19 Amendments of Jens GEIER related to 2019/2028(BUD)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Welcomes the focus of the budget on jobs, growth, young people, climate change and solidarity;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Rejects the cuts by Council of a total of EUR 747,4 million in Heading 1a, including EUR 424,9 million for the Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation, EUR 28 million for the ICT strand of the Connecting Europe Facility and EUR 20 million for COSME, which risk undermining the Union’s efforts to creating growth and jobsUnderlines the importance of developing leadership in innovation and of incremental and disruptive research in advanced technologies to achieve the Union’s political goals, rejects therefore the cuts by Council of a total of EUR 747,4 million in Heading 1a, including EUR 424,9 million for the Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation, especially in relevant budget lines on strengthening research in future and emerging technologies, strengthening European research infrastructure, including e-infrastructures and leadership in information and communications technology, also including EUR 28 million for the ICT strand of the Connecting Europe Facility and EUR 20 million for COSME, which risk undermining the Union’s efforts to creating sustainable growth and high-quality jobs, as well as the Union’s efforts to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals and its climate goals, including carbon neutrality until 2050, while leaving no one behind;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Believes that, in particular during the final year of the MFF, an ambitious budget in Heading 1a is needed to build a bridge to the forthcoming MFF, under which all new programmes will take time to become fully operational, in order to ensure the full functionality of these programmes to be able to continue to contribute to achieving the Union’s political priorities;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes the oversubscription of various programmes such as Horizon 2020 and COSME, which could be addressed by a more ambitious budget for 2020 resulting in a lower success rate for applications in Horizon 2020 compared to the previous MFF period, which means that many more high-quality projects in the field of research and innovation could be funded when sufficient Union funding could be provided; stresses that this could be addressed by a more ambitious budget for 2020; believes, therefore, that decommitted funds should be made available again in accordance with Article 15(3) of the Financial Regulation; recalls its position that at least EUR 120 million in 2018 prices is needed for Horizon Europe in the next MFF;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Underlines that SMEs are an essential part of the Union economy as they provide a high number of jobs within the Union; sees the need to create an SME-friendly business environment, as well as to support SME clusters and networks; welcomes therefore the increase in the SME instrument; notes with concern the Council cuts on increased innovation for SMEs, which send a contradictory signal to Union businesses;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Is aware of the high importance of the budget lines for societal challenges, and more specifically of the budget line for improving lifelong health and wellbeing to increase the standard of living in the Union; emphasises the importance of maintaining sufficient funding for such purposes and deplores the proposed Council cuts, as public funding should address societal challenges suffering from market failure or limited private sector investments;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Underlines the importance of achieving the goals of the Digital Single Market to enhance the Union’s digitalisation and the digital inclusion of the Union economy, public sector and citizens; recognises in this respect the importance of initiatives such as WiFi4EU; deplores the proposed Council cuts for this initiative;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Takes note of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP); stresses that such an activity, given its significant impact on the budget, should be endowed with fresh resources, as funds that are redeployed to the EDIDP lack in other relevant programmes such as CEF or Horizon;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5 e. Underlines the need to reform the Union mobility sector in order to achieve sustainable, clean and competitive transport in the Union, to make the Union's car industry fit for the future and to achieve our climate goals; stresses, therefore, the need for sufficient funding for programmes supporting these goals like Horizon, CEF-Transport and the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 (FCH 2) Joint Undertaking; is, therefore, concerned about the effect of the proposed Council cuts on achieving a Union transport system that is resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, safe and seamless;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 f (new)
Paragraph 5 f (new)
5 f. Recognises the importance and the success of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI); regrets that, in order to secure additional funding for EFSI, funds for other programmes had to be reduced; stresses that the general budget of the Union should not be financing new initiatives to the detriment of existing Union programmes and policies; reiterates Parliament's position during the EFSI negotiations to reduce the impact of EFSI appropriations on other programmes and to increase appropriations for the affected lines for 2020;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Strongly regrets that the budget proposed by the Commission is, once again, far below that requested by ACER, GSA and BEREC and that this risks jeopardising ACER’stheir proper functioning and itstheir ability to perform the additional tasks conferred on ithem through recent legislation;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls thus, with regard to all agencies within its remit (ACER, BEREC, ENISA and GSA), for a level of appropriations and staff as requested by those agencies;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls for additional funds to accelerate the development and deployment of cleaner technologies to help meet the commitments undertaken by the Union under the Paris Agreement, including clean energy innovations, and renewable energy, as well as funds for sustainable development, tackling energy poverty and a just transition to a carbon- neutral economy for coal- and carbon- intensive regions to help meet the commitments undertaken by the Union under the Paris Agreement, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals; repeats its call to the Commission to introduce a specific allocation (EUR 4,8 billion) for a new Just Energy Transition Fund in the next MFF, to address societal, socio-economic and environmental impacts on workers and communities adversely affected by the transition from coal and carbon dependence; welcomes the Commission’s estimate that climate change spending will reach 21 % of the 2020 budget, recalls that these efforts need to be stepped up to at least 25 % of Union expenditure to climate objectives over the 2021-2027 MFF period, and to a 30 % annual spending target as soon as possible, while respecting higher specific climate spending targets in other programmes such as the 35 % target agreed in Horizon Europe;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for additional appropriations for the Connecting Europe Facility, in particular its energy and ICT strands, to ensure the completion of the Energy Union and that isolated markets are connected and remaining bottlenecks are removed.
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Underlines that, as the United Kingdom should contribute to the 2019 and 2020 budgets, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union is not expected to directly impact programmes in the industry, research and energy policy areas;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10 b. Stresses that a failure by the Union to deliver on its legal and political commitments on payment appropriations would seriously harm its reliability and have a serious negative impact on trust in the ability of Union institutions to fulfil their roles; emphasises that this is enhanced by the fact that the Union approaches the end of the current MFF and that therefore the implementation of the multiannual programmes needs to be advanced quickly.
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Is alarmed by the conclusions of the Rapid case review of the European Court of Auditors on Euronews, which highlights that Euronews is now 85% owned by private investors and only 15% by EU and non-EU broadcaster and local public authorities, that Union financial support to Euronews lacks transparency and accountability, that monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are insufficiently robust and that Euronews is not accessible to most or all EU citizens; is particularly concerned by the finding that, following the 2018 revision of the Financial Regulation, which scrapped the reference to the notion of bodies pursuing a general Union interest, grants for Euronews are provided under Article 195 (c) and (f) of the Financial Regulation (de facto monopoly/specific technical competence) and not under Article 180 (actions intended to support a Union policy objective/body forming part of or supporting a Union policy), thus implying that Euronews no longer pursues a general Union interest at all; in light of the above considerations, urges the Commission to end its cooperation with Euronews at the end of the current MFF; considers, furthermore, that no additional funds, beyond what is included in the 2020 draft budget, should be allocated to Euronews under the Multimedia Actions budget line;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29 a. Notes with concern last year's decision of the United States to withdraw as a donor to UNRWA; notes that this decision makes the European Union the single most important donor to UNRWA; believes that, in the spirit of a 'stronger Europe in the world', as envisioned by the President-elect of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Union should step up its financial contribution to UNRWA in 2020 in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and support UNRWA in fulfilling its task;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37 a (new)
Paragraph 37 a (new)
37 a. notes that Members of the Parliament are faced today with ever- growing legislative tasks and that citizens‘ expectation to be in dialogue with their representatives have increased; believes that this increase of workload for individual MEP offices needs to be met with additional financial resources. Invites therefore the Parliament Bureau to modify the Implementing Measures for the Statute for Members to allow an increase of the expenses for parliamentary assistance;