The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Commission Communication on the Commission Work Programme for 2012 (COM(2011)777),

–   having regard to the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission(1), in particular Annex IV thereto,

–   having regard to the outcome of the regular dialogue between all the Commissioners and the parliamentary committees and the summary report of the Conference of Committee Chairs of 13 June 2012 forwarded to the Conference of Presidents,

–   having regard to its resolution of 8 June 2011 on Investing in the future: a new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for a competitive, sustainable and inclusive Europe,

–   having regard to the European Parliament resolution on the Multiannual Financial Framework and own resources (2012/2678(RSP)),

–   having regard to the European Parliament legislative resolution of 23 May 2012 on the proposal for a Council directive on a common system of financial transaction tax and amending Directive 2008/7/EC (COM(2011)0594 – C7-0355/2011 – 2011/0261(CNS)),

–   having regard to European Parliament resolution of 14 June 2012 on ‘Single Market Act: The Next Steps to Growth’ (2012/2663(RSP)),

–   having regard to the conclusions of both March and June European Council meetings,

–   having regard to the Europe 2020 strategy,

–   having regard to the Joint Communication by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on ‘A New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood. A review of European Neighbourhood Policy’ of 25 May 2011,

–   having regard to Rule 70 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to Rule 35(3) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the global financial crisis of 2008 has spread throughout the real economies, resulting in global stagnation and recession, with a huge negative impact on employment;

B.  whereas the need for bailout schemes through public funds for the rescue of too big to fail financial institutions has significantly deteriorated public finances and led to further economic weakness at a global and European level;

C. whereas Europe must be committed to the model of the social market economy ensuring sustainable growth in order to ensure jobs and a better quality of life for the current generation and the next;

D. whereas cohesion and solidarity are at the core of the EU objectives, as reaffirmed by Article 174 of TFEU, and aim at tackling the effects of the economic crisis in Member States, including those with economic difficulties caused by financial markets;

E.  whereas exit from the EU crisis is only possible on the basis of fairness and justice;

I.   Economic and Euro area governance: a stringent need for restoring growth for jobs and fostering EU financing

1.  Is convinced that, while the European Union faces enormous challenges in addressing the financial, economic and social crisis, there is an urgent need for an ambitious European Commission 2013 work programme and for a re-launch of the European political project to boost sustainable growth, job creation and quality of life in Europe and restore citizens’ confidence in European integration; therefore urges the Commission to show strong leadership in delivering the proper political solutions to the crisis by safeguarding and promoting the European institutional balance and by ensuring that the common European interest prevails over national competing interests;

2.  Strongly believes that among the EU’s greatest challenges are those of maintaining competitiveness, increasing growth, combating high unemployment, ensuring properly functioning labour markets and good social conditions to improve employment performance, promote decent work, guarantee workers’ rights and working conditions throughout Europe as and reducing poverty; urges the Commission to present a European action plan to boost sustainable growth and decent employment;

3.  Considers that recent events show that the Euro zone is needs bolder economic governance and that a monetary pillar without a financial, fiscal, social and, economic pillar is doomed to fail; calls for a strengthening of economic policy coordination in the Eurogroup, including a legislative proposal on the external representation of the euro zone; asks the Commission and the Parliament to act jointly to this end;

4.  Calls for a strengthening of the European Semester for economic and fiscal policy coordination and implementation, aimed at contributing to economic growth, fiscal discipline and structural challenges as an integral part of the EU 2020 Strategy, making sure that the European Parliament is adequately involved;

5.  Encourages the Commission to set out immediately a roadmap for the introduction of stability bonds in the euro area; points out to the Commission that one of the elements of the roadmap start-up phase is the European Redemption Fund (ERF); to be progressively implemented in 5 years in order to jointly reduce the sovereign debt stock in excess of 60 % of GDP of Member States over 25-year-period; while managing in a coordinated way the issuance of the debt in the short term;

