Plenary sitting
30.6.2017
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
to wind up the debate on the statement by the Commission
pursuant to Rule 37(3) of the Rules of Procedure and the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission
on the European Parliament’s priorities for the Commission Work Programme 2018
( 2017/2699(RSP) )
Bas Eickhout
on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group
European Parliament resolution on the European Parliament’s priorities for the Commission Work Programme 2018
( 2017/2699(RSP) )
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission[1], in particular Annex IV thereto,
– having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2016 on the strategic priorities for the Commission Work Programme 2017[2],
– having regard to the Commission communication of 25 October 2017 entitled ‘Commission Work Programme 2017 – Delivering a Europe that protects, empowers and defends’[3] and its annexes,
– having regard to Joint Declaration on the EU’s legislative priorities for 2017[4],
– having regard to the Commission’s White Paper on the future of Europe of 1 March 2017 and the reflection papers on the social dimension of Europe, harnessing globalisation, completing the Economic and Monetary Union, EU defence and the future of EU finances,
– having regard to the Rome Declaration of the leaders of 27 member states and of the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission of 25 March 2017,
– having regard to Rule 37(3) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the European integration process has brought peace and contributed to security and prosperity in Europe over decades; whereas the outcomes of this last decade’s democratic consultations must be the opportunity to reflect on our common European project, its actual benefits, current shortcomings and renewed purpose;
B. whereas the consequences of globalisation are increasingly stirring anxieties and euroscepticism amongst European citizens; whereas the EU should deliver reassurance and protection against these consequences;
C. whereas European integration can no longer let itself be reduced to a mere economic project and must urgently win back the hearts of Europeans for the European project, with a serious change of course in EU policies;
D. whereas in spite of its own shortcomings, Parliament has a particular responsibility in the definition of our common European interest and should contribute to overcoming the current divisions in the Council, too often stalled by national haggles and ‘zero-sum game’ mentalities;
E. whereas the general interest of the European citizens should always prevail over the defence of national or corporate interests;
F. whereas we, as Europeans, choose a common future, as a true community based on shared values and objectives; whereas local, regional and national identities are not mutually exclusive and contribute to our broader European identity;
G. whereas the current cumulated crises require genuine European solutions; whereas we want the European Union to play its role and take up its responsibility on the international stage, committed to solidarity, multilateralism and our external partnerships, and to promoting global convergence on higher standards; whereas we want to secure our common project of shared peace, prosperity and democracy, creating an appealing future for all generations;
Our scenario for Europe: A space of freedom, security, democracy, social justice, ecology and human rights
1. Considers that none of the five scenarios formulated in the Commission’s White Paper presents a convincing vision for the future of Europe since they all follow the same pattern of reform that has been dominant in the EU over the past decades;
2. Believes that the strong focus on budgetary discipline and austerity in recent years, the promotion of empty concepts such as ‘better law making’ or ‘being big on big things and small on small things’ has only led to inefficiency and an inability to deliver, and ultimately to the distrust of citizens towards the EU;
3. Underlines, therefore, that the EU must profoundly revise its objectives, working methods and organisation if it is to address the challenges of the 21st century and meet the concerns of its citizens; underlines in this respect that the goals and purpose of the European integration process should be fully and explicitly defined, shared and democratically acknowledged;
4. Believes that the defiance currently shown towards the European idea should be addressed as a first priority; suggests that this could be done, in the first instance, through the democratisation of the European decision-making process and greater inclusion of citizens in our common political project;
5. Believes that the EU should become a space in which wealth is better distributed, where the permanent search for a proper balance between the economic, environmental and social sphere – the three pillars of sustainable development – would guide all public policies, and rights and freedoms would be enlarged rather than restricted;
The Europe we want: main priorities
Improving working and living conditions of European citizens
6. Recalls that the EU’s current economic recovery is modest and unbalanced, with many regions still experiencing unacceptable levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and a severe lack of perspective for younger generations; insists, therefore, that the EU’s core economic and social agenda must include measures aimed at reducing social inequalities and promoting gender equality and quality jobs for all, while stepping up investments in the education system;
