Motion for a resolution - B6-0630/2006Motion for a resolution
B6-0630/2006

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION

6.12.2006

to wind up the debate on the statement by the Commission
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure
by Pierre Jonckheer, Monica Frassoni and Daniel Cohn-Bendit
on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group
on the Commission Legislative and Work Programme 2007
B6‑0630/2006

Procedure : 2006/2613(RSP)
Document stages in plenary
Document selected :  
B6-0630/2006
Texts tabled :
B6-0630/2006
Texts adopted :

European Parliament resolution on the Commission Legislative and Work Programme 2007

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission Legislative and Work Programme 2007 (COM(2006) 629), adopted on 24 October 2006, and presented by the Commission and debated at Parliament's November 2006 part-session,

–  having regard to the Commission’s Annual Policy Strategy and the contributions of the EP committees forwarded by the Conference of Presidents to the Commission, as provided for in the framework agreement between Parliament and the Commission,

–  having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the Barosso Commission has now been in office for two years,

B.  whereas next year the Union will celebrate the fact that the Treaty of Rome was signed 50 years ago,

C.  whereas, 50 years after the signing of Treaty of Rome, the Union is unable to solve a large number of outstanding serious problems hampering further progress in making Europe a better place in which to live and work, to take adequate action in order to meet the increased expectations of its citizens and to improve its role as a leading player on the world stage,

1.  Takes note of the new structure of the Commission's Work Programme and the division into 21 strategic and 60 priority initiatives; is surprised at the fact that no mid-term review is foreseen; urges the Commission to present to Parliament an update on the progress made on all initiatives in the LWP by July next year;

2.  Takes the view that the working programme, as far as the priority initiatives are concerned, should cover the year 2007 and not a period of 12 to 18 months as foreseen by the Commission; calls, therefore, for a clear indication from the Commission of which priorities will be finalised by the end of 2007 and which will not;

3.  Regrets the fact that the Commission did not respond more positively to Parliament's request, as formulated in the Summary Report, on the implementation of EU legislation in Member States and the concerns it expressed on the transposition and enforcement of EU legislation; notes that its call for a stronger mechanism to monitor and enforce European legislation found no clear and satisfactory response in the Work Programme;

4.  Asks the Commission to inform Parliament why it did not include the following legislative initiatives, requested by its committees, in the 2007 Work Programme: mutual recognition in the field of trade in goods, proposals to improve the CE mark, revision of the European Company Statute, the development of microloans, reconciling work and family life, the protection of atypical workers, a new proposal on a European mutual society, thresholds for seeds containing GMOs, a proposal on the Transparency Initiative and the review of Regulation 1049/2001 on access to documents of the EU institutions, which it had promised to publish in July 2006;

5.  Is of the opinion that positive achievements can be acknowledged as regards the integration of impact assessments in the legislative process; notes that the Work Programme reflects a satisfactory degree of agreement on the need to ensure a high quality of legislative proposals through the commitment to carry out impact assessments on all legislative strategic and priority initiatives; considers, however, that this should not lead to excessive delays in putting forward Commissions proposals and insists that 'better regulation' should not lead to deregulation or forms of minimal regulation;

6.  Regrets that the list of proposals to be withdrawn was not published at an earlier stage, which would have allowed Parliament and its committees to engage in a discussion on the matter; calls on the Commission to include / annex this list in future in its Annual Policy Strategy;

7.  Welcomes the will of the Commission to contribute to reaching a comprehensive constitutional settlement; is convinced, however, that more than a formal declaration in Berlin is needed in order to attain that goal and urges the Commission, therefore, to fully assume its role as motor of the European integration process in order to break the current deadlock and come to a solution which safeguards the main achievements of the European Constitution before the European elections in 2009;

8.  Asks the Commission to amend Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, in order to extend the scope thereof to the areas covered by Directive 2000/43/EC, implementing the principle of equal treatment irrespective of racial or ethnic origin;

9.  Calls on the Commission to launch – already in 2007 – a Green Paper to prepare for the comprehensive budget review in 2008-2009, offering the widest possible public consultation mechanism to those interested; is of the opinion that the review itself should lead to concrete legislative and financial proposals for changes;