6.  Warns against continued disproportionate, across-the-board and badly targeted austerity measures undermining investment capacities of key economic players; strongly believes that European ‘project bonds’ can help unlock further financial resources to fund targeted European growth and innovation policies, to trigger the flow of private capital into real investment, and to safeguard the stability of the euro area and the sustainable coordination of the Member States’ budgetary discipline; expects the EC and the EIB to do their utmost to ensure a swift and successful implementation of a pilot phase in 2012-2013; recalls that the EU budget contribution remains capped and strictly limited and does not create any extra contingent liability on the EU budget; calls on the Commission to establish a sustainable growth and anticyclical facility of 1 % of GDP/year for 10 years;

7.  Calls on the Commission to make concrete proposals to further develop these instruments based on cooperation between the EU budget and the EIB or other long term public investors with the aim of improving the financing of investments to implement the EU 2020 strategy; recalls that the focus should be not only on the financing of large infrastructure projects (in the field of transport, energy and ICT) but equally on small and medium sized projects which can generate growth in all EU member states, with a particular emphasis on ‘problematic countries’; strongly underlines the need for recapitalisation of the EIB and a robust EU budget 2014-2020 to achieve that aim;

8.  Recalls that the EU budget needs to reflect the EU’s policy priorities; stresses that the EU budget is an investment budget with a strong leverage effect, given that 94 % of its appropriations are dedicated to stimulating economic growth and jobs and the Union’s role as a global actor; urges the Commission to defend the EU budget as a powerful tool to boost strategic investment through European added value, to put the European economy back on track, and to achieve commonly agreed EU political objectives;

9.  Calls on the Commission to defend its proposals of 29 June 2011 regarding the next Multilateral Financial Framework, and to play a role of honest broker in the inter-institutional negotiations with a view to obtaining Parliament’s consent on the MFF regulation; urges the Commission to ensure that the negotiations on the legislative proposals relating to the multiannual programmes will be pursued under the ordinary legislative procedure and will be finalised once an agreement on their financial envelopes is reached;

10. Further insists that the EP is not prepared to give its consent to the next MFF regulation without political agreement on reform of the own-resources system, including a Financial Transaction Tax and a revised VAT, which would reduce the share of Member States’ GNI based contribution to the EU budget to 40 % by 2020, and assist fiscal consolidation in the Member States;

II. Building a cohesive, sustainable and competitive Union

11. Recalls the need to take the territorial dimension of EU policies more coherently and fully into account; suggests that the European Commission include these elements in its future impact assessment activities; insists on an early start of all necessary mechanisms for timely planning and implementation of the new programming period for cohesion policy post-2013;

12. Urges the Commission to present a new proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation on the European Union Solidarity Fund;

13. Calls on the Commission to mainstream the four objectives of the International Labour Organisation’s decent work agenda in all its proposals and to integrate the objectives of the ILO Recommendation on a Social Protection Floor into the Annual Growth Survey, in order to ensure that all workers in Europe enjoy a minimum level of social protection throughout their lives;

14. Recalls the proposals to deal with industrial change and technological transition in an intelligent way;

15. Welcomes the Commission’s proposals stressing the benefit of setting minimum wages at Member State level to fight in-work poverty and social dumping and boost aggregate demand; asks the Commission to present an EU homelessness strategy, addressing amongst others the rising problem of female poverty and minimum pension schemes;

16. Asks the Commission to tackle segmentation of the labour market by presenting a holistic package including subcontracting, bogus self-employment, abuses of temporary agency workers, abuses of internships, leading to granting all workers equal rights, decent salaries and working conditions, career progression and full legal and collective bargaining protection; Stresses the need for a new Commission proposal on the Working Time Directive, if negotiations fail among social partners;

17. Stresses that, given the demographic challenge faced by most Member States, the Commission should put forward proposals aimed at mainstreaming the results of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, as well as at long‑term care and at the right to decent retirement; welcomes the Commission’s plans to present proposals on European Youth Guarantee and Quality Framework for Traineeships and highlights their importance;

18. Regrets the slow progress towards a new legislative proposal by the Commission on improving the gender balance on company boards; regrets the Commission’s lack of initiative on reviewing the Directive on gender equality in terms of pay and work;

