Plenary sitting
9.2.2011 B7‑0097/2011
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
to wind up the debate on statements by the Council and the Commission
pursuant to Rule 110(2) of the Rules of Procedure
on EU2020
Malcolm Harbour
on behalf of the ECR Group
European Parliament resolution on EU2020
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s communication ‘EU2020: a strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’,
– having regard to statements by the Council and Commission on EU2020 -flagship initiatives,
– having regard to the Commission’s recommended top ten priority actions,
– having regard to the Commission’s communication ‘Annual Growth Survey: advancing the EU’s comprehensive response to the crisis,
– having regard to the Presidency conclusions of the meeting of the European Council on 17-18 June 2010,
– having regard to the informal European Council of 11 February 2010,
– having regard to the public consultation on EU 2020 launched by the Commission, and its outcome (SEC(2010)116),
– having regard to the Commission’s evaluation of the Lisbon Strategy (SEC(2010)114),
– having regard to the European Council document entitled ‘Seven steps to deliver on the European strategy for growth and jobs’,
– having regard to the European Parliament resolution of June 2010 on EU 2020 Flagships,
– having regard to the European Parliament resolution of 10 March 2010 on EU 2020,
– having regard to the Commission’s communication ‘Annual Growth Survey; Advancing the EU’s comprehensive response to the crisis,
– having regard to the Single Market Act, published on 16 December 2010,
– having regard to Rule 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
General Remarks
1. Notes that the principle goal of the EU2020 strategy is to move the European Union through economic recovery to a sustainable and competitive future;
2. Highlights the need to focus on the European Union’s comparative economic advantages to ensure EU2020 succeeds and that EU Value Added is achieved;
3. Stresses the need to consolidate all the analyses of the Commission following the publication of its initial consultation, including the Annual Growth Survey, Headline targets, Employment Guidelines and Ten Priority Actions, to ensure a coherent, focused, successful approach and to avoid the same fate as the Lisbon Strategy;
4. Welcomes the Single Market Act as a key political initiative to underpin the foundations of the EU2020 goals and the flagship initiatives;
Governance of the EU2020 strategy and Headline targets
5. Welcomes the publication of the Annual Growth Survey, including the emphasis on the need for acceleration by the Member States in mobilising labour markets and getting the unemployed back to work; supports calls for Member States to continue to carry out structural reforms to enhance research and innovation, harness the potential and internationalization of SMEs and push technological advances;
6. Stresses the vital role of the re-launch of the Single Market in achieving the growth and competitiveness goals of the EU2020 strategy; believes that comprehensive guidance from the highest political level is crucial for the relaunch of the Single Market; asks that the Spring European Council includes a discussion on the state of the relaunch of the Single Market, backed by a monitoring process through which to assess the performance of interim targets;
7. Calls on Member States to embrace the Single Market by setting their objectives and developing their agenda in accordance with Single Market priorities;
8. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment in the Annual Growth Survey to the prioritisation and frontloading of the Single Market; recommends that the President of the Commission takes on greater responsibility in those fields where the European Union has competence or shared competencies to help coordinate Member States’ action and political will in order to fully implement and enforce Single Market policies, measures and compliance with existing rules;
9. Highlights the limited number of priority actions which will be selected by the European Parliament, in its three initiative reports on the Single Market Act, which should be adopted by the co-legislators before 31 December 2012 – the 20th anniversary of the Single Market; this would constitute the first step of the EU 2020 strategy and ensure a clear and ambitious vision based on political leadership and ownership, commitment and coordination;
10. Considers that developing smart and coordinated investments in the real economy, including investment in research and development, renewable energies, transnational transport networks and the digital single market must play a key role in putting Europe back on a sustainable and competitive long-term growth path;
11. Calls on the Commission and Member States to reduce red tape and administrative burden on SMEs and fully implement the Small Business Act;
12. Draws attention to the role that Smart Regulation can play in improving the regulatory framework in which businesses operate; believes the proposals contained therein can help deliver a strong business environment conducive to growth and innovation, but notes that all partners in the legislative process must take responsibility for producing more effective and less burdensome regulations;
13. Calls for rapid adoption of the EU patent by co-legislators to enhance innovation and the competitiveness of the European Union and to save 250m EUR per year;
14. Welcomes the launch of a wide-ranging review of public procurement which highlights the need for reform; calls on Member States to give this high priority, in particular by opening access for SMEs;
15. Calls for dedicated budgets for public procurement of innovative products and services to create at least €10 billion a year for innovations that improve public services;
