Activities of Sari ESSAYAH related to 2010/2088(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on GDP and beyond - Measuring progress in a changing world
Amendments (14)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs notWelcomes the Commission's initiative to launch a fruitful and serious dialogue on improving gross domestic producdeveloping other indicators to complement (GDP) as an indicator for assessing economic activity and progress. in order to measure economic, social and environmental developments;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Suggests that instead of aiming at a single ‘gross domestic’ economic, environmental or social indicator, to aim at a set of relevant indicators, and suggests that this set of indicators is built in such a way that it may later be easily complemented by other indicators;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses the need to develop reliable and harmonised statistics which are attained using similar methodology, common standards, definitions, classifications and accounting rules in each Member State and are therefore readily comparable; requires that data collection and processing is done in conformity with principles of professional independence, impartiality, objectivity, reliability, statistical confidentiality and cost effectiveness;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Agrees that national and EU policies will be judged on whether they are successful in delivering progress in achieving social, economic and environmental goals and improving the well-being of Europeans and stresses that the new indicators should monitor how these goals included in the EU 2020 strategy and corresponding national strategies are being achieved;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. The committee bBelieves that GDP suffers from many shortcomings - for example, it does not record unemployment, underemployment, inequalities or environmental disasters - particularly bearing in mind the development model followed as a dogma by our economies, aimed first and foremost at maximum profit. The use and management of the statistical indicators for an economy reflect the type of economic development followed by each society. In the dominant development model applied until now, the quality of life, well-being of citizens and environmental changes play a secondary role.increases when resources are invested in countering negative developments like increase in social problems, damages to the environment or deteriorating health. It does not measure income that goes to people and it does not take into account for example commuting to areas where GDP is created– and thus it should be complemented by other indicators;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Notes that when people are considering their quality of life they appreciate for example safe social environments where it is easy to find comfortable housing and jobs, which are good places to raise children, where for example integration of foreigners is taken good care of, where social services are provided and one may enjoy nature within reachable distances, and regrets that it is hard to get comparable data on these issues;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. In principle it is a positive step that the Commission is putting forwarWelcomes the suggested five actions to better measure progress in a changing world, i.e. 1. Complementing GDP with environmental and social indicators, 2. Near real-time information for decision- making, 3. More accurate reporting on distribution and inequalities, 4. Developing a European sustainable development scoreboard, and 5. Extending national accounts to environmental and social issues., and stresses the great benefits when these indicators are developed in close international cooperation;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Stresses the need to base the indicators on statistical information which is relevant, timely, accurate, accessible, comparable and coherent in all Member States;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the need to measure quality of life in societies and notes that such measurement will require metrics from at least the following categories: health, education, employment, family, criminality, connectedness, political engagement, material wellbeing, mental wellbeing and environment;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. The committee nevertheless believes that challenging GDP's monopoly as aNotes that much of the statisticals indicator guiding economic policies requires radical changes to the system for planning and i the Member States is too old and lags behind more than three years, and that as GDP is complementinged by economic and, social policies, in addition to the above actions, so as to take account of both environmental and social parameters.and environmental indicators, they should be more timely;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Stresses the need to attain long time series of data and indicators so that they can be used for projecting future developments and thus policies to meet future challenges may be formed;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 g (new)
Paragraph 4 g (new)
4g. Stresses the need for a set of indicators gauging non-fiscal external and internal macroeconomic developments which, under certain circumstances, can have a bearing on public finances, and notes that such a set of indicators could include the current account balance, net foreign asset positions, productivity and unit labour costs, the real effective exchange rate, private sector credit and asset prices;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 i (new)
Paragraph 4 i (new)
4i. Recommends that various data bases of public authorities are better used and combined in order to cross-check the indicators and the quality of data, but in a such way that confidentiality of information is kept and good care is taken of personal data protection issues;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 k (new)
Paragraph 4 k (new)
4k. Notes that there is a need to provide free information sources that are easily available to all citizens so that the actual contents of different indicators, how they have been reached, their interconnections and what they actually measure, can be made understandable and their development over time can be followed;