19. Regrets the lack of follow up by the Commission on the launching of a paternity leave initiative; insists on the need to for a legislative proposal on the eradication of violence against women as requested by Parliament in several resolutions;

20. Considers of utmost importance the presentation of the Health and Safety Strategy 2013‑2020 in December 2012;

21. Urges the Commission to bring forward a proposal to establish an Energy Observatory with the objectives of improving intelligence on energy import markets and enhancing analysis of export markets; asks it to examine the viability and effectiveness of measures at the EU’s disposal to establish and implement a new European Energy Community(2);

22. Requests the Commission to draw up a strategy on energy poverty, accompanied by the appropriate proposals, including an EU-wide definition of energy poverty;

23. Notes the recent Communication from the Commission on Renewable Energy(3) but regrets its non-committal nature; requests the Commission to come forward with real proposals, including a new binding renewable energy target for 2030 in early 2013, in order to guarantee investor certainty in related technologies;

24. Regrets the reticence of the Council to agree to a sufficiently ambitious energy efficiency directive in order to meet the 20 % energy savings target for 2020 compared to projections; urges the Commission to propose the necessary measures to make up such a shortfall;

25. Calls on the Commission to put forward the revision of the Nuclear Safety Directive as soon as possible, based on a proper analysis of the stress tests;

26. Calls for legislation on resource efficiency and climate action; recalls the need to ensure that environment and climate change objectives are included in all EU policies and are reflected in the appropriate budget headings; in particular, adaptation to climate change has to be pursued to keep the soil, as a scarce resource, at its highest potential of food and seed production;

27. Expresses its concern over the continued delay in submitting the proposal for a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive and urges the Commission to deliver it by the end of 2012; regrets that the expected revision of the Noise Management Directive has not been submitted despite being already included in the 2011 Commission Work Programme;

28. Urges the Commission to come forward with the revision of the Ecodesign Directive and to present any necessary legislative proposals;

29. Expects the Commission to submit revised legislative proposals for Air Quality and the National Emission Ceilings Directive;

30. Urges the Commission to submit a legislative proposal prohibiting the placing on the market of foods derived from cloned animals and their descendants, as repeatedly requested by the Parliament;

31. Calls on the Commission to prepare a legislative framework for action against antimicrobial resistance responding to increasing numbers of cases of concern; reiterates the obligation of the Commission related to chemicals to review its strategy, the criteria and definitions applicable to ‘endocrine disrupters’;

32. Reiterates its request to maintain planting rights in the wine sector beyond 2015 and calls the Commission to take account of this in its review of the planting rights regime to be submitted in 2013;

33. Calls for a legislative proposal regarding promotion of agricultural products aiming at boosting product image at EU and third country level, in particular as regards quality, nutritional value, safety of foodstuffs and methods of production;

34. Calls on the Commission to resolve the current deadlock among Member States over long‑term management plans and continue its work on long‑term fish conservation and recovery; stresses the need to ensure that Article 43(2) TFEU is the legal basis for all its proposals linked to the Common Fisheries Policy’s objectives; asks the Commission to keep the Parliament informed at all stages of the procedures related to Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs);

35. Considers that an integrated and interoperable European Railway Market, following the adoption of the recast of the first railway package, must include the extension of the European Rail Agency’s competences in the field of safety, certification and homologation of rolling stocks;

36. Insists on the full implementation of the Single European Sky, including the establishment of the Functional Airspace Blocks and SESAR to meet future airspace capacity and safety needs;

37. Calls on the promotion of electronic and smart ticketing across all modes of transport to facilitate multimodal and interoperability of transport system;

38. Welcomes the Horizon 2020 Package focus on excellence for the future Research and Innovation framework of the EU; insists that Horizon 2020 and the structural funds must develop better synergies to allow all Member State to access the stairway to excellence; believes that H2020 must provide strong incentives to promote human capital in R&D;

39. Expects the Commission to come up with new proposals or further examine the revision of existing legislation in the field of civil, commercial and procedural law ( in particular Rome II, Brussels I and II bis);

