Activities of Ramon TREMOSA i BALCELLS related to 2016/2101(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the European Semester for economic policy coordination: implementation of 2016 priorities PDF (471 KB) DOC (95 KB)
Amendments (18)
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas political developments such as the question of the UK’s membership of the Union, relations with Russia and the refugee crisisgrowing political instability have compounded uncertainties and further served to inhibit investment;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 1
Subheading 1
Europe’s investment challenges in the context of the global economic slowdown
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that the challenges in the EU are linked to the deteriorating international environment and the divergences in the economic and social performance achieved in different parts of the Union due to a lack of structural reforms as well as the short-comings in completing the single market, which deprive the EU of its full growth potential;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Fully supports the efforts made to ensure greater national ownership in the formulation and implementation of CSRs as an ongoing reform process; recalls that CSRs are endorsed by the Heads of State and Government and adopted by the EU Finance Ministers; believes that to achieve greater national ownership CSRs should become part of a legally binding convergence code;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses that Europe’'s long economic crisis has shown that there is a strong need to focus on public andstructural reforms, public investment where Member States have fiscal space and regulatory initiatives that incentivise greater private investment, in order to enhance the EU’'s competitiveness;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines that the still-too-high unemployment rates show that the capacity to create jobs in most Member States is still limited; emphasises that further action is needed, in consultation with social partners and in accordance with national practices, to make labour markets more inclusive overall; believes that the capacity to create jobs would increase if the EU had a single European labour market;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Expresses disquiet about the current ‘liquidity trap’ the EU economy seems to have fallen into, with interest rates at the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB), weak demand prospects, and restricted investment and spending by households and companies, not least in surplus countries; due to a lack of confidence in the macro-economic environment and reform fatigue in certain Member States;
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9a (new)
Paragraph 9a (new)
9a. Endorse further reform in the national jobs markets, specifically targeting solutions to address youth unemployment in the form of increased incentives to hire young people through reduced social security charges or an effective implementation of the Youth Guarantee scheme;
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Underlines the fact that investment has so far lagged and failed to lead to sustainable and inclusive growth in the EU because measures to improve the business environment are missing and that under the current circumstances, monetary policy alone is unlikely to bring about recovery, even though the rules made necessary by banking union have imposed more stringent financial criteria on banks; considers that a coordinated fiscal expansion is also needed in the EU, therefore, in line with the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact and its flexibility clauses, in order to place emphasis on public and private investment;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises the need to improve the EU’s overall capacity to create and sustain jobs and thus to tackle high levels of unemployment, while considering that. In order to sustain demand and avoid a crisis in the welfare state that could create an intergenerational clash, migration could play an important role in compensating for the negative effects of the ageing population; emphasises, however, that this alone cannot be the main response to address structural demographic, labour market or fiscal challenges but as well as policies directed to increase the natality rate among European citizens through structural reforms in the fiscal and labour domains; moreover emphasises, that it should be complemented with efficient public expenditure, especially in high-quality social and environmentally sustainable investments;
Amendment 240 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasises the need to improve the EU’s overall capacity to create and sustain jobs and thus to tackle high levels of unemployment, while considering that migration could play an important role in compensating for the negative effects of the ageing population; emphasises, however, that this alone cannot be the main response to address structural demographic, labour market or fiscal challenges but that it should be complemented with efficient public expenditure, especially in high-quality social and environmentally sustainable growth enhancing investments;
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the importance of resilient labour markets where an appropriate trade-off is maintained between economic, social and human costs and where wages are in line with productivity in accordance with the EU values of solidarity and subsidiarity, with a focus on the upgrading of educational systems and vocational education;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13a (new)
Paragraph 13a (new)
13a. Calls the Commission to focus more on its recommendations on the harmful effects of fiscal centralization for the effectiveness of economic reforms in many European regions and the importance of building a strong an sustainable productive economy less based on transfers and subsidies from the capital and more in innovation and economic policy flexibility;
Amendment 259 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13b (new)
Paragraph 13b (new)
13b. Highlights that the decentralisation of expenditure without decentralisation of tax revenue control can increase economic divergences between regions and harm its fiscal sustainability;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Deeply deplores the fact that with regard to the Europe 2020 strategy, the biggest failure to be recorded concerns the goal of reducing the scale of poverty in the Union, as not only will the goal not be reached, but poverty will in fact have increased; notes however for the first time fighting poverty was part of an EU strategy; considers that fighting poverty should be included right from the conception of all EU policies;
Amendment 314 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Points out that in 2014 only 10 of the 157 main recommendations made to Member States in the framework of the European Semester were fully implemented or showed substantial progress[1]; calls, in this context, for the recommendations on the European Semester in the Five Presidents' report on deepening the EMU to be followed, namely: more concrete and ambitious Country-Specific Recommendations (CSRs) and a clearer focus on defined priorities while leaving the necessary room for manoeuvre to Member States in the implementation of CSRs, as well as a more systematic use of reporting, peer review and the 'comply-or-explain' approach in order to ensure proper implementation as well as a greater public debate leading to greater national ownership; [1] Success rate of around 6.5%: Zsolt Darvas and Alvaro Leandro, 'The Limitations of Policy Coordination in the Euro Area under the European Semester', Bruegel, November 2015;
Amendment 317 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17a (new)
Paragraph 17a (new)
17a. Requests a report from the Commission no later than three months after the adoption of this resolution, which lists all CSRs and Single Market laws by Member State that are not fully implemented and details concrete measures the Commission will undertake to ensure full implementation as well as a timetable by which full implementation will be achieved;
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17b (new)
Paragraph 17b (new)
17b. Emphasises the fact that the European Semester recommendations to MS have a similar responsiveness rate as the unilateral OECD recommendations (29% vs 30% in 2014), even though the compliance with the latter is based just on a voluntary basis; notes that, according to data, compliance in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic is systematically higher for OECD recommendations;