10.  Is of the opinion that the Commission should encourage Member States to make information on beneficiaries of EU funding available before the agreed publishing dates (2008 for structural funds and 2009 for agriculture); expects the Commission to provide for an adequate and comprehensible overview on its website of the data provided by Member States, to continue its work on the Action Plan for an Integrated Internal Control Framework and to put forward its promised legislative proposals on the Transparency Initiative;

11.  Welcomes the Commission’s initiative to closely monitor the progress made by Bulgaria and Romania in the area of judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime until the benchmarks have been met; is of the opinion that the protection of minorities should also be included in this new cooperation and verification mechanism; reiterates its desire to be fully associated in the establishment process of this monitoring mechanism;

12.  Regrets that, in the Commission's plan of 'modernising the European economy', the compliance of internal market rules with consumer protection and social and environmental standards is to a large extent ignored, despite them being an integral part of the Göteborg strategy;

13.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that, in its review of the Single Market, the main focus is an in-depth assessment of current liberalisation processes and to consider whether there is a need for re-regulation in order to 'reconnect' the citizen to the Single Market;

14.  Considers that the Nordic Model, which manages to place on an equal footing the three pillars of the Lisbon Strategy, should represent a source of inspiration for the euro-area Member States; welcomes in this context the Commission's objective of exploring possible pathways to enhance flexicurity and help Member States to adopt a set of common principles by the end of the year, as this shows that high productivity, income equality and high social protection can be combined positively;

15.  Regrets, however, that the Commission’s strategy to implement the Lisbon Strategy focuses mainly on growth and jobs, without paying equal attention to its environmental dimension; recalls in this context that the Nordic Model also proves that the competitiveness of the economy can be boosted through the setting-up of high environmental standards;

16.  Welcomes the Commission’s willingness to explore the possibility of new proposals in the field of reduced VAT rates; recalls that creating a healthy macro-economic environment must include a tax reform which shifts the tax burden from labour to environmental degradation, which could also help to make regular employment more attractive; stresses that an initiative should be taken to introduce a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base in Europe, which can contribute to the achievement of the Lisbon-Göteborg Strategy and especially address the challenges presented by climate change;

17   Encourages the Commission, while assessing the readiness of Member States to adapt to the euro, to take into account the so-called Balassa-Samuelson-effect for the fulfilment of the inflation criteria, so as not to obstruct growth and the catching-up process in these countries; points out that, in order to improve the real convergence of economies and to limit the risks of asymmetric shock in the EMU, effective coordination of economic and monetary policies should be increased; stresses, in this respect, that the next Commission annual report on the euro area provides a concrete set of tools on ways to improve economic governance of the Union;

18   Regrets that all the initiatives of the Commission Work Program 2007 concerning social and employment policy are either purely stock-taking exercises or non-legislative communications; asks the Commission and the Council to move forward, pending legislation such as the Temporary Work Directive; asks the Commission to accompany its calls for a European Social Model with concrete actions in the area of social exclusion, poverty, protection of atypical workers and better social protection in new forms of employment;

19.  Deplores the lack of follow-up to the Commission communication on active inclusion of the people furthest from the labour market, which could be a starting point for a European approach to a basic income for all citizens;

20   Welcomes, however, the Action Plan on Sustainable Production and Consumption as it integrates both the social and economic dimension and is part of the drive towards more eco-efficiency;

21   Deplores the fact that in the field of consumer protection the Commission is lacking ambition; asks for a consolidation and review of the consumer aquis new initiatives in order to ensure that consumers are better informed about their rights and vulnerable consumers are better protected;

22.  Regrets that in 'making Europe a better place to live', there is a lack of coherence between social services and a proper health strategy although these two policies should be interconnected; calls on the Commission to see to it that public authorities are protected in such a way that they can properly organise and finance health and social services to the benefit of citizens and are exempted from internal market and competition rules;