16. Welcomes the efforts by the European Union to resolve the issues that undermined the Stability and Growth Pact and led to the current adverse fiscal situation in several Member States; stresses that it is the responsibility of all Member States to exercise budgetary discipline and that a fully accountable and transparent EU framework can contribute to sounder public finances and a stronger ability to counter future crises;
17. Recognises that a strong and competitive eurozone is in the interests of all EU Member States; nevertheless stresses that any reform must take into account fully the needs of both the eurozone and the Member States which are not yet in the eurozone or which have no plans to become members of it;0
18. Recommends that the EU should facilitate and encourage more equity funding for SMEs, either through venture capital or share listing, and less reliance on debt;
19. Urges that the EU’s financial centres should be promoted and remain globally competitive in order to deliver the 2020 objectives;
20. Member States should be encouraged to give, the highest priority to tackling unemployment and preventing long-term exclusion from the labour market in their National Reform Programmes; this should be combined with measures to ensure more job creation, better jobs and high levels of high quality employment in the medium and longer term;
21. In order to counteract the negative effects of demographic change, the Europe 2020 strategy explicitly promotes the inclusion of older workers in the labour market; Member States should be encouraged to achieve this headline target by promoting extended working lives, developing more flexible labour markets, supporting atypical contracts and encouraging older people to stay active in the labour market for longer; furthermore, promoting lifelong learning schemes, preventative health care combined with the experience and knowledge that older workers hold will positively contribute to the recovery and future growth of the EU;
22. It is essential that sustainability of pension systems goes beyond purely fiscal considerations; private savings ratios, employment rates, and projected demographic developments also play considerable roles in ensuring sustainability of social protection systems;
23. Calls for more effective and transparent management of the European Social Fund (ESF), which is an essential tool in achieving the employment targets set out in the EU2020 strategy, as agreed by Member States; insists that the ESF should remain in the framework of the regulation on general provisions on the cohesion policy funds;
24. Stresses that national parliaments, regional and local authorities and the civil society should be better involved and regularly consulted;
25. Underlines that the European Commission and the Council should respect subsidiarity when setting policy guidelines;
Flagship initiatives
Skills and Jobs Flagship
26. Stresses the importance of implementing the priorities in the Single Market Act which will stimulate job creation; particularly supports the implementation of the European qualifications framework and the planned legislative initiative reforming the professional qualifications to ensure mutual recognition of professional qualifications; calls for an evaluation of the feasibility of an EU Professional card, ensuring data protection, and the creation of the European Skills passport, which would significantly enhance the mobility of workers;
27. Underlines the need to reduce burdens on SMEs and excessive emphasis on workers´ rights in the current economic climate, which discourages businesses from taking on extra employees, thereby reducing growth potential;
28. Skills must be developed to modernise traditional industries, including fishery and family farms, which contribute to the generation of income in small communities by providing support to family SMEs, which is fully aligned with the priorities of EU2020 regarding employment and inclusive growth;
29. Supports measures to fully implement the Services Directive and the goods package directives to create even more jobs;
Digital Agenda flagship
30. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a decision establishing the first radio spectrum policy programme; expresses concern that the Commission must take a well-considered approach, rather than rushing this complex but vital spectrum harmonisation policy;
31. Highlights the need to urgently complete the digital single market, which suffers from fragmentation, particularly concerning copyright levies; stresses that completion of the digital single market is an urgent priority, which will rapidly facilitate more cross-border trade and job creation;
32. Stresses the importance of the ICT sector to the European economy and its crucial role in investment in research and development, which must be improved further, if the EU is to compete with the US;
33. Stresses that high speed broadband is an indispensable enabler of the digital single market; calls on Member States to give priority to opening network competition and encouraging new entrants, under the terms of the new telecom framework rules;
Innovation Union flagship
34. Welcomes the recently published public procurement consultation; stresses the huge untapped potential of public procurement in the stimulation of innovative products and services and the importance of funding innovative businesses;
35. Underlines the crucial role of standardisation in promoting innovation and energy efficient solutions; urgently awaits the legislative reform of the standardisation framework from the Commission;
36. Highlights the crucial role of Europe’s universities; supports an independent ranking system for innovative universities; highlights the importance of cutting red tape and obstacles to the mobility of researchers, including pension rights´ to ensure they can bring ideas and innovative solutions and technologies from other innovative economies to the European Union;
