38 Amendments of Cristian Dan PREDA related to 2014/2248(INI)
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the ‘polycrisis’many challenges currently faced by the Union, including its financial, economic, social and migratory consequences, have all led to the rejecquestioning by a growing part of the population of the current European Union;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas these significant European challenges cannot be handled by single Member States, but only by a joint response from the European Union;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas progress towards a Union that can really deliver on and achieve its goals are impaired by a failureweakening of governance owing to a continuous and systematic search for unanimity in the Council (which is still based on the so- called Luxembourg Compromise) and the lack of a credible single executive authority enjoying full democratic legitimacy and competence to take effective action across a wide spectrum of policies; whereas recent examples such as the uncontrolled migration flow, the slow clean-up of our banks after the outbreak of the financial crisis and the lack of an immediatedelay in the setting-up of a common response to the internal and external threat of terrorism have aptly demonstrated the Union’s inshown that the Union should improve its capacity to respond effectively and quickly to crises;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas this problem, coupled with a lack of a common vision on the part of our Member States as regards the future of our continent, has given rise to unprecedented levels of ‘euroscepticism’ that risk a return to nationalism and the disintegration ofat could undermine the Union;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas, instead of fostering the Union, the system whereby Member States make progress at different speeds in accordance with their different capacities and circumstances, further reinforced in the Lisbon Treaty, which introduced new formal methods of enhanced cooperation, has increased the complexity of the Union and accentuated its ‘variable geometry’; whereas more and more Member States are declining to agree on the goals and prefer ‘à la carte’ solutions, some of them even unilaterallyshould only be applied to a limited number of policies while being inclusive in order to allow all EU Member States to participate, the new formal methods of enhanced cooperation introduced by the Lisbon Treaty must be used to improve the integration of some EU policies such as CSDP and not as a way to promote ‘à la carte’ solutions;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas the community method must be preserved and not be undermined by intergovernmental solutions, not even in areas where not all Member States fulfil the conditions for participation;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas, as regards Schengen, the free movement of people and the resulting abolition of internal border controls, all formally integrated into the Treaties, ‘opt- outs’ were given to the UK and Ireland; whereas four other Member States are also not taking part, but have the obligation to do so, while ‘opt-ins’ were accorded to three countries outside the European Union; whereas this fragmentation not only prevents the total abolition of some remaining internal borders, but also hinders the establishment of a true internal market and of a fully integrated area of freedom, security and justice; recalls that the integration into the Schengen zone must remain the objective for all EU Member States;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas, while Article 16 of the TSCG provides that within five years of the date of entry into force (before 1 January 2018) the necessary steps must have been taken to incorporate the Fiscal Compact into the legal framework of the Union, it is clear that the resilience of the euro area, including the completion of the banking union, cannot be achieved without further fiscal deepening steps together with the establishment of a more reliable, effective and democratic form of governance; whereas this will complete the current Stability and Growth Pact, which, ever since it came into existence, even after its reform by the so-called six-pack and two-pack, has never been applied for any obvious political reasons;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas this new system of governance implies a genuine government equipped to formulate and implement the common monetary, fiscal and macro- economic policies that the euro area desperately needsneeds; considering this government must be accountable to the European Parliament and must be endowed with a tn European Treasury and a budget commensurate with the scale of the tasks at hand; whereas this requires, in addition to measures within the existing primary law, a reform of the Lisbon Treaty;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the European Union is a constitutional system based on the rule of law; whereas the Treaties must be changed to give the European Court of Justice (ECJ) jurisdiction over all aspects of EU law, in particular common foreign and security policy (Article 24(1) TEU) and monetary and economic policy (Article 126(10) TFEU), democracy and Human Rights;