23.  Welcomes the European Strategy for social services of general interest and stresses the need for a strong signal from the Commission concerning the important role and the safeguarding of social and health services in the European Union; recognises the role of social services as integral parts of the Member States’ task and public responsibility;

24.  Criticises the setting-up of an informal inter-service group for the first communication on social services, which is another informal structure that does not contribute to the transparent operation of the European institutions;

25.  Calls on the Commission to identify a clear legal basis for combating all forms of violence against women, and to take a decision on the full Communitisation of a European policy to combat all forms of violence against women including trafficking in human beings and the related topics of immigration and asylum, and specifically on a right to asylum on grounds of gender-based repression and persecution; asks the Commission to provide for a full evaluation of the implementation of EU legislation on the fight against all forms of discrimination;

26.  Considers that the current tendency to revive nuclear energy, based on the assumption that there is a shortage of fossil energy resources, is a short-sighted policy which runs counter to national, regional and international security interests as nuclear technology can also be used for military purposes; is of the opinion, because of this proliferation aspect of nuclear energy production, that the Commission should invest its resources in 'harmless' alternative energy sources;

27.  Is of the opinion that, taking account of the fact that Europeans are overwhelmingly (68%) convinced that human activity is contributing to global warming, that a majority would be prepared to accept restrictions on their lifestyle to combat this process and that 85% of European citizens believe that their governments should spend more on renewable energy, the European Union should take advantage of the current momentum in order to secure stronger backing from European citizens for the European Union climate policy;

28.  Welcomes the Commission’s intention to step up efforts to address global climate change and reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions; expects the Commission to be ambitious in its proposals in keeping with the EU objective of maintaining global temperature increases below +2°C compared to pre-industrialised levels; in particular, welcomes the overdue proposal for binding legislation on passenger-vehicle CO2 emissions and insists that the legislation must ensure that the sector contributes to the necessary EU emission reductions in a significant way; furthermore, expects the proposal to review the EU emissions trading scheme in order to aim first and foremost at improving the environmental effectiveness of the scheme;

29.  Welcomes the Commission’s plans to pursue work on improving ambient air quality in Europe and in particular to review the National Emission Ceilings Directive in order to incorporate limit values for PM2.5; in the context of revising the EU legislative framework on industrial emissions, recalls paragraph 6 of its resolution of 16 May 2006 on the strategy for simplification of the regulatory environment, and accordingly calls on the Commission to ensure that in such proposals the level of environment and health protection is maintained or strengthened;

30   Calls on the Commission to ensure that the review of the Emissions Trading Scheme is based on a more harmonised allocation, increasing auctioning, a stricter cap in line with 30% ghg reduction by 2020 compared to 1990 by the EU, and to introduce legislation on binding limits for CO2 emissions from passenger cars aiming at an upper limit of 120g/km average for new cars by 2012;

31.  Urges the Commission to integrate the transport sector into environment policy and sustainable development, proposing concrete targets of CO2 reduction for the total car fleet and integrating air transport into the binding obligations of the Kyoto Protocol;

32.  Supports the Commission’s intention of publishing a Green Paper on urban mobility and hopes that it will focus on promoting chains of environmentally friendly alternatives for short-distance mobility, such as walking/cycling, collective/public transport and car-sharing/car-pooling and setting up SUTP’s in European cities;

33.  Welcomes the fact that the Transport Council signed the Transport Protocol of the Alpine Convention on 12 October 2006 and calls on the Commission to devise further-reaching sustainable transport policy measures for sensitive regions, such as mountainous and densely populated areas;

34.  Underlines the obligation of the Commission within the 'Euro-vignette 2 Directive' to work out a methodology for internalising external costs in freight road transport and expects the Commission to propose a new 'Euro-vignette 3 Directive' with minimum charging rates for the use of the entire road network;

35.  Calls on the Commission to give high priority to an ambitious human rights policy to be developed in the upcoming Central Asia Strategy Paper in order to pursue reduction of tensions and full respect for human rights in this region;

36.  Takes the view that every effort should be made to conclude negotiations on the remaining ENP Action Plans; expects close monitoring and assessment of the benchmarks and calls, in this respect, for the close involvement of Parliament;

