Activities of Peter SIMON related to 2015/2285(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: Annual Growth Survey 2016
Amendments (6)
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines that the new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), as part of the Investment Plan for Europe, should be complementary to local and regional investment strategies and the European Structural and Investment (ESI Funds), and that Member States should closely involve the local and regional authorities in promoting project pipelines and investment platforms; welcomes the fact that the Commission intends shortly to issue guidelines for the complementarity of funds for the benefit of the Member States and other actors; calls for further steps to be taken to ensure complementarity and synergies between the ESI Funds, the EFSI and other EU-subsidised programmes and initiatives, together with national public investmentspublic and private financial instruvestments, in order to obtain maximum added value and synergy by exploiting the full potential of such investments;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes the closer links between the objectives of the European Semester process and the programming of the ESI Funds for 2014-2020, reflected in the Partnership Agreements, especially concerning improvements to the labour market, the reform of education systems, the functioning of public administration, improvements to the business and research and innovation environment, and social inclusion; considers that cohesion policy investments could play a very important role in supporting structural reforms and the fulfilment of the EU’s strategic goals by following up the relevant CSRs together with the effective implementation of the Partnership Agreements; Emphasises the multiannual and long-term nature of programmes and objectives under the ESI Funds, as opposed to the annual cycle of the European Semester; stresses that the two procedures should be precisely coordinated, in order to reconcile the European Union's priorities and regional needs; stresses the regional component of cohesion policy and the associated need for flexibility in order to be able to take account of particular territorial challenges; calls on the Commission to supply detailed data on the interaction between cohesion policy and the European economic governance framework, and on the contribution made by the ESI Funds to the implementation of the CSRs and structural reforms;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Urges the Member States and the Commission to ensure adequate administrative capacity in order to increaoptimise the quality of service to firms and citizenusers, and to ensure improved transparency, efficiency and accountability in public procurement, by utilising e-procurement and tackling corruption; calls, in this context, for the efficient use of ESI Funds to reform structures and processes, human resource management and service delivery;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has underlined that ESI Funds can play a vital role in supporting reform implementation and injecting investment directly into the real economy, if targeted wisely and effectively implemented; acknowledges that there is an urgent need to focus on improving the investment environment and points out that both CSRs and ex ante conditionalities within cohesion policy 2014-2020 have a key role to play in this context, as they have important positive spillover effects on the broader investment environment; stresses in this connection that at the time of adoption of the programmes only 75% of all ex ante conditionalities were fulfilled; urges the Commission and the Member States to ensure that EU funding is used to its full potential and in the most effective and efficient way;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes the proposal by the Commission to set up the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP); urges the Commission to ensure that the programme, designed to deliver support upon a Member State’s request and through the management modes intended is implemented while i) avoidings additional administrative complexity and ii) is consistent with existing resources and arrangements for structural reform; calls on all the services concerned to work together upstream in order to coordinate activities and avoid overlaps when offering assistance for the efficient and effective use of Union funds.;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission – in order to increase democratic control over economic management – to involve the European Parliament in the whole process more fully by means of an interinstitutional agreement, as proposed in the Five Presidents' Report of 22 June 2015; considers that this agreement should therefore, inter alia, also provide for regular exchanges of views between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission before publication of the Annual Growth Survey and before publication of the CSRs.