17 Amendments of Victor NEGRESCU related to 2020/2244(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. REmphasises the role of education and culture in the personal development and critical thinking of citizens, in social mobility, in the promotion of creativity and innovation, and in raising awareness for major collective challenges such as climate change, the digital transformation and paradigm-shifting technologies; recalls the objective of a continuous improvement of the EU’s and theall Member States’ education, training and skills policies in order to deliver inclusive, accessible and high-quality education and comprehensive lifelong learning for all, from early childhood to older adults, and the upgrading of skills and reskilling, notably of people with lower levels of education, andyoung people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) and the long-term unemployed; upholds the need to prepare for the future impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on the labour market and public spheres, as well as on everyday life and on our personal and collective relationship with knowledge, learning and information; in this respect, reminds also the relevance of acquiring media literacy skills to combat disinformation and build an active digital citizenship;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Stresses the need to deliver on the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), calls for the timely adoption of the Child Guarantee and a vigorous implementation by the Member States of the Youth Guarantee, and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals on quality education, so that everyone can afford quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning to be able to participate fully in society and join the labour market; urges the Commission to swiftly present an Action Plan for the implementation of the EPSR and to further refine the indicators of the Pillar’s Social Scoreboard, as well as their monitoring;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Calls on the Member States to include in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans ambitious investments at all levels of education, including vocational education, training, upskilling and reskilling, as a condition for an economic recovery which fosters social cohesion and tackles inequalities;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Stresses the need for the Member States to increase the mutual recognition and portability of skills, diplomas and personal qualifications in the internal labour market, thereby contributing to the building of a European Education Area that will improve labour mobility and enhance the international competitiveness of the EU economy;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Calls upon Member States to increase their GDP allocations for education and considers that the European Semester should better reflect the pace of education reforms that often do not adjust well to the semester temporal logic;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is of the opinion that the unprecedented EU financial support for a post-COVID-19 recovery should strive for sustainable economic growth that is inclusive and benefit all equally, addressing structural socio-economic disadvantages, including disadvantages relating to early school leaving and school failure that limit the creation of qualified and well-paid jobs; reminds that continued schooling is closely linked to access to social protection systems that provide for the basic needs of children and their families, including high-quality nutrition and healthcare, access to adequate housing and quality public transport, among others; and emphasises that the European green and digital transition cannot be achieved without a gradual transformation of the education and training systems, which will need major investments;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the area of education as severe discrepancies in digital education exists between the mMember sStates, with 32% of pupils in some Member States not having had any access to education for several months, in this regard; underlines that a green and digital transition in the EU should be based on fairness in society and better redistribution of wealth, and should address areas such as employment, skills and education and provide support to those who have been hit hardest by the COVID- 19 pandemic, such as young people, women and vulnerable groupgenerations, women, people with disabilities, single parents, the elderly and other vulnerable groups; stresses the role of school medicine and health education in mitigating the effects of pandemic outbreaks and in the prevention of and preparedness for future public health emergencies;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Commission to better integrate education into the European Semester framework and to expand its current focus to include social objectives, digital education and the quality of the education provided, in order to assess the evolutions and reforms of the educational systems and consistently check the implementation of the EU action plans, agendas and recovery targets across the Union;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the inclusion within the European Semester exercise of the components referring to the specific activities in the education, culture, sport and media sectors of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF); Calls on the Commission to monitor closely Member States progress reports on the implementation of the NRRPs within the European Semester exercise in order to verify to what extent have the objectives of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) been met;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)Notes the heavy toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on creative and cultural sectors and industries, including events and performances, cultural and heritage tourism, intangible cultural heritage practices, and the existential threat it represents to many artists and creative businesses; deplores that such impact on culture is not reflected in the European Commission communication on the EU annual sustainable growth strategy 2021 and asks