7. Recalls that reducing regional disparities and promoting economic, social and territorial cohesion among all regions across the EU is an Treaty objective; stresses that preparations for the post-2020 cohesion policy are a political priority; highlights the important role of the forthcoming Seventh Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion in this regard; calls on the Commission to accelerate its efforts and submit concrete proposals in this respect; considers that all regions, as defined in Articles 174 and 349 TFEU, should benefit from the cohesion policy;
8. Notes that the cohesion policy is the EU’s main investment policy and must take into account the EU’s overall political objectives, including the digital agenda, the energy union, climate policy, a high level of protection of the environment, sound and sustainable economic development, gender equality and the social pillar; emphasises the crucial importance of the participation of, and engagement and dialogue with, regional and local authorities, economic and social partners, and civil society for the quality of programmes and projects and the achievement of objectives; calls, therefore, on the Commission to strengthen the partnership principle in the future, including through approaches such as community-led local development (CLLD);
9. Calls on the Commission to improve workers’ occupational health and safety, including the proper enforcement of the Working Time Directive, and to consider appropriate ways to address its shortcomings, as well as to present without delay the third batch of substances under the revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive and to include limit values on reprotoxic substances based on scientific and technical data as well as an impact assessment;
10. Notes the presentation of the work-life balance package; regrets that maternity leave is not included in the package; calls on the Commission to ensure that legislation and policies on work-life balance, including the policy implemented in the EU institutions, take into account people in vulnerable situation, such as single parents, parents with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities; calls on the Commission to ensure relevant policies and measures take account of the increasing diversity of family relationships, including civil partnerships, and parenting and grandparenting arrangements, as well as the diversity of society as a whole, in particular to guarantee that a child is not discriminated against because of its parents’ marital status or family constitution;
11. Calls on the Commission to tackle the multidimensionality of poverty and inequalities and to propose an integrated anti-poverty strategy in order to achieve the Europe 2020 targets; recommends the Commission to promote adequate minimum incomes schemes in all Member States based on an impact assessment and in line with national law and practice, while providing opportunities to prevent long-term dependency on minimum income; reiterates its call for a green paper on inequalities and how they hamper the economic recovery; calls on the Commission to step up its work on, and monitoring of, the implementation of the Recommendation on Investing in Children; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to provide a child guarantee that places children in the centre of existing poverty alleviation policies and ensures special dedicated resources necessary for its full implementation;
A European strategy for sustainable development
12. Considers that economic models purely based on GDP growth and continuous over-exploitation of natural resources and financialisation have reached their limits; considers that, henceforth, the EU needs to make sustainability the core of any sound, future-oriented and crisis-solving economic policy;
13. Notes the human and economic consequences of climate disasters in Europe and worldwide; highlights the importance of continuing to address the root causes of climate change while ensuring competitiveness of our industry, with an ambitious climate strategy, consistent with the Union commitments under the Paris Agreement to pursue effort to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C; underlines that regulatory standards need to be updated and relevant financial instruments introduced; calls on the Commission to evaluate the consistency and coherence of current EU policies in relation to the commitments under the Paris Agreement;
14. Supports, in this context, the Council’s call on the Commission to provide a holistic EU industrial policy strategy for the future that would address key priorities, such as the transition towards an energy-efficient and renewables-based economy, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, a non-toxic future, digital connectivity for all, realising the potential of Europe’s creative industries, making cities more sustainable and implementing the circular economy agenda;
15. Urges the Commission to stop using EU funds to subsidise fossil fuel and to coordinate efforts of Member States to swiftly phase out national fossil subsidies; asks as well the Commission to ensure that no national or EU subsidies will be used to finance new nuclear reactors and to urge Member States to abandon planned life-time extensions of existing nuclear power plants;