37. Stresses the importance of research in the medical sector, which combined with innovative applications, will foster growth and well-being in an ageing society; Supports close co-operation between university research departments and the medical industry to generate products and services that citizens in the EU will urgently need over the next decade;
38. Supports European Innovation Partnerships to mobilise stakeholders – European, national and regional, public and private - behind well-defined goals for Europe to become a world leader; calls for further partnerships in areas such as energy, ‘smart’ cities and mobility, water efficiency, non-energy raw materials and sustainable and productive agriculture;
39. Eagerly awaits the adoption of the EU patent and proposals for a European knowledge market for patents and licensing to further enhance innovation;
40. Highlights the key role of FP7 and the need to reduce bureaucracy in this regard;
41. Supports the proposals for an ‘Innovation Union Scoreboard’ and checklist of the features of successful innovation systems, which are crucial in advancing innovation in the European Union; calls for an annual Innovation Convention to measure the progress made in this regard;
Youth on the Move flagship
42. Supports the development of a ‘Youth on the Move card’ to further enhance the mobility of young people in the European Union; is strongly committed to youth programmes including Erasmus and Leonardo, which encourage young people to be more mobile by studying working in other EU Member States, thereby becoming more employable and skilled, while contributing to the economic growth of the European Union;
43. Promoting further education must definitely be encouraged while essential vocational and practical careers should not be discouraged by the Commission to avoid gaps in sectors of the European economy where there is constant demand for workers;
44. Insists on the importance of helping young entrepreneurs to set up businesses; eagerly awaits the Commission’s new European Progress Micro-finance Facility to provide financial support to help achieve this objective;
Platform against Poverty flagship
45. Recalls the Commission that Member States are committed to tackling poverty, and ensuring vulnerable groups are cared for; stresses that Member States have their own, specifically-tailored objectives and schemes in place, in order to reduce poverty and look after the most vulnerable in society;
46. Considers that the continuation of territorial cohesion with emphasis on cross-border and interregional cooperation remains a tool for closing regional disparities within the EU; stresses this policy should be simple, transparent and deliver EU added value;
Resource-efficient Europe flagship
47. Welcomes attempts at the Cancun climate conference to tackle climate change; supports the commitment to reducing emissions further, however only if this is echoed by others;
48. Encourages Member States to consider developing their nuclear power capacities, alongside emerging green technologies, as equally beneficial means of meeting the EU’s commitment to reduced carbon emissions;
49. Urges Member States to shorten authorisation procedures in order to speed up the development of renewable energy sources;
50. Recognises the importance of natural resources, through the preservation of biodiversity and habitats; stresses the importance of the 10 year plan agreed at Nagoya to meet the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
51. The EU needs a fully functioning, interconnected and liberalised internal energy market and major investments are needed to modernise and expand our existing energy infrastructure to facilitate the exchange of low-carbon energy sources between Member States; stresses the importance of diversifying energy sources to ensure the EU’s security of supply; highlights however that the market will have to deliver the bulk of the financing costs for this infrastructure but recognises that from a security of supply perspective some projects may require public finance where they are unable to attract enough funds from the private sector;
Industrial policy for a globalised era flagship
52. Stresses the urgency of reducing the costs of legislation for businesses in Europe to allow businesses to grow coupled with easier access to credit and enhanced internationalisation of SMEs;
53. Underlines the importance of reporting on the European Union’s and Member State’s competitiveness, industrial policies and performances on an annual basis in boosting growth; Recognises the crucial role of transport policy as a mean to achieve the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy, as it significantly contributes to renewal of growth, achieving the single market and has an important economic, social and territorial cohesion role;
54. Stresses that creation of a Single Market in all transport sectors, the liberalisation of cabotage transport, efficient co-modality, a common European reservation system and reinforced passenger rights, are crucial measures for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and should become a useful part of the overall EU 2020 strategy;
55. Underlines, within the framework of the new strategy, importance of the work on the TEN-T network and the TEN-T guidelines, in order to develop an efficient, multimodal and comprehensive EU transport infrastructure network (inter alia, addressing the issues of lack of appropriate infrastructure, accessibility and low interoperability between various parts of the EU), to remove the bottlenecks and fill in the missing links, in particular in cross-border sections and links between eastern and western Member States;