the Commission and the Member States to identify and adopt specific initiatives to protect this field; more specifically, calls on the Member States to include a strong focus on culture with at least 2 % of the national RRF budget allocated to the CCSs, as the whole sector was among the most severely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic; encourages the Member States to accelerate efforts to improve the social protection systems and the working conditions for the workforce in this sector;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to integrate the recommendation made by the European Parliament to prioritize investments in education and training by allocating at least 10% of the national RRF budget to the sector in order to enable its adaptation to the new challenges generated by the pandemic and a fair digital and green transition;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges the Commission and the Member States to use the Recovery and Resiliaence Facility to establish the necessary conditions in order to ensure the possibilities for digital education across the whole European Union as a complementary tool for the in-person education, also with the aim of increasing the inclusiveness of education systems, with a particular focus on equal access to high-quality education and training for disadvantaged groups to compensate for the fact that socio-economic background is currently the most important determinant of children and young people’s educational outcome; is worried that the share of NEET young people has risen sharply and calls for targeted funding to allow for new opportunities for this vulnerable group; reminds the relevance of acquiring media literacy skills to build an active digital citizenship; recalls the EU Skills Agenda’s aim to ensure that 70 % of 16- to 74-year-olds have basic digital skills by 2025; bearing in mind that 42 % of Europeans still lack such basic digital skills, with significant disparities within and between the Member States and on the basis of socioeconomic status, age, income, education level and employment, urges the Commission to better integrate digital education into the European Semester exercise, taking into account not only the economic impact of education, but also social objectives, as well as quality of education; stresses further the need to address the significant gender gap in digital skills and tech sector jobs;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States to take the necessary measures to reinforce their digital infrastructure and, the connectivity ofand educational methods used in schools and learning centres and accelerate reforms implementing the digital transformation ensuring that all Europeans can take advantage of it and with a particular effort to provide online education accessible to all, in this context reminds the necessity to adequately train the teachers and, trainers and parents, whose role in digital transformation is crucial, for new formats such as distance and blended learning; points out the need to thoroughly assess the impact of overexposure to the digital world and calls for measures that promote better understanding of the risks posed by digital technologies which may affect children and young people in particular;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Welcomes that the Recovery and Resilience Facility supports the digital transition with a minimum level of 20% of expenditure related to digital, and in this regard stresses the need to ensure that a maximum number of EU citizens can benefit from gigabit society connectivity, including those living in rural and remote areas; stresses that broadband should be considered a public good and its infrastructure should be adequately funded in order to be universally accessible as a critical step in closing the digital divide as well as insure fair and just access to the digital economy;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7 b. Notes the need to pay specific attention to supporting the media sector, which plays a key role for our democracies, in a way that respects and promotes media freedom and pluralism at a time when the online environment is increasingly dominated by a few large players, with increasing market power and mobile tax bases, sometimes to the detriment of the ability of many smaller European companies to start-up and scale up across the Single Market, as highlighted in the European Commission communication on the EU annual sustainable growth strategy 2021; draws the attention of the Member States on specific measures set out in the Commission Media Action Plan unveiled on 3 December 2020 to help the broadcasting, news publishing and cinema sectors to recover from a big loss in advertising revenues due to the lockdown imposed by the pandemic and boost their production and distribution of digital content; considers that such measures should be part of the minimum 20% of expenditure of every National Recovery and Resilience Plan to be earmarked for digital;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to strengthen the recovery and the crisis resilience of the sport sector in general and grassroots sport in particular and to ensure the full access of sport to the Recovery and Resilience Facility; emphasis that sport fulfils important societal functions, by promoting inclusion, integration and values such as mutual respect, solidarity, diversity and equality including gender equality, it is beneficial for addressing and preventing the physical and mental health impact of extended home confinement and closure of schools; calls in this regard on the Commission to strengthen inclusion through sport and to explore new avenues to maximize its impact and reach;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to apply the “general escape clause” under the Stability and Growth Pact in order to allow Member States to deploy ambitious budgetary and fiscal policies, necessaryotably by exempting social investment from the deficit rules, including investment in education and culture, in order to protect European citizens and businesses from the effects of the pandemic, and to support the economy in the aftermath, paving the way for fairer, greener and more sustainable societies;