16. Expects the Commission to come forward in 2018 with a carbon budget for the Union that is consistent with the commitments made under the Paris Agreement; expects the Commission to develop and implement relevant policy options for rapidly addressing methane emissions through a Union Methane Strategy; calls on the Commission to identify and support the development of renewable energy projects within the framework of the Energy Union;
17. Recalls that efforts must be stepped up to achieve the Energy Union, guaranteeing energy security, and affordable and sustainable energy, for all citizens and businesses; expects the Commission, in this regard, to further address energy poverty through a concrete action plan to eradicate energy poverty and ensure access to affordable energy for all EU citizens;
18. Considers it crucial that emissions in the transport sector are addressed; urges the Commission to complete its already delayed review of the legislation on CO2 emissions from cars and vans, and from heavy-duty vehicles, and to table adequately ambitious legislative proposals for a fleet average target for 2025 that is in line with the commitments made in the context of the agreement reached in 2013; calls on the Commission to come forward with a proposal for technology-neutral Euro7 limits applicable by 2025 for all M1 and N1 vehicles placed on the Union market, with a view to improving air quality in the Union and to achieving the Union ambient air quality limits, as well as the WHO-recommended levels;
19. Expects the Commission proposals for a Common Agricultural Policy post-2020 to be based on corrective public intervention, inter alia with regard to the volatility of agricultural markets and fair remunerative prices for farmers’ produce, in order to ensure secure sustainable food production and supply; calls for proposals enabling achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals that ensure a living countryside; calls for a substantially increased focus on delivering on biodiversity, environment and climate change objectives, including by: giving priority to a transition to sustainable agricultural practices that allow more carbon sinking in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in living, healthy soils; limiting emissions of greenhouse gases; halting biodiversity loss; pursuing agroecological approaches to ensure long-term fertility and productivity; and replacing chemical pesticides with alternative solutions; reiterates its call on the Commission to put forward legislative proposals to tackle the issue of antimicrobial resistance, and calls on the Council to re-prioritise the Veterinary Medicines and Medicated Feed regulations;
20. Expects the Commission to submit, in the context of the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the proposal for a new and ambitious Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) early enough in 2018 for Parliament to formulate its opinion, and for the programme be operational by 2021; calls for the CEF-energy budget to be allocated to Projects of Common Interest exclusively in the electricity sector (including smart grids) supporting the expansion of renewables and the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle; calls for a majority of budget allocations in the ICT sector to be devoted to the financing of broadband infrastructure;
21. Expects the Commission to clarify its ambition for the next MFF, and to submit its proposal for the 9th Framework Programme for Research (FP9), early enough in 2018 for Parliament to formulate its position, and for FP9 to be operational from 2021 onwards; recalls that the EU needs to fully use all Member States’ existing R&I potential and to provide adequate and equal opportunities for the scientific development of scientists and researchers across the EU; expects, therefore, an increase in FP9 funding;
Fair taxation policies for adequate resources
22. Stresses that the urgency has never been greater to step-up the fight against tax evasion and tax avoidance, which account for income lost to national budgets to the value of hundreds of billions of euro annually; points out that these resources could have been spent to invest in the future, boost employment and reduce inequalities;
23. Considers it vital, in this regard, that Parliament and Council swiftly agree on comprehensive requirements for mandatory, public, country-by-country reporting by multinational enterprises, without exemptions, building on the Commission’s 2016 proposal[5]; requests that the Commission allocate additional resources to measures to prevent financial crimes, in particular the development of an EU roadmap to list countries at high risk of money laundering; requests that the Commission present a legislative proposal for strong and automatic sanctions against non-cooperative jurisdictions blacklisted by the EU;
24. Asks the Commission to present a tax enforcement proposal to foster greater tax cooperation between Member States, including information sharing, with a view to holding tax evaders accountable across European borders; calls on the Commission to consider presenting legislative proposals pursuant to article 116 TEU to address harmful tax practices that distort competition;
Strengthening the EU budget and reforming the Stability and Growth Pact
25. Reiterates that the 2014-20 MFF has proven too small and insufficiently flexible to ensure that the European Union is able to respond to the shared challenges it faces; reiterates its position that the duration of the MFF should be aligned with the political cycle of both Parliament and the Commission, thus making the European elections a forum for debate on future spending priorities;