40. Welcomes the Commission’s three legislative proposals to establish a new generation of multi-annual programmes such as Erasmus for all – education, training, youth and sport programme, Creative Europe Programme and Europe for Citizens Programme, calls on the Commission to present a new legislative proposal on the European Capitals of Culture and to ensure the continuance of the Programme beyond 2019;

III. Delivering a Single Market to Enterprises, Consumers and Citizens

41. Highlights the need for a holistic approach to the single market, as a main driver for sustainable growth; recalls the importance of an effective redress mechanism to ensure that consumers can exercise their rights and calls for a legislative proposal to create an affordable, expedient and accessible Europe-wide system of collective redress;

42. Underlines that a well functioning Digital Single Market can unlock Europe’s growth and employment potential especially for young people; calls for renewed efforts to bridge the broadband gap and accelerate very high speed networks roll-out, in line with the objectives of the Digital Agenda; calls for ‘light’ procedures in the digital market that allow for quick adapting to technological developments and innovation; regrets the Commission’s reluctance to seriously guarantee best-effort Internet access;

43. Insists on the need for a safe and effective system to enhance trust between consumers and businesses in order to consolidate and promote e-commerce, while safeguarding user privacy; calls for a particular focus on SMEs and micro‑enterprises, ensuring that the barriers for developing cross-border commercial activities, such as consumer protection and Intellectual Propriety Right regimes, are properly tackled; welcomes the Commission’s initiatives on alternative dispute mechanisms that will ensure safe trading relations, especially online;

44. Urges the Commission to pursue its copyright reform. EU copyright laws should be fit for the internet environment and based on social legitimacy; to this purpose, the Commission should uphold its calendar for the review of the 2001 Directive on Copyright in the Information Society and the 2004 Directive on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; reiterates the need to complete industrial property rights reform to boost Europe’s growth and job creation;

45. Urges the Commission to deliver the expected strategy on the future of company law based on a stronger industrial policy and stronger workers’ participation rights; expects the Commission to deliver on the proposed revision of the Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications, as demanded last year;

46. Urges the Commission to bring forward a legislative proposal setting a universal right of access to a basic payment bank account for all EU citizens and legal residents, in order to foster social and financial inclusion and ease integration and mobility in the Single Market;

47. Calls on the Commission to propose legislative measures to protect consumers’ economic interests and allow redress in retail financial services, in order to safeguard small investors and private savings;

48. Calls on the Commission to adopt a user-friendly, regularly updated and easily accessible ‘Citizens’ Charter’, encompassing the various aspects of the right to live and work anywhere in the EU, to serve as a handbook for all EU citizens moving, working, shopping and selling across borders;

49. Asks the Commission to bring forward measures to develop a common horizontal, coordinated approach in order to protect vulnerable consumers, and especially minors;

50. Welcomes the Commission’s efforts to advance the EU’s accession to the European Charter for Human Rights and encourages its efforts to reach an agreement;

51. Calls on the Commission to bring forward legislation to prevent online gambling addiction and combat illegal operators;

52. Urges the Commission to bring forward a legislative initiative for a common market surveillance strategy to reinforce product safety;

IV. Pursuing the Citizens’ Agenda: Freedom, Security and Justice

53. Reiterates the need to put in place a new Schengen evaluation system based on Article 77(2)(e) TFEU, aimed at avoiding double standards between old and new Member States while dealing with accession to the Schengen acquis and reaffirms the need to define procedures, principles and tools for supporting and assessing Member states’ compliance with the Schengen acquis, notably in response to unforeseen events; considers that such mechanisms can only be adopted in ordinary legislative procedure;

54. Calls for substantive proposals on migration; recalls that the necessity and effectiveness of the proposed Entry/Exit System still has not been demonstrated; recalls that the effective and integrated management of EU external and internal borders is strictly connected and an essential tool for migration and asylum policy, including mobility;

55. Regrets the absence of a legislative proposal on enhanced intra-EU solidarity in the field of asylum, as repeatedly demanded by the Parliament, bearing in mind that the Union is committed to having a functioning common asylum policy in place by 2012, guaranteeing a high level of protection and full respect of fundamental rights;

