14 Amendments of Helmut SCHOLZ related to 2020/2075(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses the need to strengthen democratic scrutiny of the European Union’s economic governance instruments; regrets that these instruments lack transparency despite having a major impact on the lives of European citizens; takes the view that the implementation of the economic dialogue needs to be scrupulously reviewed so as to ensure that there is proper parliamentary scrutiny; calls on the Commission and the Council to respond to that need, in particular through closer and ex ante involvement of the European Parliament at all stages of the procedures, the national parliaments, the social partners and civil society and that a real public debate is held on the occasion of the Conference on the Future of Europe;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. CRegrets that the European Semester is not subject to any political scrutiny, neither by the European Parliament nor by national parliaments; calls for the conclusion of an interinstitutional agreement in order to formalise parliamentary scrutiny of every stage of the European Semester; considers that this increased legitimacy can be ensured by foreseeing the adoption of national reform programmes and possible convergence partnerships by national parliaments; calls urgently for close parliamentary scrutiny of the different stages of the European Semester; calls on the Commission to engage the European Parliament, as the only democratically elected European institution, notably through Article 121(5) TFEU and preceding, so that it has an overview of and influence over convergence and stability programmes, budgetary plans and country-specific recommendations; calls on the Commission to strengthen the role of national parliaments so that they have greater ownership of the instruments and greater democratic scrutiny;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls urgently on the Commission to closely integrate the European Pillar of Social Rights into the economic governance of the Union; for the social dimension of EMU to be taken into account and recalls in this connection that Article 9 of the TFEU states 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’; calls urgently on the Commission to closely integrate the European Pillar of Social Rights into the economic governance of the Union and ensure that the measures for its implementation in the Member States cannot be thwarted by the European Union's economic governance instruments;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Emphasises the ECB's role in budgetary macroeconomic governance, in particular its role in the enhanced supervisory mechanism as supervisory authority; calls, therefore, for the minutes of the ECB's Governing Council meetings to be published, including meeting transcripts and voting records, within a reasonable time frame of less than three years; calls, moreover, for the mandatory publication of the declarations of interests of Governing Council members;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Calls on the ECB to respect the Ombudsman’s recommendations1a and to carefully review its internal policies in order to curb conflicts of interest that can arise through revolving door practices, as well as the participation of members of the ECB Executive Board and Governing Council in informal fora involving secretive discussions with senior representatives of the private sector; _________________ 1aCase 1697/2016/ANA on the involvement of the former ECB President, Mario Draghi, in the ‘Group of Thirty’
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Regrets that, in the absence of any rules, the ECB's advisory groups are used as lobbying platforms by the financial sector; stresses that Corporate Europe Observatory's report ‘Open door for forces of finance at the ECB’1b reveals that the advisory groups counselling the European Central Bank have become largely dominated (98%, or 508 out of 517) by representatives of some of the most influential global financial corporations; _________________ 1b https://corporateeurope.org/en/pressreleas es/2017/10/corporate-capture-its-most- extreme-98-ecb-advisors-represent- industry
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Calls on the ECB to use the opportunity of the upcoming review of the monetary policy framework to revise its understanding of the market neutrality principle, which is neither a legal requirement nor established central banking doctrine, also with the aim of creating a greater interaction between budgetary policy and monetary policy;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls that the Eurogroup and the Euro Summit are informal formations of the UnionEconomic and Financial Affairs (Ecofin) Council and of the European Council; notes that this represents a significant impediment to the democratic legitimacy of the Union as a whole;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that the Commission recognises 'the essential role of public investment' and that 'Article 126(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union requires the Commission to take into account government investment spending when considering whether a Member State has an excessive deficit';1c stresses that the suspension of the famous convergence criteria which prohibited having government debt above 60% of GDP and a general government deficit above 3% of GDP made possible the essential public investment for responding to the health, social and economic crisis; welcomes the speed with which it was possible to apply the general escape clause; stresses that in the context of its country-specific recommendations, the Stability and Growth Pact and the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure 2011-2018, the Commission has advised Member States to privatise certain parts of the health sector or to reduce public spending on health on 63 occasions; is of the opinion that a ‘genuine EMU’ cannot be limited to a system of rules but requires a budgetary capacity as part of the EU budget, based on specific own resources, which should support social cohesion, promote an environmental shift and upwardly support social and economic harmonisation; _________________ 1cCommunication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Central Bank, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Economic governance review Report on the application of Regulations (EU) No 1173/2011, 1174/2011, 1175/2011, 117 6/2011, 1177/2011, 472/2013 and 473/201 3 and on the suitability of Council Directive 2011/85/EU
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls the importance of parity and that gender equality has been an EU objective since the Treaty of Rome; regrets that only applications from male candidates have been submitted to Parliament for the latest posts to be filled in the economic bodies of the Union; deplores the prevailing lack of gender balance among European governors; calls on the ECB to recommend to the Commission that it review the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank to make it mandatory to have a gender-balanced Executive Board; calls on the Member States to pay attention to this issue when appointing their governors;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Recalls Parliament's request, specifically in its recent 2018 annual report on the ECB, that the Council draw up a gender-balanced shortlist for all upcoming vacancies at the ECB and share this with Parliament, thus allowing Parliament to play a more meaningful advisory role in the appointment process;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers that the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is inseparable from consolidation of the rule of law; welcomes the agreement on a regulation for a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget; stresses the important role played by the European Parliament in these negotiations; recalls, in this context, that the regulation is fully applicable and that no unilateral decision should go back on the experience of this decision, which has been discussed at length; believes that the involvement of the Court of Justice of the European Union may notably be a guarantee that the rules will be applied in a uniform manner irrespective of the size of the Member State and will protect citizens’ rights in the countries concerned;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses the importance of an economic governance debate as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe; welcomes the fact that this would allow European citizens to gain an understanding of how the European Union's economic governance instruments, which suffer from a considerable lack of democratic legitimacy, work; calls for the conclusions of that conference to be properly taken into account, even if they mean amending the Treaties.