26. Urges the Commission and the Member States to refrain from formulating arbitrary ceilings regarding the post-2020 MFF, and to base its design instead on a consideration of the EU’s common needs, common choices and the added value of acting at a large scale; underlines that the current low ceiling on payment appropriations has been a continuous drag on the Union’s credibility and capacity to act; highlights the need for greater flexibility of the MFF;
27. Considers that the post-2020 EU budget should make a strong contribution to the implementation of the Paris climate accord, both on the revenue side and the expenditure side; considers, in particular, that a reformed system of taxation of sources of greenhouse gases should provide revenue for the EU budget, while stronger EU support should be provided for transition towards a greener economy; calls on the Commission to increase the share of climate-related spending up to 40 % for the post-2020 MFF;
28. Asks the Commission to follow up on the reflection paper on the future of EU finances with ambitious proposals, building on the report of the High-Level Group on Own Resources, with particular focus on ecological own resources, taxation on financial transactions and corporate taxation;
29. Calls for the establishment of a eurozone fiscal capacity, in addition to the full use of the European Fund for Strategic Investments and the European Structural and Investment Funds; reiterates that the eurozone fiscal capacity should aim to promote upward socio-economic convergence and cushion economic shocks; notes that the eurozone budgetary capacity should comprise new instruments within the EU budget (above EU MFF ceilings), as well as a reformed European Stability Mechanism, incorporated into the EU’s legal framework and subjected to democratic oversight; underlines that the eurozone fiscal capacity should be open to non-euro area countries wishing to join;
30. Calls for the introduction of a ‘golden rule for investment’ allowing the accounting of capital expenditures made by the public sector in sustainable sectors to be spread over the life-cycle of these investments, and for the incorporation of sustainable development indicators in the Stability and Growth Pact to ensure a healthy level, and good quality, of investment in future prosperity;
Europe as a leading global actor
31. Considers that the effectiveness of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) relies on in-depth cooperation between Member States, and on their contributions to both civilian missions and military operations; calls on the Member States to deepen cooperation in order to generate relevant capacities; believes that a more responsible arms exports policy on the part of the Member States would contribute to achieving the Union’s foreign policy objectives, and calls on the Member States to significantly improve consistency in the implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP;
32. Considers that the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) should be rendered more democratic and more efficient, including through the mechanism of permanent structured cooperation, a significant increase of pooling and sharing projects between Member States; believes that the CSDP could be made more effective through joint operational planning and conduct, also with regards to military operations; recalls the crucial role that the Union already today is playing in terms of civilian conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding around the world, and calls on the Union to boost relevant resources; calls for full democratic accountability and transparency of the CSDP;
33. Underlines the Commission’s recent statement that between EUR 25 and 100 billion could be saved annually with regard to national defence spending among the 28 Member States; urges the Commission to assist Member States in making such savings possible via pooling of national defence budgets, in particular as regards research, development, procurement, maintenance and training; believes that such pooled national resources could be transformed into one or several European defence funds;
34. Urges the Commission to focus its attention on, in particular, applicable EU laws in the defence sector, and stresses the urgent need to enforce relevant internal market rules, such as laid down in the Defence Procurement Directive, which could potentially reduce inefficiencies, lack of transparency and corruption;
35. Strongly rejects the multiple attempts of the Commission to reduce and divert financial resources from existing civilian EU budget lines and financial instruments in order to fund the European defence industry via a future European Defence Fund and the European Defence Industrial Programme; believes that such transfers from the civilian sector to the defence industrial sector will weaken the European economy while, at the same time, not solving the structural problems of the European defence industrial sector, which is characterised by high inefficiency, duplication, industrial overcapacities, poor transparency and fragmentation; strongly rejects the proposals made by the Commission in the context of its Communication on the European Defence Action Plan in November 2016, and in the context of its 7 June 2017 Defence Package with regard to the use of European Regional Development Funds (ERFD), European Structural and Investments Funds (EFSI), the programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (COSME), the Connecting Europe facility, the European Satellite Navigation Programmes, the European Earth Observation programme, ERASMUS+ and loans of the European investment Bank (EIB) for strengthening defence industrial capacities; equally rejects the Commission’s proposal of 6 July 2016 to use – in the context of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace – heading 4 funds, in particular ENPI and DCI funds, for military capacity-building programmes and the provision of military equipment to third countries;