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas the decline of Europe’s defence capabilities has limited its ability to project stability beyond our immediate borders; whereas this goes hand in hande defence policy in the EU as a pillar within the reluctance of our US allies to intervene if Europe is not ready to take its fair share of responsibility; whereas this leads inevitably to the need forNATO should be strengthened and a comprehensive EU- NATO political and military partnership should be established, while enabling the Union to act autonomously in operations abroad, mainly with a view to establishing its neighbourhood; reiterates in this regard that EU-NATO relations should be based on complementarity and cooperation at all levels, with a view to addressing common security challenges, capacity development and contingency planning for hybrid threats; whereas more intense cooperation among the Member States and anis needed as well as the integration of some of their defence capacities into a European defence community, both in line with a new European security strategy;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas the UK’s decision creates an opportunity to reduce and drastically simplify the ‘variable geometry’ and complexity of the Union; whereas it offers at least the opportunity to, by clarifying what membership of the Union really means and what could be a clear structure in the future fframework the EU’s relationship with non- members in our periphery (the United Kingdom, Norway, Turkey, Ukraine, etc.); whereas the founding fathers of the Union had already envisaged a type of ‘associate status’o be developed in order to build a ring of partners around the EU for countries who cannot yet or will not join the Union;
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that the time of crisis management by means of ad hoc and incremental decisionbefore engaging in proposals for radical reforms thas passed, as it only leads to measures that are too little, too late; is convinced that it is now time to address the shortcomings of the governance of the European Union by undertaking a comprehensive, in-depth reform of the Lisbon Treatyt would require amendments to the current Treaties, the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty should be exploited to their full potential in the first place;
Amendment 402 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recommends that, instead of these multiple derogations, a type of ‘associaten instrument or even a status’ c should be proposed to those states in the periphery that only want to participate on the sideline, i.e. in some specific Union policies; this statudeveloped in order to set up a ring of partners around the EU for countries swhould be accompanied by obligations corresponding to the associated rights cannot yet or will not join the Union;
Amendment 409 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. The single institutional framework should be preserved and any form of flexibility should aim to achieve the Union’s common objectives, without undermining the principle of equality of all citizens and Member States;
Amendment 414 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that thise new type of ‘associateinstrument or status’ could also be one of the possible outcomes to respect the will of the majority of the citizens of the United Kingdom to leave the EU; stresses that this wish must be respected, given that the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, as one of the larger Member States, and as the largest non-euro-area member, affects the strength and the institutional balance of the Union – a new situation that adds to the need for revision of the Treaties;
Amendment 480 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that neitherthe framework for economic governance provided by the Stability and Growth Pact norand the ‘no bail- out’ clause (Article 125 TFEU) provide the intended solutions, and that they have furthermore lost credibility in their current form, as the pact has been infringed by several Member States without political or legal consequences, while Greece has been bailed out on a large scale on three occashould be developed in order to ensure a truthful and comprehensive implementation of their provisions;
Amendment 522 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Is acutely aware of the need to review the efficacy of the many recent crisis-management measures taken by the EU, and to codify in primary law certain decision-making procedures – such as ‘reverse qualified majority voting’ – as well as the need to entrench the legal bases of the new regulatory framework for the financial sector; agrees with the Five Presidents’ Report that the ‘open method of coordination’ as the basis for Europe’s economic strategy does not function and needs to be elevated into binding legal actsEurope’s economic strategy needs to be better coordinated;
Amendment 535 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Proposes therefore merging the deficit and debt procedures, the macroeconomic imbalance procedure and the country-specific recommendations into a singlea ‘convergence code’ of a legally binding nature,; setting minimum and maximum standards, where onlyuggests that compliance with this code would allow access to EU funds for investment projects or participation in new instruments that combine economic reform with fiscal incentives such as a fiscal capacity for the euro area or a common debt instrument; the coordination of economic policies as provided for in Article 5 TFEU would therefore become a ‘shared competence’ between the Union and the Member Statesthe Structural Reform Support Programme;
Amendment 559 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Believes that, in order to reduce the still excessively high debt burden of Member States, such a common debt instrument needs to be established, inspired by the proposal by the German Council of Economic Experts of 9 November 2011, whereby eEuro-area mzone Members would undertake joint and several liability for a sinking fund, with strong individual commitments on structural reforms to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to the required maximum of 60 %; insists that euro-area mthe Eurozone Members would only be able to participate when they are in compliance with the convergence code, as this will prevent moral hazard;
Amendment 569 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
Amendment 655 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Considers it necessary to endow the Finance Minister with proportionate powers to intervene in the setting of national economic and fiscal policies in cases where the convergence code is not respected, and the power to use the fiscal capacity or the common bond instrument for those Member States that arorder to ensure the compliantce with the convergence code;
