21 Amendments of Jeroen LENAERS related to 2014/2059(INI)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the Commission has acknowledged that excessive austerity policies have had a negative impact on economic growth because they failed to take into account the effects of the policies of fiscal consolidation have had a signifiscal multipliers, and that such austerity policies have resulted in tough cuts to social spending in fundamental areas such as education, health and pensions, resulting in unprecedented levels of inequality and poverty in the EUnt impact on spending in fundamental areas such as education, health and pensions; whereas the social impact of future reform proposals should be evaluated;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas Article 9 TFEU provides that: «In defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall take into account requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion, and a high level of education, training and protection of human health’, and whereas this horizontal clause has not been implementedit is important to implement this horizontal clause sufficiently in all policy areas so as to achieve the objectives of Article 3 TEU;
Amendment 36 #
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 ton 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; 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 nowhighlights the importance of structural reforms to attract the private investments that create growth and jobs; calls on the Commission, therefore, to assess the economic and social impact of such policies before recommending themrecommended policies;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Stresses that social and employment policies should not merely be looked at from a cost perspective, but consideration should also be given to structural reforms of the labour market and the long term benefit perspective, in order to maintain investments in society and citizens with a view to reaching the goals of the EU2020 strategy and safeguarding the future and stability of the Member States and the EU as a whole;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 58 #
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, andalls on the Commission to include additional indicators – such as child poverty levels, access to healthcare, (youth-)homelessness, and a decent work index – in the scoreboard and, in order to allow more effective analysis of Member States’ employment and social concernand to encourage the identification and exchange of best practices, calls for a detailed overview of Member States' choices in different policy fields and the corresponding results;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the Commission’s recognition that the impact of fiscal consolidation measures on the EU employment and social situation has been severe and far-reaching; calls for the immediate fulfilment of allincreased efforts towards fulfilling the employment and social obligationgoals set out in the Treaties and in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; calls on the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights to assess thoroughly the impact of these measures on fundamental rights and to issue recommendations in the event of breaches of the Charter;
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the abovementioned mild decline in unemployment rates in the EU; recalls, however, that the Europe 2020 strategy accurately states that the figure to watch is the employment rate, which indicates the availability of human and financial resources to ensure the sustainability of our economic and social model; asks that the slowdown in the unemployment rate not be confused with the recovery of lost jobs, as no account is taken of increased emigration or forced early retirement;
Amendment 80 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the new Commission to make the employment recovery a trun absolute priority by establishing an ambitious and holistic strategy for quality job creationthe creation of growth and jobs, 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;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
Amendment 98 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Welcomes the Commission’s call, in its umbrella communication on the CSR in the EU as a whole, to invest more in R&D, innovation, education, skills and active labour market policies, together with energy, transport and the digital economy; considers, however, that in the context of the current process of fiscal consolidation these goals can be achieved only through greater flexibility within the SGP;
Amendment 104 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission, as a matter of urgency, to give tangible form to the prWelcomes the announcement by the President of the new Commisedsion of a 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;
Amendment 109 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
Amendment 116 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to strengthen EU industry through the application of a more flexible competition policy in favour of competitiveness and employment, together with an ecological and digital transition plancoherent strategy to strengthen industrial competitiveness without placing an excessive regulatory burden on businesses, in particular SMEs; reiterates its call on the Commission to draw up, after consulting the social partners, a proposal for a legal act on the provision of information to, and consultation of, workers and the anticipation and management of restructuring in order to ensure economic and socially responsible adaptation to change by EU industry;
Amendment 131 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Observes that, in its 2013 annual report on the EU employment and social situation, the Commission highlighted the importance of social protection expenditure as a safeguard against social risks; notes, however, that social policies and social standards have been widely used as adjustment factors by those EMU members experiencing negative economic shocks; considers it regrettable that the CSRs do not refer to European automatic stabilisers; recalls the importance of such stabilisers in dealing with asymmetrical shocks, in avoiding excessive depletion of national welfare states and thus intakes note of the potential value of European automatic stabilisers for strengthening the sustainability of the EMU as a whole; reiterates its call on the Commission to produce a Green Paper on automatic stabilisers in the eurozonestresses that such stabilisers should not lead to the creation of permanent transfers;
Amendment 147 #
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; calls for the establishment in each Member State, either by law or through collective bargaining, of a minimum wage equivalent to at least 60 % of the respective national average wagof which the level is set by the individual Member States and which corresponds to the socioeconomic situation of the respective Member State;
Amendment 167 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Welcomes the mild decline in youth unemployment, but points out that it is still at alarming levels: 22 % in the EU-28 and 23.1 % in the eurozone; highlights the worrying differences between Member States (7.8 % in Germany and 53.5 % in Spain); considers it regrettable that even when young people do find a job, many of them – 43 % on average, compared with 13 % of adult workers – find themselves working under precarious conditions or on part-time contracts, making it difficult for them to live independently from their families and resulting in a loss of innovation and expert resources which affects production and growth; also expresses concern at the increasing level of unemployed homeless youth in many Member States;
Amendment 176 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Calls on the Commission to propose a binding European framework forclosely follow the implementation of the Youth Guarantees so as to prevent the funds being misused in such a way as to aggravate national internal wage devaluation processes; takes the view that this legal framework should introduce binding minimum standards for the implementation of the Youth Guarantees, including; calls on the Member States to implement the Youth Guarantee without delay, with a specific focus on the quality of apprenticeships, decent wages for young people and access to employment services, and should coverincluding young people aged between 25 and 30; calls on the Commission and the Member States to make the Youth Guarantees a priority and to increaseensure that the available budget, at the latest in the promised mid-term review of the multiannual financial framework, up to at least the sum of EUR 21 billion estimated by the International Labour Organisation to be necessary to resolve the problem in the eurozon is adequate;
Amendment 213 #
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 haves had on the fight against poverty and social exclusion and on the achievement of the Europe 2020 goals; demands thatcalls on the Member States to propose specific, targeted measures within their NRPs with a view to tackling poverty, especially child poverty;
Amendment 224 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Regrets the fact that the Commission recommendations on pensions were made without taking into full account Parliament’s position on the Green and White Papers on pensions, in particular with regard to Parliament's recommendation of collective, solidarity- based supplementary occupational pension savings, preferably resulting from collective agreements and established at the national, sectorial or company level; is concerned that reforms to guarantee the sustainability of pensions have focused solely on population ageing, without taking into account the importance of the employment rate, especially in pay- as-you- go systems; recalls that guaranteeing decent pensions above a minimum level is an effective way to fight poverty and social exclusion;