37.  Calls for the creation of human rights subcommittees in the context of the association and partnership and cooperation agreements with ENP countries, with a view to developing a structured dialogue on human rights and democracy;

38.  Calls on the Commission, together with such subcommittees, to draw up an annual report on compliance with the human rights and democracy clause of the agreements, accompanied by a detailed evaluation and recommendations dealing with the effectiveness and coherence of the action taken;

39   Regrets the lack of progress as regards the end on the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community in the northern part of Cyprus in spite of the promises made by the Council and the Commission in Spring 2004; urges, in this regard, the Commission to speed up the procedures so as to make the financial aid immediately available and make every effort to improve the Green Line regulation thus facilitating trade between the two sides of the island which is at present hampered and restricted;

40   Points out that the phasing out of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the downsizing of the UN presence in Kosovo in view of the forthcoming definition of the final status increase the responsibilities and the tasks of the EU in the region; welcomes, in this regard, the first efforts so far made by the Commission but calls for a comprehensive and coordinated long-time strategy so as to contribute to stabilising the situation and find a lasting settlement in line with a concrete membership perspective for all the countries of the Western Balkans;

41   Recalls that strategic partnerships must be based on shared common values; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to highlight in the guidelines for negotiation with the Russian Federation of the new agreement which will replace the present Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, due to expire shortly, the importance of placing democracy, human rights and freedom of expression at the core of future relations instituting a clear mechanism to monitor the implementation of all the clauses of such an agreement;

42   Calls on the Commission to proactively search for multilateral regulation of global trade relations and regrets that the Commission's new strategy on the 'Global Competitiveness of the EU' gives the wrong signal of unilaterally pursuing European trade interests at a time when it should be a political priority to unblock the Doha Round of WTO trade negotiations; urges the Council to carefully scrutinise the implementation of the new EU trade strategy in order to prevent any lowering of EU social and environmental standards and regulations;

43   Is relieved that the Commission intends to update its action plan against illegal fishing, regrets, however, that the action plan adopted in 2002 was not implemented in a fuller and more effective way, because illegal fishing has continued to decimate fish stocks and harm coastal communities, both in the Union and in developing countries; urges the Commission to take the lead in the fight against illegal fishing in all possible international fora;

44   Calls for a commitment from the EU Member States and the Commission to address the structural causes of massive migration by changing their current policies, including the dumping of EU products on the Third-World markets, in order to allow developing countries to protect and build up their economies and guarantee decent incomes for their populations, which is the only alternative as regards reducing illegal immigration;

45   Notes that the current immigration policy of the EU and Member States aimed at curbing migration flows, which is tackling the symptoms, has by no means led to a drop in migration flows but has rather contributed to making the situation of the people concerned more precarious without achieving the declared objectives;

46   Considers that a common immigration, asylum and visa policy should be complemented with effective integration of immigrants in social, economic and political life in the Union; is of the opinion that immigration policies at EU level will only be effective when Parliament, through co-decision, can play its democratic role;

47   Calls on the Commission to ensure that any common policy on legal immigration is a fair one as regards the number of low-skilled workers to be invited in comparison with the number of high-skilled workers;

48.  Is deeply worried about the underlying philosophy of the proposal for a directive on conditions of entry and residence of 'highly skilled workers'; states that such a proposal will result in an increase in the brain drain from poor countries and will not address the need to open up borders to non-skilled workers, who are the section of the population mainly concerned by black labour and exploitation;

49.  Considers that the general framework directive addressing labour immigration should deal not only with the ‘labour market’ but also with legal immigration as such, and that only a European policy addressing legal immigration through, inter alia, a more flexible visa policy can reduce ‘illegal immigration’ and trafficking in human beings;

50.  Calls for the proposal for a directive on minimum sanctions for employers of illegally resident third-country nationals to be restricted, pursuant to the subsidiary principle, to large-scale black-market employment, in particular in the building and hotel industries;

51.  Urges the Commission to put forward in 2007 a draft directive on the rights of seasonal workers in the EU in order to avoid abuses and situations of slavery, as are currently to be found;

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