36 Amendments of Derk Jan EPPINK related to 2012/2256(INI)
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the sharp deterioration of public deficits and debt, which has been seen since 2009 situation in many Member States, has been triggered by the reaction of governments to the crisis, in the absence of European anticyclical instrumentssharply deteriorated since 2009;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas credible commitments to growth-friendly consolidation measures are a prerequisite for any sustainable solution of the excessive debt and deficit situation of most of the Member States;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas the crisis underlines the crucial need to launch or complete needed structural reforms;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the Commission forecasts for 2012 have been successively revised downwards from 1.8 % in spring 2011 to - 0.4 % in autumn 2012 for 2012; whereas in its autumn forecasts the Commission predicts a GDP growth of a mere 0.1 % for 2013; whereas there are serious doubts as to the accuracy of these 2013 forecasts, since they are likely to be based on an underestimated fiscal multiplier, thereby underestimating the negative effect of current fiscal contraction on economic growth;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas eachdifferent Member States is suffering from the consequences of its own fiscal tightening and of the synchronised rapid consolidation conducted by the other Member Statemplement fiscal consolidation in a different manner, and all Member States have to deal with cross-country fiscal spillovers;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas this fiscal tightening strategy forces downpolicies affect demand, wages and, prices while driving upand unemployment;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas this shows that the gains from the internal market and common currency are spread very unevenly across the Member States, reducing the margin of manoeuvre of the weaker economies in response to crisisfurther liberalization of services would advance the internal market and allow all Member States to take advantage of its full potential;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N
Recital N
N. whereas austerityconsolidation measures adopted by severalome Member States have reached an unprecedented dimension: the fiscal stance for Greece from 2010 to 2012 amounts to 18 points of GDP, for Portugal, Spain and Italy respectively 7.5, 6.5 and 4.8 points of GDP without any significant signs of improvement of the economic and fiscal situation and with huge social disruption, calling for a new assessmentcontinuous monitoring of the policies imposed;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital O
Recital O
O. whereas sovereign interest rates show unprecedented divergences within the euro area and remain at unsustainable levels for, despite Member States' reform and consolidation efforts, eurozone sovereign bond markets remain in distress, as reflected in high spreads and interest rate volatility; whereas the immediate trigger and root cause of the unprecedented divergences were financial markets' concerns about the solidity of public finances in certain Member States;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital Q
Recital Q
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital R a (new)
Recital R a (new)
Ra. whereas Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) are the engine of the European economy and Member States should support them by reducing the administrative burden they are facing;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital S
Recital S
S. whereas the contributing capacity of taxpayers is almost exhausted in several Member States; whereas the European shadow economy is estimated to represent 22.1 % of total economic activity and the resulting loss of tax to be around EUR one trillion each year; whereas simple, predictable and low tax systems improve tax compliance;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U
Recital U
U. whereas the fiscal discipline pillar should be developed hand in hand with the solidarity and democracy pillargrowth-friendly fiscal consolidation should go hand in hand with growth-enhancing structural reforms;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital U a (new)
Recital U a (new)
Ua. whereas competition policy based on the principles of open markets and a level playing field in all sectors is a cornerstone of the unrestricted functioning of the internal market;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the recogniadoption inof the AGS 2013 that growth is necessary in order to exit the crisis, buby the European Commission and supports the priorities set doubts whethert in the survey; takes note of the positive signs of recovery seen by the Commission; are accurate; warns ofcknowledges the risk of a continued contraction of economic activity over the coming year resulting from the aggregate negative effect of significant and simultaneous procyclical budget cuts across the euro area;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Agrees with the Commission that growth-friendly fiscal consolidation is necessary in order to exit the crisis; recalls that the key element in the relationship between growth and consolidation is the composition of consolidation; stresses in this respect that the appropriate mix of expenditure and revenue side measures is context dependent, however consolidations based on cutting expenditure rather than on increasing revenue tend to be more lasting and more growth-enhancing in the medium term, but more recessive in the short term;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission to study seriously the possibility of spreading fiscal adjustment over a longer period, thereby providing additional temporary room for manoeuvre to re-ignite growth as soon as possible;.monitor and evaluate the process of fiscal adjustment;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Believes thatTakes note of the recent debate on the size of the fiscal multiplier, notably following the IMF analysis on this matter in its latest World Economic Outlook, has been unduly downplayed by the Commission, while a broad consensus has been emerging on this matter from recent theoretical and empirical work in the existing economic literature; considers this matter to be of central importance to policy-making, as wrong fiscal multipliers can lead to massive policy mistak; considers this analysis to be relevant for policy-making but is very careful not to draw strong policy conclusions from it, as the calculations are highly dependent on outliers Greece and Germany and the results suggesting very large multipliers do not easily stand up to a different choice of countries or time period; underlines that other recent theoretical and empirical work in the existing economic literature, including work from the IMF, suggests that fiscal policy may be rather slow in impacting economic activity, which raises questions as to the usefulness of discretionary fiscal policy for short-run stabilization purposes; highlights moreover that fiscal stimulus may be counterproductive in highly-indebted countries; calls on the Commission, therefore, rapidly to open its macroeconomic modelling and forecasting to serious and systematic scrutiny by independent institutes on a regular basis; o increase transparancy on its methodologies for assessing the multiplier effect of public expenditure on GDP growth;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. WelcomAcknowledges the recognition by the Commission of ‘a possible’that an adjustment in the deadline for the correction of the excessive deficits as beingmight be justified, in full respect of; emphasizes the importance of respecting both the spirit and the letter of the Stability and Growth Pact; considers, however, that this recognition is already overdue, as modified by the 'six-pack on economic governance';
