60 Amendments of Vilija BLINKEVIČIŪTĖ related to 2015/2330(INI)
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 27 a (new)
Citation 27 a (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 23rd October 2015 on "reducing inequalities with a special focus on child poverty"(2014/2237(INI))
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital - A a (new)
Recital - A a (new)
- A a. Whereas the economic recovery in the EU is under way but remains uneven between and within Member States and is partly driven by temporary factors, such as low oil prices and unconventional monetary policies showing therefore that the EU can do more to boost the economic and social recovery so as to make it more sustainable in the medium term;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas unemployment rate has been diminishing sinceslowly and unevenly diminishing since the second half of 2013, thanks to supportive macroeconomic policies and the impact of structural reforms there has been a distribution of the working time through the increase in precarious work and, in many countries, this reduction has also caused the decrease of the labour force; whereas it nevertheless remains too high, currently affecting 9.9 % of active citizens, i.e. 23 million Europeans, about half of them being long-term unemployed and over 10% in the Euro area, being still well above the figures of 2008;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. Whereas, as stated by the European Commission1 a , employment and social divergences within and between Member states persists and social developments still point to further divergence across the EU hindering growth, employment and cohesion; whereas societies which are characterised by a high level of equality and investment in people do better in terms of growth and employment resilience. __________________ 1a Joint employment report 2016 page 2
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas about 20 % of active citizens in the EU have only basic skills while 39 % of companies have difficulty finding staff with the required skills although this is also linked to their unwillingness to offer long-term contracts, whereas low educational level is one of the key causes of young people becoming NEETs;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the discrimination of long- term unemployed job seekers is unfortunately very common: whereas such practices are based on the psychological stigma associated with unemployment and result in employers to perceiving jobless and older applicants as less competent and less hireable than employed individuals; whereas there is a need for employers to train human resource managers to overcome their biases against unemployed workers and older workers and to focus on qualifications and experience rather than the current employment status.
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas undeclared work hasdoes not only have serious budgetary implications and leads to loss of tax revenue and social security contributions, as itit also produces negative effects on employment, productivity and quality of work, skills development and lifelong learning, as well as on the acquisition of pension rights and access to healthcare; whereas there is a need for more efforts to turn undeclared work into declared work
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas although atypical or non- standard forms of employment do not in themselves constitute precarious work, it is more likely to be found where contracts of this nature apply, albeit such contracts account for a minority of existing employment relationshipwhereas due to the economic crisis there has been a worrying increase of these type of contracts on an involuntary basis;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas the most precarious work involves the inability of individuals to enforce their rights, where social insurance protection is absent, where health and safety is put at risk and where work does not provide sufficient income to enable people to live decently; whereas Insecurity is another key element of precariousness and it encompasses work uncertainty, income insufficiency, lack of protection against dismissal, an unknown length of employment and where there is uncertainty about future employment
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the demographic old age dependency ratio in the EU12 is projected to increase from 27.8 % to 50.1 % until 2060, and the total economic dependency ratio13 is expected to stabilise at over 120 % up to the middle of the next decade and then to rise above 140 % by 2060; whereas these factors may appear as sufficient justification for the fact that the great majority of European citizens agree that it is important to restructure their pensions systemsjustify the need of public authorities to guarantee the sufficiency and adecuacy of the first pension pillar in the short and medium term; __________________ 12 People aged 65 or above relative to those between aged 15 and 64. 13 Total inactive population relative to employed people aged between 20 and 64.
