Activities of Morten MESSERSCHMIDT related to 2017/0102(COD)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the legal framework of the European Solidarity Corps and amending Regulations (EU) No 1288/2013, (EU) No 1293/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1305/2013, (EU) No 1306/2013 and Decision No 1313/2013/EU PDF (1 MB) DOC (335 KB)
Amendments (29)
Amendment 126 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) The European Union is built on solidarity, among its citizens and, among its Member States as well as "between their peoples while respecting their history, their culture and their traditions", as set out by the preamble of the Treaty on the European Union. This common value of solidarity guides itsthe actions of the Union and provides the necessary unity to cope with current and future societalcommon good challenges, which young Europeans are willing to help address by expressing their solidarity in practice.
Amendment 136 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 2 a (new)
Recital 2 a (new)
(2a) Since 2009, the unemployment rate for persons under the age of 25 has remained frozen at an average of between 20 % and 25 % in the Eurozone as a whole and at even higher rates in individual Member States such as France (25,9 %), Portugal (31 %), Cyprus (31,7 %), Italy (37,9 %), Croatia (44,1 %), Spain (46 %) and Greece (48,6 %). Such a serious situation calls for acting beyond solidarity on the very structural causes of the growth decline observed in most of our European countries for 40 years, by fighting on all fronts which implies to restore the instruments of economic, monetary and political sovereignty.
Amendment 146 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 4
Recital 4
(4) Young people should be provided with easily accessible opportunities to engage in solidarity activities, which could enable them to express their commitment to the benefit of communities while acquiring useful experience, skills and competences for their personal, educational, social, artistic, linguistic, cultural, civic and professional development, thereby improving their employability. Those activities would also support the mobility of young volunteers, trainees and workers.
Amendment 155 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The solidarity activities offered to young people should be of high quality, in the sense that they should respond to unmet societal needspublic interest needs to be provided by participating public entities or non-profit entities governed by private law, contribute to strengthening national or local communities, offer young people the opportunity to acquire valuable knowledge and competences, be financially accessible to young people, and be implemented in safe and healthy conditions.
Amendment 169 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 6
Recital 6
(6) The European Solidarity Corps would provide a single entry point for solidarity activities throughout the Union. Consistency and complementarity of that framework should be ensured with other relevant Union policies and programmes. The European Solidarity Corps should build on the strengths and synergies of existing programmes, notably the European Voluntary Service. It should also complement the efforts made by Member States to support young people and ease their school-to-work transition under the Youth Guarantee19 by providing them with additional opportunities to make a start on the labour market in the form of traineeships or job placements in solidarity-related areas within their respective Member State or across borders. Complementarity with existing Union level networks pertinent to the activities under the European Solidarity Corps, such as the European Network of Public Employment Services, EURES and the Eurodesk network, should also be ensured. Furthermore, complementarity between existing related schemes, in particular national solidarity schemes and mobility schemes for young people, and the European Solidarity Corps should be ensured, building on good practices where appropriate. __________________ 19 Council Recommendation of 22 April 2013 on establishing a Youth Guarantee (2013/C 120/01).
Amendment 184 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
Amendment 211 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) To ensure the impact of European Solidarity Corps placements on the personal, educational, artistic, social, civic and professional development of the participants, the knowledge, skills and competences that are the learning outcomes of the placement should be properly identified and documented, in accordance with national circumstances and specificities, as recommended in the Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non-formal and informal learning22. __________________ 22 Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non- formal and informal learning, OJ C 398, 22.12.2012, p. 1.
Amendment 238 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) This Regulation lays down a financial envelope for the period 2018- 2020 which is to constitute the prime reference amount, within the meaning of Point 17 of the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management23, for the European Parliament and the Council during the annual budgetary procedure. The prime reference amount includes redeployments from the Erasmus+ programme (EUR 197.7 million) and from the Employment and Social Innovation programme (EUR 10 million) for the financial years 2018, 2019 and 2020, and it is complemented by contributions from several Union programmes under different headings, such as the European Social Fund, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the LIFE programme and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. __________________ 23 Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p. 1.
Amendment 259 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 23
Recital 23
(23) The European Solidarity Corps should target young people aged 18-3025. Participation in the activities offered by the European Solidarity Corps should require prior registration in the European Solidarity Corps Portal.
Amendment 266 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) Any entity willing to participate in the European Solidarity Corps, whether funded by the European Solidarity Corps budget, by another Union programme or by a different funding source, should receive a quality label provided that the appropriate conditions are fulfilled. The process that leads to the attribution of a quality label should be carried out on a continuous basis by the implementing structures of the European Solidarity Corps. The attributed quality label should be reassessed periodically and could be revoked if, in the context of the checks to be performed, the conditions that led to its attribution were found to be no longer fulfilled. In order to ensure the appropriate involvement of national and local authorities, national parliaments should be able to further scrutinise the participating organisations that have been attributed a quality label and their solidarity activities. National parliaments should be able to assess the efficiency of participating organisations and propose possible changes or adjustments where, for example, an activity is organised in a manner that is contrary to national or local policies, causes a distortion in competition or disrupts the tasks of national administrations or public services.