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to reassess the Member States' situation in the light of the exceptional circumstances they are facing – ‘an unusual event outside the control of the [Member States] which has a major impact on the financial position of the general government or periods of severe economic downturn as set out in the revised SGP (…)’;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Council to easemonitor the path of consolidation for Member States with excessive deficits due to exceptional circumstances while ensuring that ‘annual budgetary targets [...] are consistent with a minimum annual improvement of at least 0.5 % of GDP as a benchmark, in its cyclically adjusted balance net of one-off and temporary measures, in order to ensure the correction of the excessive deficit within the deadline set in the recommendation’, as formulated in the preventive arm of the SGP;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission and the Council to balance productiveattune targeted public investment needprogrammes with fiscal discipline objectives by accommodating public investment programmes in its assessment of Stability and Convergence Programmes and excessive deficit procedureconsolidation objectives; considers that growth-friendly fiscal consolidation can simultaneously put public finances on a sustainable path and restore the confidence of investors;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission to start developing as a matter of urgency a plan which would ensure that elements ofensure that fiscal discipline areis in parallel followed up with concrete proposals on solidarity among Member States and democratic legitimacy as part of the Interinstitutional Agreement on the European Semesterfor structural reforms, in particular reforms which make labour markets more flexible, stimulate older workers to stay in employment longer, reduce youth unemployment by better matching the qualifications of young people to labour demand, combat labour market segmentation by better balanced employment protection legislation, improve the sustainability of pension systems, increase the efficiency of taxation systems, enhance competition in the services sector by removing unjustified restrictions on regulated trades and professions, liberalise certain industries, facilitate credit access, cut red tape, remove unnecessary layers of government, and combat tax evasion;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission and the Council to improve substantially the quality,keep on fine-tuning the national specificity and the adequacy of the country-specific recommendations, notably through a competent interpretation of the macroeconomic imbalances exercise;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Member States to agree on a Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) as a matter of urgency, ensuring; considers in this respect that the structure of the EU budget is more important thatn its role is reinforced as a source of much- needed investmentsize, and therefore that the EU could freeze or even reduce the MFF overall, while still investing in value-added areas;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls also on the Commission to come forward with a holistic approach to tackling growth, which should include a genuine EuroHighlights that protectionism would only deepean iandustrial prolicy and the guarantee that Europe will use all its strength and influence in its external trade relationong the crisis; calls on the Commission to exploit to the fully the sources of growth stemming from trade with third countries and establ; considers in thish reciprocity as well as fair trade; calls on the Commission to include strong social clauses in trade agreements on the basis of International Labour Organisation labour standardspect in particular the full range of measures that can be taken to deepen and expand the Transatlantic economic relationship; such an agenda should encompass the related goals of renewing and opening the Transatlantic market, repositioning the Transatlantic partnership with regard to third countries to strengthening the ground rules of the international economic order, and extending the rule-based multilateral system to include new members and new areas of economic opportunities;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Believes that, to reap the full potential of the internal market, enhanced cooperation among Member States willing to follow the 'country of origin' principle of the initial draft of the Services Directive should be considered; suggests that, if this is not possible, a services impact test based on the Regulatory Impact Assessment methodology should be adopted in order to provide a thorough screening of relevant national legislations in terms of their necessity, suitability, and proportionality.
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Underlines that strong enforcement of an EU competition policy based on the principles of open markets and a level playing field in all sectors is a cornerstone of a successful internal market and a precondition for the creation of sustainable and knowledge-based jobs;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses that determined efforts by Member States to sustain public finances, at an appropriate pace, can only work if macroeconomic imbalances are reduced symmetricallare needed to consolidate public finances and reduce macroeconomic imbalances; notes as for the latter that countries with current account deficits need to step up structural reforms to increase their competitiveness as a matter of urgency;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to present concrete proposals to improve the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, including in relation to third countries, as an essential tool for a fairer distribution of the fiscal effort and for increasing Member States' revenue;
Amendment 255 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17