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas public debt remains too high in many Member States (the highest figures being for Greece at 167.8 % and Italy at 136 %), impeding growth and making the entire Union more vulnerable to crisesand private indebtness remains too high in in the EU, hampering the European economy strength; whereas, for theses reasons, it is necessary to hold an urgent and thorough debate on the handling of the debt in the EU;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas, with the current scenario, in the next 10 to 15 years 90 % of the world’s growth will come from outside the EU therefore it is necessary to rethink the actual growth and employment creation strategy in the EU;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
J a. whereas, despite the Investment Plan, last years total investment has continue to shrink, which might have been caused by the substitutive effect of European investments on those that could had been made by the Member States, and therefore undermining the positive effect that the Juncker Plan could have;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the fact that the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey (AGS) underlines the need to pay more attention to social fairness in the context of the new macroeconomic adjustmentnational, stability and reform programmes, adding three socialemployment indicators (activity rate, youth unemployment and long-term unemployment) in the 2016 Alert Mechanism ReportMacroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP); notes, however, that the inclusion of these variables into the scoreboard do not have any legal implications or change the focus of the MIP; stresses that the need to invest in social development is not just a means of guaranteeing that economic growth and convergence can be achieved, but must also be a specific target in itself; therefore highlights the importance of quality of employment, poverty and inequality indicators and stresses that employment and social considerations should be put on equal footing with the economic ones;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls the importance of skills and competences acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments in terms of improving the employability of young people; stresses, therefore, the importance of creating a validation system for non- formal and informal forms of knowledge, especially those acquired via voluntary activities; insists in the implementation of the lifelong learning framework approach towards a flexible education path recognizing formal, but also non formal and informal learning to foster equity and social cohesion and allowing employment opportunities for more vulnerable groups.;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the Commission´s proposal to enhance the Youth Guarantee at national, regional and local level, and stresses its importance for school-to-work transitions; stresses the need to guarantee suitable forms of collaboration between public and private employment services; regrets that the financing of the Youth Guarantee has not been enough to effectively address the issue and the lack of coordination on the use that Member States have done with the funding; reiterates its continuous call for a European framework for introducing minimum standards for the implementation of Youth Guarantees;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Welcomes the Commission’s initiative for an individualised approach for the long- term unemployed but it is worried about the plight of long-term unemployed in Europe, representing more than 12 million unemployed; considers that such an approach will require an increased effort in terms of human resources, calling for participants with the educational level needed to be able to orientate the unemployed on how to overcome possible gaps in education or training; stresses that professional requalification processes require adequate financial resources that need to be channelled to the unemployed;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the integration of long-term unemployed individuals is crucial for their self-confidence and future development and is key to fighting poverty and guaranteeing the sustainability of national social security systems; considers that is necessary, taking into account the social situation of these citizens and their needs in terms of sufficient incomes, adequate housing, public transport, health and childcare as well as a better monitoring at the European scale of the policies implemented at the national level; calls on the Commission to take measures as soon as possible to guarantee access to EU funding and to mobilise additional resources where possible, as was done in the case of the Youth Employment Initiative, especially in those countries hit harder by the crisis and the fiscal consolidation;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that the EU continues to suffer from structural problems that need to be addressed urgently, pointing up the need to continue prioritising investment, structural reforms that reduce inequalities and promote quality jobs, sustainable growth and social investment and responsible fiscal consolidation, thus reinforcing a favourable environment for businesspath towards more cohesion and upward social convergence with a view to creating more quality jobs while balancing the social and economic dimensions; stresses that those priorities will only be achieved if investment in human capital is prioritised as a common strategythrough adequate investment in people and through more adequate sustainable social systems and integrated solutions to support people and make them even more resilient and prepared to face the challenges;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Highlights that socially responsible reforms must be based on solidarity, integration, social justice and a fair wealth distribution - a model that ensures equality and social protection, protects vulnerable groups and improves the living standards for all citizens.
Amendment 213 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Is concerned that labour market reforms in many Member States have mainly promoted precarious jobs; observes that 50% of the jobs created in 2014 were temporary jobs; notes that, according to the Commission, in-work poverty persists; in this context, calls for a wage increase not only to guarantee decent income, but also which serves to consolidate the economic recovery through the strenghtening of the internal demand;
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Draws attention to the urgent need to fight undeclared work, which jeopardises workers’ access to social protection systems ands well as national public finances and creates unfair competition between European enterprises; calls on the Member States to reinforce labour inspection mechanisms and to design measures to enable workers in the grey economy to have access to employment protection regimesincrease their efforts to turn undeclared work into declared work; encourages Member States to implement rates of taxation related to the degree of stability and the quality of diverse forms of employment relationships, as one of the incentives for stable contracts;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Is concerned about the increase in income inequalities linked partially to inefficient labour market reforms; calls on the Commission and Member States to implement measures improving job quality in order to reduce labour market segmentation combined with measures raising minimum wages to a decent level and strengthening collective bargaining and workers position in wage-setting systems in order to reduce wage dispersion; warns about the fact that in recent decades, corporate management have been taking a greater share of the economic share while workers' wages have stagnated or have been reduced; considers that this excessive dispersion in wages increases inequalities and damages productivity and competitiveness of companies.