56. Supports the proposal to amend Regulation 168/2007 on the European Agency for Fundamental Rights to adapt it to the post-Lisbon situation and to include the former 3rd pillar in the mandate; calls on the Commission to make a detailed proposal for a monitoring mechanism and early warning system, building on the provisions of Article 7 TEU and Article 258 TFEU;

57. Calls for an urgent proposal on the Europol Regulation in order to bring the structures of the former third pillar instruments in line with Lisbon Treaty obligations, including those under the scrutiny of the Fundamental Rights Agency;

58. Calls on the Commission to complete the roadmap on procedural rights and to monitor the transposition of the adopted Directives to ensure that the basic rights of suspects and accused persons are protected sufficiently through common minimum standards of procedural rights in criminal proceedings to secure and render effective the principle of mutual recognition;

59. Expects the Commission to continue its work by developing criminal substantive law where the Treaty does allow it on the basis of the lines outlined by the EP in its resolution of an EU approach to criminal law and to strengthen and adapt EUROJUST to the new Treaty powers with the aim to create a European prosecutor;

60. Calls on the Commission to prepare an EU Roadmap for equality on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, with a view to adoption by 2014, using the results of the survey launched by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights; calls for a recast of the Council Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, including other forms of bias crime, such as on grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression;

61. Invites the Commission to bring forward a proposal for the full mutual recognition of the effects of all civil status documents across the EU, including marriages and registered partnerships, in order to reduce discriminatory legal and administrative barriers for citizens who exercise their right to free movement;

62. Calls for a comprehensive revision of the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC, as the current Directive does not meet the requirements for privacy and data protection; urges the Commission to bring forward rapidly a revised proposal which would pass the necessity and proportionality test, achieve genuine harmonisation of data retention obligation and require a clear and precise purpose for its use, taking on board the observations, specifically of, the EDPS;

63. Calls on the Commission to further develop and support judicial training to facilitate access to justice for citizens and nurture a genuine European judicial culture based on dialogue and coordination among legal practitioners via existing training schools and networks;

64. Welcomes the proposals for a Justice Programme 2014–2020 and looks forward to seeing greater action from the Commission on cross-border access to justice;

65. Warmly welcomes the Commission’s intention to adopt two legislative proposals concerning European political parties, one concerning the statute and one amending the financial regulation;

V. Europe in the World: Pulling our Weight on the Global Stage

66. Requests that EU guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility be proposed as a follow up to the European Commission Communication on Corporate Social Responsibility (COM(2011)0681 final) communication;

67. Calls for a consistent implementation in the Union’s relations with southern neighbours of the principles set in the Communication by the VPC/HR and the Commission on ‘A New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood’ of 25 May 2011, in particular in the fields of supporting deep democracies and building a partnership with societies;

68. Recalls that the preparations for the implementation of the future generation of external financial assistance instruments had already been defined by the Parliament as a main priority for the Commission in the area of external action in 2013; stresses that this should include the development of clear, transparent and measurable indicators according to the specificities of each instrument that assess the impact of the instruments reflected in concrete changes in beneficiary countries;

69. Calls on the Commission to arrange for a possible legislative proposal that follows up on this report taking into account a thorough and independent assessment of the needs of the European External Action Service to function effectively as the Union’s principle implementing and coordinating body in the field of external relations and its working relationship with other institutions;

70. Recalls that the EU Human Rights Guidelines have an essential role to play in the mainstreaming of human rights in EU external relations; requests that further action be taken in order to improve their implementation in situations on the ground including through the promotion of awareness of human rights issues, and through providing training to diplomats and personnel in EU delegations as well as to human rights defenders and representatives of NGOs and civil society;

71. Calls for further development of civilian‑military capabilities and synergies to ensure the Union is in a position to do its part in maintaining international peace and regional security and respond effectively to crises, in line with the UN charter principles and the provisions of international law;

