MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the priorities of the programme of the European Commission 2013
27.6.2012 - (2012/2688(RSP))
pursuant to Rule 35(3) of the Rules of Procedure and the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission
Gabriele Zimmer on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
B7‑0349/2012
European Parliament resolution on the priorities of the programme of the European Commission 2013
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Rule 35(3) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas the EU is today going through the deepest economic, social and crisis of legitimacy since its foundation;
B. whereas the already extraordinary high level of poverty in the EU is constantly growing reaching the level of 84 million people, including 19 million children; whereas at the same time the volume of richness increased and is higher than before the crisis;
C. whereas against the background of a high and persistent unemployment in most Member States, in particular youth unemployment, is growing;
D. whereas at the same time the EU institutions are imposing further restrictions on national budgets; whereas this policy will result in growing unemployment, deep wage cuts, a higher pension age, lower public spending in areas such as education and health and will compress demand while paving the way for the introduction of a radical liberalisation programme;
E. whereas the anti-crisis measures of the European Council, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF worsened lead to an ever deeper economic and social crisis in many Member States;
F. whereas EU policies have significantly contributed to increasing inequality and economic decline in the European Union and is killing the idea of a Union based on welfare and solidarity among the countries of Europe;
G. whereas the proposed remedies such as the economic governance packages and the International Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union will permanently remove policy choices from democratically elected governments of Member States and democratic control by the peoples of Europe, including by the national parliaments; whereas this development constitutes a serious danger for democracy in the EU in general;
H. whereas there is an enormous and ever growing popular resistance against the EU policy, with mass protests, general strikes and other forms of resistance; whereas the results of the recent elections in Greece and France show that the people want a profound policy change;
1. Underlines the fact that the current economic and social crisis is also the result of the Commission’s neoliberal policies of promoting de-regulated financial markets, of liberalised markets in products and services and the increasing financialisation of the economy as well as of reducing public investment and increasing labour market deregulation; strongly criticises the Commission for not drawing the lessons from this fact; believes that the anti crisis measures of the EU will deepen the global capitalist crisis;
2. Calls for a radical policy change which puts peoples first instead of serving the interests of financial markets; stresses the urgency for a social and ecological transformation of European economies;
3. Reiterates its call to revoke the Stability and Growth Pact and the International Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union in parallel with the establishment of an Employment and Growth Pact which will foster public investment, boost internal demand, support micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and set specific economic, social and environmental criteria tailor-made to the particular needs of each Member State, in particular targeting unemployment and poverty reduction;
4. Notes with concern that the years since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty were marked by strong clashes between the European institutions on the democratic participation and scrutiny rights of the European Parliament; underlines the fact that the democratisation of the European Union is imperative for the survival of the European Union and that strengthening the role of the national and the European Parliaments is an important aspect of this challenge;
5. Emphasises the need to strengthen citizens’ participation in the decision of fundamental problems of the development of the European Union, e.g. by introducing more instruments for direct democracy, in particular referenda in the EU Member States;
Combating poverty and social exclusion
6. Urges the Commission to propose an Action Plan for implementing integrated Active Inclusion Strategies by all member states, ensuring adequate minimum income, access to services and inclusive labour markets; calls on the Commission to come up with a proposal for a framework directive on adequate minimum income, with the aim of implementing the right of everybody to sufficient resources to lead a life of dignity; takes the view that the Commission should propose an EU target for minimum wages (statutory, collective agreements at national, regional or sectoral levels) to provide for a remuneration of at least 60 % of the respective (national, sectoral, etc.) average wage and to propose a timetable as to when this target must be achieved by all Member States;
European Framework for a Youth Guarantee on Jobs and Training
7. Urges the Commission to launch a legislative proposal for a binding Youth Guarantee which shall secure the right of every young person in the EU to be offered a suitable well-paid job in line with their qualifications and skills, an apprenticeship, additional training or combined work and training immediately upon facing unemployment;
Old age poverty
8. Recalls that old age poverty will be one of the main threats European societies are confronted with; reminds the Commission that also the review of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Pensions Directive need to reflect this; calls on the Commission to ensure that all schemes deliver an adequate level of income for pensioners to live in dignity;