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. calls the European Commission and Member States to respect and promote collective bargaining and its coverage to reach as many workers as possible while at the same time also aiming for better wage floors in the form of, where applicable, minimum wages set at decent levels and with the involvement of social partners - all this with a view to end the competitive wage race to the bottom, to support aggregate demand and economic recovery, to reduce wage inequalities, to fight in-work poverty and to assist the European Central Bank in getting out of the risk of deflation and to achieve its price stability target
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Considering that the good use of flexicurity could have contributesd to avoiding labour fragmentation and promoting the creation of more quality jobs; calls on the Member States to modernise their employment protection legislation in order to guarantee more stability in transitions between jobs, as well as employees’ access to social security and welfare rightsguarantee measures aimed at maintaining employment in times of economic disruption, ensure job quality and security in employment transitions, as well as employees’ access to social security and welfare rights; regrets that in the context of the economic crisis, the labour reforms have favoured flexibility at the expense of security, resulting in increased precariousness and a lack of employment protection; calls on the Commission to step up monitoring of the abusive practice of successive fixed- term contracts, in both private and public sectors;
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Warns about the fact that despite the fact that labour reforms have reduced the payments or damages for unfair dismissal and have lowered taxes or given tax incentives for permanent employment creation, new jobs have been mainly temporary contracts.
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Welcomes the Commission´s initiative on investments in human capital to restore jobs and sustainable growth. However, is extremely worried about the fact that public expenditure in education has recorded a 3.2%[1]decrease since 2010, with decreases in eleven Member States in the most recent year 2013. Stresses that, in order to be effective, these reforms should focus on the pupils curricula and the public sector; [1] Joint employment report 2016 page 19
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. stresses the importance of active labour market policies in the current context; calls on the Member States to increase the coverage and effectiveness of active labour market policies;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to graduallyNotes the importance of reducing taxation on labour, especially by low-paid and low-skilled workers, the long-term unemployed and other vulnerable groups, while ensuring the long-range sustainability of public pensions systems; calls therefore for a shift of taxes from labour to other sources, while making sure not to endanger social benefits to other sources, while noting that such shifts should not affect taxes with regressive effects such as consumption taxes, but should focus instead on taxes on wealth, capital gains, financial transactions or pollution, and to implement tax rules that foster incentives to entrepreneurship and employment creation, especially for highly qualified young people, in order to boost research and innovation projects within European enterprises;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Member States to moderniincrease their currentinvestments in social protection systems, in order to guarantee their sustainability in the face of expected ageing; considers that pension schemes should be linked not only to life expectancy but also to other social and labour factors, while not jeopardising the sustainability of public finimprove the resilience of Member States economies in times of crisis and to guarantee their sustainability in the face of expected ageing; highlights the importance of the automatic stabilisation dimension of welfare systems to absorb social shock waves caused by recessions; stresses that , high quality welfare systems and social investments are extremely important if Europe wants to maintain its main competitive advantage - highly skilled workers and productive compancies;
Amendment 270 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Member States to examine the persistence of low fertility rates in the EU; calls on the Commission to promote family-friendly policies that enhance parents’ capacity to ensure their children’s wellbeing; encourages the Member States to consider applying more favourable fiscal differentiation in line with the number of children in a familyhousehold;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Stresses the fact that, in order to be effective, EFSI investments must be focused on creating new investments in areas where investor appetite is subdued rather than on substituting investments that would have been produced elsewhere or focusing on highly profitable investments that would have occurred in any case; reiterates its call on the importance of investments in human capital and other social investments, such as healthcare, childcare or affordable housing and on the need of the effective implementation of the Social Investment Package;
