly people; stresses that this can be achieved by providing adequate minimum pensions, offering adequate working conditions to provide opportunities for those wishing to work longer or by linking retirement age not only to healthy life expectancy but also to insurance contribution years, and by preventing early exit from the labour market;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Is of the opinion that the resources for social inclusion and poverty reduction in the future Multiannual Financial Framework should be increased and efforts strengthened to prevent and tackle child poverty;
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up efforts for further inclusion of people with disabilities into the labour market by removing legislative barriers and, tackling discrimination and adapting work places as well as by creating incentives for their employment;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to continue initiatives aimed at increasing access to better education, skills and employment and to ensure a stronger focus on the green and circular economy throughout all their work on skills;
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Believes it is important to foster intercultural dialogue in order to make it easier for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to enter the labour market and become integrated into society; Recalls that newcomers bring new skills and knowledge with them, and calls for the development of tools providing multilingual information about the existing opportunities for formal and informal learning, professional training, traineeships and voluntary work;
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 c (new)
Paragraph 15 c (new)
15c. Calls on the Member States to incorporate the gender dimension and the principle of equality between woman and man in their National Reform Programs and stability and convergence programs through the setting of qualitative targets and measures that address persisting gender gaps;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Underlines the role of the social partners and civil society as essential stakeholders in the reform process and the added value of their involvement in the drafting, sequencing and implementation of reforms; supports the opinion that new forms of employment in the globalised market call for new forms of social dialogue; affirms that the Member States need to help people build the skills required in the labour marketcalls on the Commission to propose guidelines and mechanisms for adequate involvement of all relevant stakeholders; supports the opinion that new forms of employment in the globalised market call for new forms of social and civil dialogue;