9. Expresses preoccupation about the fact that old age poverty is highest among women, calls of the Commission to specifically focus on gender equality in its policy on pensions and public social security in old age for women, including a strong first pillar pension scheme;
Women’s rights and gender equality
10. Points out that the current austerity measures affect women and men in different ways; notes that when the state turns away from its responsibilities for the health, education, and well being of the population, women will have to bare the brunt of care taking, making it even more difficult for women to access gainful employment, calls on the Commission to elaborate special activities to meet this challenge;
11. Draws the attention to the fact that pay inequalities between women and men continue to persist throughout the EU, which shows that current legislative provisions are not sufficient. calls on the Commission to review the existing legislation in this area with the view to strengthen the legal provisions to combat pay inequalities between women and men;
12. Calls on the European Commission to present a proposal for a comprehensive EU strategy on violence against women and gender-based violence, addressing all forms of gender-based violence. Such a strategy should include actions ranging from prevention mechanisms to persecution, shelter and support, and include legislation on minimum standards against violence against women;
13. Calls on the Commission to present a communication on how to implement the Barcelona targets on childcare provision, and how to move beyond stagnating or even reverse developments in many Member States in this area;
Revision of the Employment Guidelines
14. Calls the Commission to break with the promotion of neo-liberal structural labour market reforms of the past decades and to elaborate a European Employment Strategy based on the concept of ‘Good Work’ and the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda with a strong focus on the creation of quality and sustainable jobs, phasing out precarious forms of employment, abolishing workfare programmes, promoting quality in work, improving social security, enhancing workers’ rights, promoting shorter collective working time and the reconciliation between professional and private life; underlines that the revised guidelines should include a specific focus on gender equality, with measures to improve women’s access to the labour market and measures to ensure equality in employment for women and men;
15. Calls on the Commission to elaborate an Action Plan to promote the creation of sustainable and quality jobs by public sector led investment in main areas of environmental and social sustainable development (e.g. energy saving and renewable energy, sustainable transport, organic farming, sustainable urban and rural development, investment in health care and long term care, in research and development, education, training and lifelong learning etc.) and to provide for measures to combat poverty and social exclusion;
Fundamental social rights and the European Semester
16. Draws the attention to the increasing complaints by citizens, social NGOs and trade unions that fundamental (social) rights, including the right to take collective action, to social dialogue and collective bargaining, are being undermined or violated in the context of the implementation of the EU economic governance and in particular the conditionality’s imposed on Member States in financial difficulties by the EC/IMF/ECB troika;
Revision of the Working Time Directive
17. Urges the Commission to propose a revision of the Working Time Directive in line with the goal of reconciling employment and non-work life, which inter alia necessitates at least:
a clear limitation of the maximum working week at EU level (down from the present norm of 48 hours per week to 40 hours in a first step, abolishing all present derogations and loopholes of the existing Directive), which would provide Member States with an incentive for working time reduction at the national level, thus also helping to combat unemployment;
abolishing all possibilities to ‘opt out’ from the Directive and fully implementing the ECJ judgements (on-call time spent at the workplace must be regarded as working time, compensatory rest must be granted immediately after time spent on duty);
where a worker has more than one contract of work, measures must be taken to ensure that the worker’s working time is defined as the sum of the periods of time worked under each of the contracts;
Strengthening workers’ rights and protection in the context of restructuring; corporate responsibility
18. Urges the Commission to launch a proposal for a legislative framework on restructuring and anticipating change, as a follow up to its 2012 Green Paper on that issue; insists that this legislative framework should aim at strengthening workers’ rights and protecting their employment as regards restructuring; wishes that it provides for tools and instruments to actively steer change in industry and services in the direction of environmental and social sustainable development, including provisions for employment transitions that combine the development of new skills and competencies with job stability, improved working conditions and full respect of workers’ rights and social dialogue;
19. Calls for an evaluation and revision of the directives on collective redundancies (75/129/EEC, amended by Directive 92/56/EEC), transfers of undertakings (77/187/EEC) and insolvency (80/987/EEC), in order to strengthen workers’ rights with regard to industrial change; urges the Commission to propose a directive establishing high minimum standards of protection against unwarranted individual dismissal;
20. Is appalled by the negative track record of some European companies in relation to their corporate social responsibility, including environmental responsibility when operating in third markets, is of the opinion that the voluntary obligations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are insufficient to deal with these shortcomings; therefore calls for a legally binding and enforceable mechanism/obligations of corporate social responsibility for all European based companies;