Amendment 274 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14 b. Invites the Commission and the Member States to involve all levels of government and relevant stakeholders in the identification of obstacles to investments, focusing on the most needed regions and sectors as well as on making available adequate instruments bringing together public and private financing;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to focus on SMEs as a fundamental key for sustainable development; urges the Member States to implement tax schemes linked to sustainable business models that favour innovative start-ups and the facilitation of job creation by SMEs, and to develop mechanisms that might impel such enterprises to achieve or operationalise in an international dimension;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. Calls on the Commission, in the framework of the midterm review of the MFF, to study the possibility of increasing the funding of the ESF to ensure the adequacy of its objectives and the new challenges that have been incorporated, such as long-term unemployment or the integration of refugees. Calls also for the establishmen of an specific programme to those European subregions whose unemployment rates exceed 30%;
Amendment 354 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. SWelcomes the renewal of the Europe 2020 integrated guidelines; stresses that the Europe 2020 strategy still maintains its pertinence, and calls on the Member States to reinforce its implementation on the ground; asks the Commission and the Council to more closely monitor its global and national implementation; considers it necessary to start projecting a post-Europe 2020 scenario;
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26 a. Calls on the Commission to propose an integrated rights-based anti-poverty strategy in the EU to tackle the multidimensionality of poverty for all groups, especially the most vulnerable ones, integrated active inclusion, underpinned by rights to quality social protection and linked to thematic strategies for all at-risk groups. In this sense, reiterates its call on the Commission to propose an initiative to promote the introduction of minimum incomes in the Member States, for example, through an EU framework for adequate income throughout the life cycle stressing that it is up to each Member State to set minimum income levels and that these should be commensurate to the specific socioeconomic situation in the country in question;
Amendment 356 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 b (new)
Paragraph 26 b (new)
26 b. Is particularly worried about the fact that a job is no longer a guarantee out of poverty or the best tool for ensuring social inclusion. Even if the in-work AROP rate stabilised on average in the 28 EU Member States, only half of the poor who find a job actually escape poverty[i]. Calls on the Commission and the Member states to urgently address this situation while assuring the conditions for new jobs to offer at least a living wage [i] Joint Employment Report 2016 page 28
Amendment 357 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 c (new)
Paragraph 26 c (new)
26 c. Is extremely worried about the child poverty rates in the EU; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to introduce a child guarantee;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take adequate measures to help refugees settle and integrate, as well as ensuring that public services are sufficiently resourced and early anticipation of the requirements to facilitate their smooth transition to the labour market. Local authorities and social partners should play a key role in facilitating the integration of migrants and preventing them from suffering from labour abuse;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Points out to the Member States, in view of the ageing of Europe’s citizens, the social risk implied in not being able to guarantee the sustainability safety and adequacy of social security systems over the coming decades; considers that linking retirement age to life expectancy is not the only way of tackling the challenge of ageing, and that pension system reforms should also reflect, inter alia, labour market trends, birth rates, the demographic situation, the health and wealth situation, working conditions and the economic dependency ratio; recalls that the best way to tackle the challenge of ageing is to increase the overall employment rate, building, inter alia, on social investments in active ageing;
Amendment 390 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to work together on removing the obstacles to fair labour mobility, ensuring that EU since the free movement of workers is a fundamental right in the EU, ensuring that no worker is left uncovered by social and labour rights protection, including mobile workers, are not treated abusivelynd guaranteeing the principle of equal treatment while safeguarding wages and social standards;
Amendment 395 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 a (new)
Paragraph 30 a (new)
30 a. States that social dialogue is a key instrument for improving working conditions and that in order to ensure the best conditions possible for the dialogue between social partners, a precondition in this context is the existence of strong trade unions, the participation of employees in company matters and a strengthening of collective agreements; calls on the Commission and Member States to boost the quality of social dialogue also at the European level ensuring timely and meaningful social partner consultations, allowing for the necessary analysis and integration of proposals in decision making processes.
Amendment 396 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 b (new)
Paragraph 30 b (new)
30 b. calls for the promotion of a socially just corporate governance framework at the European level as a way to reducing inequalities, focusing on promoting greater economic democracy putting in place and strengthening legislation requiring employee representatives on company boards and remuneration committees, systems of tax advantages to employee owned companies, cooperatives and mutuals, as well as funds providing loans to assist employee-buy outs.