36. Asks that the Union’s trade defence instruments be modernised and that trade policies be designed in coherence with the EU’s development goals, climate targets, environmental priorities as well as social and human rights standards; highlights the fact that European citizens are increasingly critical of the actual impact of free-trade agreements, as they can also have undesired consequences for employment, competitiveness and EU standards of human rights and sustainable development; insists that further steps be taken to increase the transparency of EU trade negotiations, with Parliament consulted at each stage of the negotiation and implementation processes, and that negotiation documents be published;
37. Calls on the Commission to present a legislative proposal for the accompanying measures to the Conflict Minerals Regulation;
38. Calls on the Commission to present an action plan to combat land grabbing in developing countries, including through concrete options to ensure land tenure security, in accordance with international human rights law and the standards set out in the FAO guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests;
39. Calls on the Commission to present an EU action plan on deforestation and forest degradation, including concrete regulator measures on supply chains and financial transactions;
Building a real European asylum and migration policy
40. Is of the opinion that the European Union must work out concrete solutions to address the refugee and migrant issue, in particular by addressing its root causes, through holistic policy responses that encompass policy coherence for development, trade, climate and investment policies, while ensuring safe and regular access for those seeking international protection, and realistic and accessible channels for legal migration;
41. Is of the opinion that resettlement should be preserved as one of the durable solutions to refugee displacement and as an unconditional instrument of international solidarity; calls for the creation of increased resettlement opportunities, to enable the resettlement of at least 500 000 refugees per year from the countries of origin and transit, which, if properly distributed, would result in entirely manageable numbers for the EU;
42. Calls for a reform of the current Dublin Regulation, with a new system that is based on a fair allocation of asylum seekers across the Member States, with objective criteria; that is built around the existing ties and preferences of asylum seekers to certain Member States; and that is binding on all Member States and based on incentives rather than on coercive measures;
43. Calls for coordinated action on legal migration with a view to providing additional and more flexible routes for legal migration, including for family reunification and work in low and medium-wage sectors, strengthening mobility partnerships with third countries and developing EU-wide mobility packages with adequate safeguards, inter alia regarding working and living conditions;
44. Calls on the Commission to review compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law by all actors involved in the guarding of the Union’s external borders, and in the reception of asylum seekers, with a view to upholding human rights and improving the protection of vulnerable people; calls for a clarification of the distinction between illegal smuggling activity and the activities of ordinary citizens and civil society organisations helping people in need, and for humanitarian assistance never to be criminalised;
45. Calls on the Commission to put forward a legislative proposal on humanitarian visas;
Addressing the citizens’ security concerns
46. Calls on the Commission to make proposals to improve the exchange of law enforcement information, and increase operational cooperation, between Member States and with EU agencies, with a view to ensuring mandatory exchanges of information for the purpose of combating serious transnational crime;
47. Calls on the Commission to assess the uses of the ‘internal security’ or ‘national security’ exceptions by Member States, notably in Title V TFEU, which excludes EU competence and maintains Member States’ sovereignty, and which further weakens the EU’s efficiency in finding common solutions to a common problem; calls on the Commission to come up with EU definitions of the notions of ‘national security’ and ‘internal security’ in order to ensure legal certainty in the fight against terrorism;
48. Reiterates that putting in place repressive but mostly ineffective mass surveillance and border control measures that threaten civil liberties, fundamental rights and the principle of free movement is not the right answer;
49. Reiterates the importance of the Schengen Area of free movement; underlines the need for the effective management of the Union’s external borders, based on the normative framework of human rights and on full respect for international and European law;
