Activities of Ramon TREMOSA i BALCELLS related to 2013/2076(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
European Central Bank annual report for 2012 (debate)
Amendments (39)
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas, according to the Commission services' spring 2013 forecast, GDP in the eurozone fell by 0.6 % in 2012 , after a rise of 1.4 % in 2011 and will contract by 0.4 % in 2013 before rising by 1.2 % in 2014;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas, according to the same forecast, unemployment in the eurozone rose from 10.2 % at the end of 2011 to 11.4 % at the end of 2012 and risks further increasing to 12.2 % in 2013 before slightly decreasing again in 2014;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas Article 282 TFEU states that the primary objective of the ECB is to maintain price stability and that the ECB should support general economic policies of the Union without prejudice to price stability; whereas the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) works under the auspices of the ECB in the area of financial stability;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G a (new)
Recital G a (new)
Ga. whereas the recommendations concerning transparency of voting and the publication of summary minutes put forward in previous Parliament resolutions on the ECB annual reports have not yet been taken into account;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G b (new)
Recital G b (new)
Gb. whereas maintaining a flow of credit to SMEs is particularly important as they employ 72 % of the eurozone's labour force and have significantly higher gross job creation (and destruction) rates than large enterprises;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G c (new)
Recital G c (new)
Gc. whereas the deposit facility held EUR 315.754 million on 28 September 2012;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G d (new)
Recital G d (new)
Gd. whereas credit in the Eurozone is falling by 2% annually and in some countries as Spain the annual fall is at 8% only in 2012;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G e (new)
Recital G e (new)
Ge. whereas SMEs have to pay much higher borrowing costs depending on the country of the Eurozone in which they are situated, creating distortions in the single market;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G f (new)
Recital G f (new)
Gf. whereas the borrowing costs of SMEs are no longer related to their balance sheet and viability but to their origin inside the Eurozone;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G g (new)
Recital G g (new)
Gg. Believes that the credit crunch that is currently affecting SMEs in some parts of the Eurozone is one of the fundamental problems delaying the economic recovery;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. WBelcomesieves that the positive effects of the decisions of July 2012 to reduce the key ECB interest rates in the context of very low inflation expectations and weak economic activityare limited as in many parts of the Eurozone the monetary transmission channel is broken or deeply impaired;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Remarks that the LTROs were used by the banks to buy sovereign debt and refinance their bonds but credit to SMEs has not grown as a result of it;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Regrets that two enterprises from the automotive sector used the LTRO to finance themselves though their banking branch; asks the ECB not to permit this situation in the future;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Stresses that the availability of the ECB to provide furAsks the ECB to take into account the possibility that in the future, ther support to the financial and banking system must be properly to be subject to conditionality, in particular the commitment by institutions benefiting from such support to increase levels of credit or decreasing borrowing interest rates to small and medium-sized enterprises and to households, without which such efforts would prove to be ineffective;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the setting-up of the OMTs, with no ex ante quantitative limits, in order to safeguard monetary policy transmission, but deplores the decision to link the activation of the OMT to strict conditionalities attached to an EFSF/ESM programme; calls on the ECB to activate OMTs independently from strict conditionality;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Considers unnecessaryWelcomes the full sterilisation of the liquidity injected by the OMTs, as inflation expectations remain extremely low in a context of weak economic activity;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Asks the ECB to publish, in its monthly report, figures for the amount of public debt of each Member State posted as collateral by financial institutions;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Is concerned about the significantly high levels of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) lines provided by national central banks in the course of 2011 under the authorisation of the ECB and demands further disclosure of, and complementary information on, the precise extent of such lines and the underlying operations and on the conditions attached to them;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 c (new)
Paragraph 9 c (new)
9c. Remarks that the ELA should only be used for banks that are still viable; is concerned about the use of ELA in Cyprus and believes that this program should be cautiously applied;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 d (new)
Paragraph 9 d (new)
9d. Asks the ECB to lower collateral requirements and the stance on collateral rules for asset-backed securities (ABS), as these are deeply correlated with loans to households and SMEs;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 e (new)
Paragraph 9 e (new)
9e. Believes that, on collateral rules, the same standards should apply for sovereign as for regional government bonds in those cases where regions have legislative and tax powers, as both types of bond have relevant influence on the good transmission of the ECB monetary policy;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 f (new)
Paragraph 9 f (new)
9f. Acknowledges that, since the monetary transmission mechanism is not functioning properly, the ECB should seek ways to target SMEs more directly; points out that at present similar SMEs from across the Eurozone do not have similar access to loans despite having similar economic prospects and risks; invites the ECB to implement a policy to purchase high quality securitised SME loans directly, particularly from some Member States where the monetary transmission mechanism is broken; stresses that this policy should be limited in amount and time, fully sterilised and directed to avoid risks on the ECB balance sheet;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 g (new)
Paragraph 9 g (new)
9g. Believes that the ECB should take very seriously into account the possibility of launching a specific program to help SMEs to access to credit in the lines of the funding for lending scheme of the Bank of England;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 h (new)
Paragraph 9 h (new)
9h. Deems that the TARGET2 settlement system has played a crucial role for safeguarding the integrity of the Eurozone financial system; notes, however, that the significant TARGET2 imbalances reveal the worrying fragmentation of financial markets within the Eurozone, as well as the ongoing capital flight in Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 i (new)
Paragraph 9 i (new)
9i. Underlines that interesting lessons may be drawn for the Eurozone from the study of the functioning of balance of payments systems in other federal monetary unions such as the United States;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Calls on the ECB to make public the legal decision concerning the OMT programme in order to be able to analyse more deeply its details and implications;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Argues that the conduct of monetary policy should be democratic and should result from open deliberation between different viewpoints and approachesin order to strengthen transparency and thereby democratic accountability;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Underlines that the ECB's independence should not justify lack ofmust be tied to democratic accountability;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Underlines that the ECB's independence should not justify lack of democratic accountabie need for democratic accountability with regard to the SSM and the ECB's involvement in the Troika, while stressing the ECB's independence in the field of monetary politcy;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the ECB to study the possibility of using forward guidance as a non-conventional tool to enhance the correct transmission of monetary policy; remarks that forward guidance should be tied to positive changes in the economic growth of the Eurozone or to a increase in inflation in the medium term beyond 2%;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Stresses the importance of a fruitful cooperation between the ECB and the competent national authorities within the framework of the SSM, in order to ensure an effective and smooth supervision, while guaranteeing full separation between monetary policy and supervision;
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Considers it urgent to approve the establishment of a European Resolution System and Authority in order to protect depositors and prevent further banking crises;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26a. Calls on the ECB to publish the summary minutes of the Governing Council meetings, including arguments and voting records;