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30 c (new)
Paragraph 30 c (new)
30 c. calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce their efforts to tackle social and wage dumping in the EU, which causes significant harm to the workers affected and to Member State welfare systems; calls, furthermore, for the social partners to be included at all levels in these efforts;
Amendment 398 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Subheading 6
Amendment 406 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Believes that the Eurozone recommendation needs to be the starting point for a broader economic policy debate involving Member States and EU institutions; invites all relevant stakeholders to explore all options to strengthen the EMU social dimension. In this sense:
Amendment 407 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point a (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point a (new)
(a) enhanced democratic accountability mechanisms at both the EU and national levels, whereby responsibilities must be assumed at the level where decisions are taken and based on the adoption of convergence guidelines under co- decision, while formalising the scrutiny role of the European Parliament in the European Semester in an Inter- Institutional Agreement and ensuring that all euro area National Parliaments follow each step of the European Semester process;
Amendment 408 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point b (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point b (new)
(b) a social dimension aimed at preserving Europe´s social market economy including a European framework on minimum wages, in a legal or conventional form while respecting national practices;
Amendment 409 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) - point c (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) - point c (new)
(c) joint meetings between the EPSCO Council and the ECOFIN to be held with a view to promoting coordinated socio- economic policies geared towards strengthening competitiveness in Europe and giving growth and quality jobs a sustainable boost;
Amendment 410 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point d (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point d (new)
(d) meetings of the Eurozone Labour and Social Ministers so as to better integrate its social dimension and properly address social imbalances;
Amendment 411 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point e (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point e (new)
(e) the creation of European automatic Stabilizers, like a European unemployment benefit scheme, with the aim of increasing the resilience of the EMU, to address economic crises and emergencies connected directly to the Monetary Union;
Amendment 412 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point f (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point f (new)
(f) a euro area fiscal capacity based on specific own-resources in the framework of the Union budget with European parliamentary control;
Amendment 413 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31a (new) – point g (new)
Paragraph 31a (new) – point g (new)
(g) on taxation, a commitment to European-wide measures against tax fraud and evasion and aggressive corporate tax planning, cooperation of the national tax authorities in order to exchange information regarding tax avoidance and tax fraud, measures to bring about convergence of taxation policies of the Member States, a common consolidated corporate tax base, simpler and more transparent tax systems and country-by-country reporting for corporates, excluding SMEs;
Amendment 414 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 b (new)
Paragraph 31 b (new)
31 b. Calls on the Commission to present as soon as possible the proposal for a Pillar of Social rights, as a way to guarantee social and labour rights and to foster upward economic and social convergence in order to tackle the economic and social disparities between Member States and within societies;
Amendment 415 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6 a (new)
Subheading 6 a (new)
Better coordination of the European Semester (This amendment intends to be the title of the section starting from original paragraph 32 onwards)
Amendment 421 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has clearly distinguished a European and a national phase with regard to the European Semester; stresses the need for closer coordination between the European institutions in the design, implementation and evaluation of the European strategy for growth; calls on the Commission to establish a clear agenda in this respect, also involving the social partners and the national parliaments, social partners and civil society, ensuring that the Spring European Council remains the central movement where policy priorities are defined on the basis of the input from the Commission, the Parliament and the Council;
Amendment 423 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Urges the Commission to launch negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Council on an interinstitutional agreement on economic governance, as repeatedly demanded by the European Parliament and as suggested by the Five Presidents' report;
Amendment 427 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Believes that, in order to match European and national policies on growth and guarantee their suitability on the ground, it is crucial to strengthen the role of the social partners at both European and national level; stresses that, in order to progress with convergence and balance competitiveness and fairness, social dialogue must be pursued in all the phases of the Semester; In this sense, welcomes the European Commission's efforts to relaunch social dialogue and the streamlined approach introduced by the AGS 2015. However, points out that the situation remains weak at national level. In this sense, highlights the importance of national parliaments debating country reports and country-specific recommendations and voting on national reform programmes and of a proper consultation and association with social partners;
Amendment 429 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33 a. Believes that the social partners should have more involvement in the Annual Growth Survey, the country reports and the discussions in EMCO, the SPC and the informal EPSCO; believes that the Commission could monitor and report whether suggestions to implement certain Country Specific Recommendations in consultation with social partners were taken up;