Strengthening fundamental rights and democracy
50. Is concerned that the cumulated crises have not only damaged the cohesion of European societies, but they have also shaken the faith of European citizens in their democratic institutions at EU and, sometimes, national level; believes, therefore, that enhancing the EU’s democratic legitimacy, and restoring the trust in its capacity to serve the interests of citizens, must be the Union’s highest priority;
51. Calls on the Commission to put forward a proposal for a democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights pact in the form of an inter-institutional agreement, along the lines of the recommendation made by Parliament in its legislative own-initiative report[6];
52. Calls on the Commission to take urgent action to bring forward a legislative proposal for an EU-wide legislation on whistle-blower protection, with a broad scope and an appropriate legal basis, in order to ensure horizontal protection for all categories of whistle-blowers;
53. Repeats its call on the Commission to come up with a proposal to revise the Regulation on the European Citizens Initiative along the lines proposed by Parliament in its resolution of 28 October 2015[7];
54. Expects the Commission to modify the Code of Conduct for Commissioners, as promised by President Juncker, concerning the extension of the cooling-off period for former commissioners;
55. Calls on the Commission to put forward an initiative for protecting media freedom and pluralism, tackling disinformation and hate speech, and cultivating a fact-based democratic discourse even in the age of social media;
56. Calls on the Commission to publish its long-awaited 2nd ‘EU anti-corruption’ report, and to join the anti-corruption review mechanisms of the UN Convention against Corruption and of the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO);
57. Calls again on the Commission to adopt the proposal for a regulation on open, efficient and independent European administration;
58. Urges the Commission to take more decisive action towards eliminating the persistent gender pay gap by proposing a directive building on the 2014 Commission recommendation on pay transparency; calls on the Commission and the Council to step up efforts for a political agreement on the proposal for a directive on improving the gender balance among directors of companies listed on stock exchanges[8];
How should Europe work better together?
59. Recalls that from climate change to asylum and migration, from financial markets to multinational corporate firms, from terrorist networks to failed and rogue states, many of today’s challenges are transnational and borderless, and require counterbalances and responses at that level;
60. Calls for programmes that promote contacts and cultural exchanges among European citizens to be reinforced; finds that dialogue between European institutions and citizens needs to be stepped up further; considers that information about EU policies and politics needs to be made better accessible and understandable to citizens across the Union; calls for relevant educational and media initiatives helping citizens to make informed choices in the 2019 European elections;
61. Calls on all EU institutions, given that non-transparent, one-sided lobbying poses a significant threat to policy-making and to the public interest, to strive for the highest possible standards of transparency, accountability and integrity, and relentlessly to fight tendencies to overlook conflicts of interest that are detrimental to the efficiency, fairness and reliability of the decision-making process;
62. Reiterates that the functioning of the EU can be improved significantly on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty, notably through the full use of the ordinary legislative procedure and qualified majority voting in the Council; advocates, in this regard, the general use of the ‘passerelle clause’ enshrined in Article 48(7) TEU; recalls that the mechanism of enhanced cooperation can also be used, notably for deepening the EMU, for doing more in the field of the CFSP and for achieving stronger cooperation in the area of Justice and Home Affairs;
63. Stresses that the Community method is best suited for the functioning of the Union, as it is the only method that allows for transparency, efficiency and qualified majority voting in the Council, and the equal right of co-legislation by Parliament and the Council, as well as for preventing a fragmentation of institutional responsibilities and the development of competing institutions;
64. Considers that the tendency of the European Council in the recent years to resort to intergovernmental expedients jeopardises the ‘Community method’ and that it is in breach of the Treaties; recalls that, under the Treaty of Lisbon, while members of the European Council are accountable individually to their own national parliaments but accountable collectively only to themselves, national Parliaments must be aware of their specific political responsibility to exert full democratic control over their representatives in the European Council;
65. Underlines that, in the end, creating the necessary conditions for a democratic and effective functioning of the EU requires a genuine Treaty revision;
66. Is committed to using all its tools and resources to act as a driving force in a renewed democratic process towards the reform of the European Union;
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67. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.