72. Expects the Commission to continue its work on the on-going accession negotiations with Western Balkan countries, Iceland and Turkey following the successful conclusion of the negotiations with Croatia, stressing that these countries need to take all steps to fully and rigorously comply with all the Copenhagen criteria; stresses that particular attention should be given to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the efforts to find a solution to the name dispute of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; welcomes the decision by the European Council to grant candidate status to Serbia;

73. Calls on the Commission to deliver on key legislative priorities, such as the reform of trade defence instruments and a revision of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement and the E-Commerce Directives;

74. Recalls that the Parliament should be fully associated in the negotiation of trade and investment agreements, including in the definition of negotiating mandates before they are adopted by the Council; strongly insists that the Union should do its utmost to engage with other key developed and developing partners in order to find a solution for the current stalemate of the Doha Round and to start reflections on reforming the WTO aiming at enhancing the legitimacy and efficiency of the multilateral trade system;

75. Calls on the Commission to include in all trade agreements legally binding provisions concerning human rights, social and environmental standards and corporate social responsibility, with clear rules concerning responsible behaviour by European companies; Insists on the importance of concluding Free Trade Agreements negotiations with Canada, Singapore, India and Mercosur; considers that the European Union should reinforce its trade relations with the other major economic and political players in the world;

76. Welcomes the progress made in the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements negotiations with our Eastern Partners and welcomes the initiatives being taken to expand and deepen our trade and economic and political relations with the southern and eastern neighbours of the Mediterranean; in this regard, calls for a close follow-up of the democratic transition process of EU’s neighbours; encourages the Commission to keep the regional dialogues and cooperation with the middle-income countries, considering the internal economic and social imbalances in most of them;

77. Calls on the Commission to report to Parliament on the progress of the legislative proposal on an effective traceability mechanism for the goods being produced through forced child labour; calls on the Commission to further develop existing fair trade schemes as a positive signal for the support of Fair Trade;

78. Invites the Commission to open the consultation process in view of drafting a possible future legislation on the phenomenon of land grabbing, particularly in the context of food security in developing countries; urges the Commission to set up a clearer and more focused strategy on nutrition tackling food security governance;

79. Urges the Commission to ensure greater EU aid effectiveness in the light of a possible post-2015 MDGs development framework;

80. Calls on the Commission to further expand the objectives of the Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD) to transitional situations;

VI. Smart Regulation. Effective Legislative and Budgetary Implementation

81. Calls for a legislative proposal to harmonise the principles underlying administrative procedures for EU institutions, bodies and agencies, so that, when dealing with any form of EU Administration, individuals can have recourse to one set of principles;

82. Underlines the crucial importance of an adequate and timely implementation of EU law in Member states’ national legislation and urges the Commission to use its executive power; considers that the use of any tool such as correlation tables meant to provide data on enforcement should be made mandatory in every piece of legislation and expects the Commission to apply this principle in its forthcoming work programme;

83. Urges the Commission to defend as a bare minimum the level of payments of its draft budget 2013; warns of the detrimental consequences for growth, competitiveness, research and cohesion in the event of a shortfall in payment appropriations; strongly encourages the Commission to tackle all upcoming payment appropriation problems in due time through proposals for an amending budget;

84. Welcomes the Commission’s constructive approach to the negotiations on shared management provisions under the revised Financial Regulation, encourages the Commission to take further steps towards an increased level of Member States’ responsibility for effectiveness and efficiency of their control systems, including, the recovery of unduly paid amounts and financial corrections;

85. Calls on the Commission to submit proposals on improving national management of the EU budget, including introduction of mandatory national management declarations and the establishment of a common model for national management declarations;

86. Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to set out the framework and conditions for establishing a European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to focus on the protection of the Union’s financial interests; calls on the Commission to work closely with the European Parliament and the Council to make sure that EPPO will be successfully established by end of 2013 at the latest;

87. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.

(1) OJ L 304, 20.11.2010, p. 47. (2) http://www.notre-europe.eu/en/axes/competition-cooperation-solidarity/works/publication/towards-a-european-energy-community-a-policy-proposal/ (3) Communication: Renewable Energy: a major player in the European energy market COM(2012)0271.