Amendment 676 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Considers it nrecessaryommendable, in the long term, to endow the European Central Bank with the status of lender of last resort enjoying the full powers of a federal reserve bankand with the competences of a federal reserve bank, provided that its independence is fully granted;
Amendment 686 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
Amendment 774 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31a. Notes that only by enhancing the Common Foreign and Security Policy can the EU bring credible answers to the new security threats and challenges, fighting terrorism, bringing peace, stability and order to its neighbourhood;
Amendment 792 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Stresses that for the Union to strengthen its own capacity for the defence of the EU territory, as a pillar within NATO, which remains the cornerstlso in view of a rebalance within the EU-NATO strategic partnership, as well as for efficiency and a desirable reductione of the European security architecture and to enable the Union to act autonomously in operations abroad, mainly with a view to stabilising its neighbourhoodmilitary expenses of individual Member States (deriving from the savings achievable through joint projects and economies of scale), and to enable the Union to act autonomously in operations abroad, mainly with a view to conducting conflict prevention operations and peacekeeping in its neighbourhood, in compliance with the principles of the United Nations, the Treaties should provide for the possibility of establishing a European defence union;
Amendment 808 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33a. Underlines the importance of making full use of the Treaties and CSDP legal potential by revising EU rapid reaction instruments and in particular the Battlegroups; to build a genuine European Defence Union, the EU needs to use all the instruments at its disposal ; Article 44 and Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union are useful tools as well as the structured cooperation mechanism;
Amendment 894 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
Amendment 911 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
Amendment 916 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Notes that, despite the prohibition in Article 15(1) T the EU needs further transparent parliamentarisation, and calls for an enhanced parliamentary democracy within the EU, withe European Council has undertaken various legislative initiatives; proposes abolishing Article 15(1) and integratParliament and Council acting as the two chambers of the Legislative Branch; stresses that the Council has to change its statute in accordance with the following: the European Council into a Council of Staspecialised Council configurations should be grantesd that could engage legitimately in the law- making process and provide direction and coherence to the other specialised Council configurationse status of committees of the Council; the Council, acting as a legislator and as a plenary of all committees, should meet in public;
Amendment 920 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41
Paragraph 41
41. Considers that this Council and its specialised configurations, as the second chamber of the EU legislature, should, in the interest of specialism, professionalism and continuity, replacealls for the reform of the institutional structure of the Council of the European Union with the praobjecticve of the rotating six-month presidency with a system of permanent chairs chosen from their midst; suggests that the idea of creating a special Law Council should be favourably reconsideredsetting up a second chamber thus creating a genuine bi-cameral legislative system;
Amendment 926 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
Amendment 931 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43
Paragraph 43
Amendment 949 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
Amendment 966 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Recognises the significant role played by national parliaments in the constitutional order of the European Union, and in particular their role in transposing EU legislation into national law and the role they would play in both ex-ante and ex-post control of legislative decisions and policy choices made by their members of the new Council of States, including its specialised configurations; suggests therefore complementing and enhancing the powers of national parliaments by introducing a ‘green card’ procedure whereby national parliaments could submit legislative proposals tousing the existing mechanisms in the treaties more effectively; recommends to further use the network of representatives of national parliaments to raise the awareness about the subsidiarity and proportionality principles and to improve the Cofuncil for its considerationtioning of IPEX that should be considered as an indispensable tool for raising the participation and activity of national parliaments in the EU legislative process.;
Amendment 975 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 a (new)
Paragraph 46 a (new)
46a. Albeit respecting the role of national parliaments and the principle of subsidiarity, acknowledges the EU’s exclusive competences on Common Commercial Policy; calls for a clear delimitation of competences between the Union and the Member States in this respect; notes that this delimitation would have positive effects on jobs and growth both in the EU and in its trading partners;
Amendment 1010 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52
Paragraph 52
Amendment 1038 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Is of the opinion that the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome would be an appropriate moment to modernise the European Unlaunch the reflection andon to start a Convention withthe future of Europe and agree on a vision for the pcurpose of making the European Union ready for the decades aheadrent and future generations of European citizens;