21. Calls on the Commission to refrain from proposing a new trade agreement that would have as effect to damage the industrialisation of Europe and to cut jobs;
Public Health and Food safety
22. Invites the Commission to deliver legislative proposals in its 2013 Work Programme referring to the following:
Revision of the Hygiene Package;
Proposal on the use of cloning techniques for food production;
A new legislative proposal on novel foods;
A legislative framework for action against antimicrobial resistance,
Review of the criteria and definitions applicable to endocrine-disruptors
A new Directive on work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) which was already announced in its work programme 2011
23. Urges the Commission to present its proposal on the new Community strategy for occupational health and safety at work 2013 – 2020; calls on the Commission to break with the approach of the preceding strategy (2007 - 2012), which viewed occupational health primarily as a variable of the productivity and competitiveness of businesses;
24. Calls for review Directive 2004/37 on the protection of workers against risks associated to the exposure of Carcinogens and Mutagens at work; stresses that the scope of that Directive needs to be extended to take into account new risk factors;
Resolution of the financial crisis
25. Urges the Commission to develop proposals for comprehensive and sustainable solutions for solving the social and economic problems and for returning to balanced public accounts such as:
direct intervention of the ECB on the primary sovereign bond market in order to allow the EU Member States to free themselves of the dictate of the financial markets and their speculative attacks;
the introduction of wage safeguard clauses, which fully respect the autonomy of social partners to negotiate wages and labour conditions collectively;
the set-up of provisions to safeguard and to stimulate high quality growth: excluding public investments that support potential growth from the ‘balanced budget rule’;
safeguarding the public revenue side by engaging to counter tax competition, fraud and evasion;
the establishment of an additional ‘European Investment Programme;
26. Calls on the Commission to concentrate on measures which aim at distributing wealth more evenly in the European Union, to fight tax evasion and tax havens
27. Welcomes the publication of the proposal for a directive on ‘a framework for recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms’; regrets, however, the delay of this initiative; deems this only a first step towards curbing the power of the financial industry; considers the need for additional measures such as public control of the financial markets and the separation of commercial from investment banking and the fight against shadow banking;
28. Reminds the Commission that highly complex financial products have scientifically contributed to the economic crisis; urges the Commission to take this fact into account when coming forward with further capital markets legislation such as PRIPS, UCITS and close-out netting;
Regional and cohesion policies
29. Emphasises that regional policy is an indispensable tool for promoting economic and social cohesion, with the principal objective of reducing regional disparities, the promotion of real convergence, encouraging growth and employment; insists that cohesion policy must be pursued and strengthened after 2013 and should always remain an independent policy providing sustainable development (economic, social, environmental, territorial), reductions in disparities between regions and the backwardness of the poorer regions;
30. Rejects the approach of the Commission to subordinate the cohesion policy to the Europe 2020 strategy and to the competitiveness objective;
31. Rejects the use of the macroeconomic conditionality to the Stability and Growth Pact as a requirement for access to the cohesion policy and regional development funds; insists that cohesion policy should not be used as an instrument of financial punishment.
32. Believes that the existing EU funding and current EU financial resources for cohesion policy are insufficient to meet the needs of real convergence, regional disparities, high levels of unemployment, income inequalities and poverty in the European Union; points out the need for the EU budget to be strengthened in the area of cohesion policy; stresses the importance of territorial management and planning remaining the responsibility of individual Member States;
Climate change
33. Underlines that the global economic crisis cannot and must not be used as an excuse for inaction or for denying climate justice; reiterates that developing a low carbon economy is a fundamental part of a path out of the present crisis; calls therefore for Green innovation as the basis of transforming industry for sustainable growth, promoting environmentally friendly technologies, reducing energy dependency and securing employment and social and economic cohesion in both developed and developing countries;
34. Calls on the Commission to take in 2013 the initiative in the following areas:
Legislation to deliver the EU’s high-level strategic objectives on resource efficiency and the transition to a low carbon economy;
Strategy for reducing CO2 emissions from Heavy Duty Vehicles;
Review of air quality policies;
Proposal for a Directive addressing NOx emissions from aviation;
Review of the impact of indirect land use change (ILUC) related to biofuels and bioliquids on greenhouse gas emissions and addressing ways to minimise it;
CAP reform
35. Recalls that agricultural policy must guarantee the production of food sufficient in quality and quantity, participate in the fight against world hunger, enable small and medium sized farmers to earn a decent income, create jobs, develop the land, participate in improving ecological balance and aim towards a change in consumer habits to avoid excessive food wastage;