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 39
Recital 39
Amendment 314 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
(1) “solidarity activity” means an activity aimed at addressing the unmet societal needspublic interest needs to be provided by participating organisations governed by public law or of non-profit participating organisations governed by private law to the benefit of a community while also fostering the individual’s personal, educational, artistic, social, civic and professional development, which may take the form of placements, projects or networking activities, developed in relation to different areas, such as education and training, employment, gender equality, entrepreneurship, in particular social entrepreneurship, citizenship and democratic participation, environment and nature protection, climate action, disaster prevention, preparedness and recovery, agriculture and rural development, provision of food and non-food items, health and wellbeing, creativity and culture, physical education and sport, orchestral and choral practices, social assistance and welfare, reception and integration of third-country nationals, territorial cooperation and cohesion;
Amendment 350 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 5
Amendment 359 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 6
(6) “volunteering placement” means a full-time32 unpaid voluntary service for a period of up to twelve months, which, as a primary goal, provides young people with the opportunity to contribute to the daily work of organisations active in solidarity- related fields, to the ultimate benefit of the communities within which the activities are carried out, and includinges, as a secondary goal, a solid learning and training dimension in order to enable the young volunteer(s) to gain skills and competences, which will be useful for their personal, educational, artistic, social and professional development, and which will also contribute to improving their employability; __________________ 32 As a general principle, an activity carried out continuously, 5 days a week for 7 hours a day.
Amendment 407 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 1
Article 3 – paragraph 1
The objective of the European Solidarity Corps is to enhance the engagement of young people and organisations in accessible and high quality solidarity activities as a means to contribute to strengthening cohesion and solidarity in Europe, supporting national or local communities and responding to societalcommon good challenges.
Amendment 422 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 4 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) to ensure that the solidarity activities that are offered to the European Solidarity Corps participants contribute to addressing concrete, unmet societalpublic interest needs and strengthening national or local communities, are of high quality and properly validated.
Amendment 444 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) solidaritytraineeship and job placements, solidarity projects and networking activities (Action 1);
Amendment 447 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
(aa) volunteering placements (Action 2);
Amendment 449 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point b
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point b
(b) quality and support measures (Action 3).
Amendment 450 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – title
Article 7 – title
Amendment 452 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. This Action 1 shall support:
Amendment 454 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) solidarity placements in the form of volunteering, traineeships or jobtraineeship and job placements, including individual cross-border and in- country placements as well as volunteering teams’ placements;
Amendment 466 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 – paragraph 2
Article 7 – paragraph 2
Amendment 469 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 7 a (new)
Article 7 a (new)
Article 7a Volunteering placements 1. Action 2 shall support volunteering placements, including individual cross-border and in-country volunteering placements. 2. The cross-border volunteering placements referred to in paragraph 1 shall be considered equivalent to those carried out under the European Voluntary Service and references to the European Voluntary Service in Union acts shall be read as also referring to the European Solidarity Corps as regards those placements.
Amendment 470 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 8 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Amendment 537 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 1
Article 12 – paragraph 1
1. Young people aged 17 to 30 yearsbetween 16 and 25 years of age who are willing to participate in the European Solidarity Corps shall register in the European Solidarity Corps Portal. However, at the moment of commencing a placement or a project a registered young person shall be at least 18 years of age and not older than 3025.
Amendment 568 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 13 – paragraph 3 a (new)
Article 13 – paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. After having heard the views of the national authority referred to in Article 18, the national parliament of a Member State may assess participating organisations that have obtained the quality label and provide solidarity activities within that Member State by adopting reasoned opinions in order to determine whether the solidarity activities offered by those participating organisations adhere to the requirements of the European Solidarity Corps. Those reasoned opinions may concern, inter alia, the efficiency of participating organisations and the possible impact of their activities on national or local policies, on fair competition or on the performance of the tasks of the national administration or public services. Where a national parliament assesses that the solidarity activities of a participating organisation that has obtained the quality label do not adhere to the requirements of the European Solidarity Corps, considered in the light of the principle of subsidiarity, it may request that the label be revoked.
Amendment 649 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 19 – paragraph 3
Article 19 – paragraph 3
3. The independent audit body shall givtransmit audit opinions as referred to in paragraph 1 to the Commission, to the national parliaments and to the Court of Auditors. The independent audit body shall provide the Commission and its representatives, as well asthe national parliaments and the Court of Auditors, with full access to all documents and reports in support of the audit opinion that it issues on the national agency's yearly management declarationreferred to in paragraph 1.
Amendment 683 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 26 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Article 26 – paragraph 1 – point 2
Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013
Article 18 – paragraph 2
Article 18 – paragraph 2