36. Rejects the European Commission’s proposed reform of the CAP, which is largely liberalised and market-oriented, argues that agricultural policy should be supportive and have as a principle the right to food sovereignty and security and have as its main axes:
Production of safe, adequate and quality food according to the specificities of each country and in line with environmental protection and not expensive; all member states should have the flexibility to tailor the CAP to the needs of their Member State;
Halt and reverse the decline of rural areas, the desertification of many areas and the abandonment of production requires the recognition and prioritisation of the role of small and medium producers and family farmers to achieve this goal;
Measures and instruments of market regulation to address the instability of the productive sectors due to fluctuations in production and consumption and ensure fair prices for production and end to big buyer abuses and transparency throughout the food chain;
Introduction of corrective measures on differences in the distribution of aid for farmers, crops and countries, as well as a production aid scheme fully differentiated at national, regional and sectoral level;
Tangible measures to achieve simplification;
An adequate level of funding capable of meeting these goals and future challenges;
Use less energy on less territory and enable greener and more sustainable technologies to preserve the environment and reduce C02 emissions, it should reject GMOs and the use of any new technologies must respect the precautionary principle and the results and methodology of all studies related to new agricultural technologies must be made fully available;
37. Calls for a new distribution of public aid, taking into account the criteria of employment, development of the land, crop rotation and diversification and respect for the environment. Public support must take account of workers and production rather than just surfaces area;
38. Urgently asks the Commission to ensure a policy of remunerative prices for a volume of agricultural production to farms and, failing that, to strengthen a multi-level safety net, including a safeguard mechanism ‘in cases of crisis’ in order to reduce the volatility of output prices caused by financial speculation on agricultural commodities;
39. Remind the need to maintain tools for regulating markets such as a system of production quotas in the milk or sugar sectors;
40. Asks the Commission to launch a major ‘protein’ plan allowing the European Union to achieve its self sufficiency and avoid the continuing grain crisis;
Fisheries policy
41. Rejects the proposal on the new Common Fisheries Policy and calls on the Commission to review it; reiterates that the new Common Fisheries Policy should promote the modernisation and sustainable development of the fisheries sector, ensuring its socio-economic viability, the sustainability of resources, the maintenance and creation of jobs and the improvement of living conditions of fisheries workers;
42. Rejects any form of privatisation of fisheries resources, including the creation of individual transferable fishing quotas or concessions, leading to the creation of quota markets in the Member States, which would concentrate the activity on the most economically and financially powerful operators, thus severely hindering traditional fishing;
43. Insists on measures to improve the price of the first sale of fish and the income of fisheries workers, on subsidy or compensation mechanisms for fisheries workers affected by the economic and social repercussions of the recovery plans, multi-annual management and measures for the protection of ecosystems;
44. Urges the commission to recognise the specific characteristics of small-scale and coastal fishing and to analyse to what extent the existing instruments are suited to the sector’s needs, adapting them accordingly;
45. Calls on measures to ensure national sovereignty over the Exclusive Economic Zone of Member States and their fisheries resources, allowing proximity management; takes the view that 12 miles should be maintained as a zone of exclusive access for the national fleet of each Member State and proposes to consider the possibility of its extension to adjacent areas, conforming to the continental shelves;
Fundamental Rights
46. Is deeply concerned with the continuing trend of lowered human rights standards in the field of judicial and police cooperation; emphasises that in the field of the former third pillar, human rights standards have to be equally upheld given the potentially very intrusive consequences on the life of the European citizens; objects to any such continued diversification of human rights standards and urges the Commission to uphold and respect fundamental rights to an equal extent in its forthcoming proposals on EU TFTS, Europol and the upcoming amendment of the Regulation on the European Agency for Fundamental Rights;
47. Reiterates its disappointment with the delayed reactions of the Commission on flagrant human rights violations as has been witnessed last year with France and its expulsion of the Roma, the Hungarian Constitutional reform and the democratic deficit in Latvia where non-citizens (14.6% of the total population) still cannot neither vote nor be elected in local elections, amongst others, and urges the Commission to step up its actions in observing that human rights principles as defined by the Charter of Fundamental Rights are upheld throughout the Union;
Asylum and migration
48. Reaffirms its opposition to the repressive approach of EU immigration policies; asks therefore for new initiatives that should focus more on legal entry channels for migrants and on the establishment of a charter of rights of all migrants, while supporting the regularisation of migrants already residing and working in the EU;
49. Calls for the presentation of a specific directive containing and translating into EU law all the provisions of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 1990;
50. Highlights that a gender equality perspective is urgently needed in relation to all EU immigration and migration policy, including ensuring that gender-based asylum claims are accepted by all EU Member States, strengthened rights to family reunification, ensuring women an independent legal status, as well as ensuring equality and non-discrimination for undocumented migrant women;
Data Protection and Data Retention
51. Is deeply disappointed that the Commission did not seize the opportunity offered by the review of the current EU data protection framework to align and unify the data protection principles and standards in field of police and judicial co-operation with the general data protection regime; is deeply concerned with the considerably lower standards in the proposed Directive and reiterates its intent to seek a strengthening of the rights of the data subjects in the field of police and judicial cooperation given the increasing interest of enforcement agencies in personal data owned by the private sector; Insists that the Commission comes up with a revision of the Regulation 45/2001 with a view to aligning the data protection regime to which the EU institutions are subject with the new general data protection Regulation;
52. Urges the Commission to take account in its upcoming review of the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC of the judgment rendered by the German Constitutional Court (BVerfG, 1 BvR 256/08 of 2 March 2010), emphasising the need to demonstrate the necessity and proportionality of data retention periods;
LGBT
53. Calls on the Commission to review the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia with a view to strengthening and enlarging its scope to include hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; urges the Commission to come forward with the EU roadmap on equality for LGBT persons and to apply a horizontal approach in observing the respect for LGBT rights across her legislative proposals, most certainly now the anti-discrimination Directive is still blocked in Council;
Europol
54. Urges the Commission to increase transparency and democratic oversight in the activities, budget allocation and threat assessments of Europol, not only a posteriori but also ex ante; reiterates its view that Europol has to fully comply with the fundamental rights; urges the Commission to deliver a proposal which ensures to all those to whom it applies a ‘European Arrest warrant’ access to justice, to guarantee access to justice and to court, right to free legal aid, right to an independent trial within a reasonable time, without discrimination and regardless of administrative, economic, social, cultural and linguistic aspects; underlines that has to abide by the most stringent of data protection standards and principles given the large amounts of databases the agency has access to; strongly opposes the increasing trend of Europol to seek access to privately held databases;
55. should respect the fundamental right to data protection and has to abide by the most stringent of data protection standards and principles given the large amounts of databases the agency has access to; strongly opposes the increasing trend of Europol to seek access to privately held databases;
Transparency
56. Calls on the Commission to focus on making the common Transparency Register mandatory for all interest representatives and suggests stronger rules on financial disclosure in the upcoming revision of the register;
57. Reminds the Commission of the need to revise its Code of Conduct for Commissioners and in particular to address the problem of the ‘revolving door’ effectively; furthermore calls on the provisions concerning financial declarations by Commissioners to be tightened;
58. Once again reminds the Commission of its commitment to develop greater transparency and access to documents and without delay come up with a new proposal for changes to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001;
ACTA
59. Calls on the Commission to learn the lesson from the public outcry against the intrinsic lack of transparency in the negotiations on the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA); insists that any negotiation on counterfeiting and piracy has to stick to those specific objectives and needs to be conducted with full transparency, accountability and respect of civil liberties and rights, including internet freedom, in the framework of the appropriate international bodies and includes developing countries and takes into account their legitimate need for technology transfer; insists that Parliament as well as civil society need to be involved in the definition of the negotiating mandate of all future trade agreements as well as in ongoing trade;
Human rights and international Trade
60. Reminds the Commission that all of the external actions of the European Union including international trade and commercial cooperation with third countries and regions need to be guided by the principle of policy coherence, respect and implementation of both political and social human rights, therefore calls on the Commission to suspend existing trade agreements and the negotiations of trade agreements with countries violating basic democratic and human rights;
61. Strongly insists that all trade agreements negotiated by the European Commission need to include strongly worded and legally binding human rights and sustainability chapters as well as respective dispute settlement mechanisms into all trade agreements under negotiation; takes note of the Commissions communication on trade and development and insists that insists that the main objectives of the EU´s trade policy should be to contribute towards sustainable social, ecological and economic growth and development in the interests of all citizens;
62. Calls on the Commission to order a study of impact assessment on human rights and to provide its conclusion to the EP before initialling any international trade agreement;
63. Calls on the Commission to stop exerting pressure for the signature of EPAs, to ensure decent alternative relations for those countries that decide not to sign an EPA or an FTA; calls on the Commission to propos new international mechanisms to avoid speculation on food an to stabilise the price of commodities;
Development
64. Calls on the Commission to give the revision of the rules governing humanitarian aid priority in its work programme; draws attention to the need to increase appropriations and enhance capabilities and resources with a view to ensuring that the provision of humanitarian aid remains a purely civilian task; reiterates that neither humanitarian aid nor development policy can be made subject to the imperatives of EU security policy;
65. Calls on the Commission, in the context of food and nutrition security, to revise its ‘land grabbing guidelines’; draws attention to the fundamental nature of the ‘right to food’; points out that massive land grabs and the use of land to produce biofuels for export are reducing the ability of local people in the world’s poorest countries to earn a livelihood and feed themselves, jeopardising those countries’ food sovereignty;
Neighbourhood policy
66. Deplores that revision of the ENP has not changed the orientation in the EU relation with North of Africa, Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula countries as it is based in European economic interests and not in people’s demands of freedom and democracy; stresses that these revolts have shown the failure of the European Neighbourhood Policy;
67. Calls on the EU to develop a real partnership of mutual interests for development in all its dimensions and forms of cooperation encouraging employment, education and training, which reflects the socioeconomic realities of each of the partners; is of the opinion that genuine ENP integration can only be achieved if tangible progress is made in resolving political tensions and regional conflicts in the region, particularly in Palestine and Western Sahara, and that it is through integration that a climate of trust conducive to pursuing the goals of a demilitarised Mediterranean basin, in spirit of solidarity and peace will be possible;
Enlargement
68. Reiterates its position that the EU should develop mutually beneficial relations with all neighbouring countries, based on mutual respect and understanding; insists that the EU must be open for all those European countries where the people want to join the EU; underlines that the policy of EU enlargement should be pursued in full respect of International Law;
69. Calls on the Commission to ensure that during the accession negotiation process, candidate countries meet the Copenhagen criteria, avoid reforms which negatively impact on the social situation of the population, respect International Law and develop bilateral and good neighbourly relations with all EU Member States;
70. Underlines that the country action programmes should take into account the specific conditions of each country, avoid to impose measures and reforms that would be detrimental to the workers and people in general;
71. Calls on the Commission to improve the management of the IPA funds with the view to guaranteeing the highest benefit for the beneficiary and full parliamentary scrutiny;
Budget and Multiannual Financial Framework
72. Expects the Commission to clearly support the European Parliament demands that political positions agreed by the European Council, be negotiated between Parliament and the Council, as represented by the General Affairs Council, before the Council formally submits its proposals with a view to obtaining Parliament’s consent on the MFF regulation pursuant to Article 312 TFEU; underlines that the negotiations on the legislative proposals relating to the multiannual programmes must be pursued under the ordinary legislative procedure and will be finalised once an agreement on their financial envelopes is reached; is determined to make full use, as appropriate, of its consent and ordinary legislative powers, as enshrined in the Treaty; reiterates that it is very much concerned that the conclusions of the European Council could pre-empt the legislative negotiations;
73. Reiterates its position that the EU budget should represent a strong tool to increase strategic investment generating growth, social progress and employment while aiming to foster economic, territorial and social cohesion throughout the Union; pledges in particular for the concentration of resources in policies and programmes that are instrumental to achieve those objectives, notably in support of youth and SMEs; stresses that the EU budget should be designed in a way that it has a real economic impact, complementing Member States’ recovery policies;
74. Urges the Commission to provide proposals which guarantee the Union with the adequate level of resources’ both in what concerns next years budget as well as the next MFF 2014/2020;
75. Recalls that 2013 is the last year of the current MFF, where implementation of co-financed projects runs at full speed and is expected to accelerate further and the bulk of payment requests is expected to reach the Commission in the second half of the year; therefore calls on the Council and the Commission to immediately analyse and assess, along with Parliament, the figures and requirements in order not to jeopardise implementation for 2013; points out that a lack of payment appropriations endanger currently well-functioning programmes;
76. Highlights moreover that 2013 will be a year when, due to the lapsing of the N+3 rule, payment claims submitted by 12 Member States will need to be presented for two annual commitment tranches (2010 and 2011 tranches under the N+3 rule and N+2 rule, respectively); considers therefore as a minimum the proposed increase in payment appropriations by 11.7 % (to EUR 48.975 million) as compared to last year since, as mentioned by the Commission, it strictly relates to 2013 and assumes that payment needs from previous years will have been covered;
77. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States;