European Parliament legislative resolution of 5 July 2022 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Single Market For Digital Services (Digital Services Act) and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (COM(2020)0825 – C9-0418/2020 – 2020/0361(COD))	P9_TA(2022)0269 A9-0356/2021
CORRIGENDA COR01

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2020)0825),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C9-0418/2020,

–  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 27 April 2021(1),

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 1 July 2021(2),

–  having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committee responsible under Rule 74(4) of its Rules of Procedure and the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 15 June 2022 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to opinions of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Culture and Education and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (A9-0356/2021),

1.  Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out(3);

2.  Takes note of the statement by the Commission annexed to this resolution, which will be published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union;

3.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

4.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 5 July 2022 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2022/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act)

(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.)

ANNEX TO THE LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

COMMISSION’S STATEMENT ON THE SUPPORT OF MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES AND START-UPS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT

The Commission acknowledges the importance of competitiveness, innovation and investment in digital services, in particular with regard to micro, small and medium sized enterprises and start-ups. For that purpose, the Commission is committed to facilitate compliance with the Digital Services Act by micro, small and medium sized enterprises and start-ups, notably through mobilising relevant programmes in favour of innovation, deployment of digital technologies and standardisation.

(1) OJ C 286, 16.7.2021, p. 70. (2) OJ C 440, 29.10.2021, p. 67. (3) This position replaces the amendments adopted on 20 January 2022 (Texts adopted P9_TA(2022)0014).

European Parliament legislative resolution of 5 July 2022 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act) (COM(2020)0842 – C9-0419/2020 – 2020/0374(COD))

P9_TA(2022)0270 A9-0332/2021

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2020)0842),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C9‑0419/2020),

–  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 27 April 2021(1),

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 30 June 2021(2),

–  having regard to the provisional agreement approved by the committee responsible under Rule 74(4) of its Rules of Procedure and the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 11 May 2022 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (A9-0332/2021),

1.  Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out(3);

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 5 July 2022 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2022/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act)

(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2022/1925.)

(1) OJ C 286, 16.7.2021, p. 64. (2) OJ C 440, 29.10.2021, p. 67. (3) This position replaces the amendments adopted on 15 December 2021 (Texts adopted P9_TA(2021)0499).

European Parliament legislative resolution of 5 July 2022 on the proposal for a Council decision on the adoption by Croatia of the euro on 1 January 2023 (COM(2022)0282 – C9-0195/2022 – 2022/0179(NLE))

P9_TA(2022)0271 A9-0187/2022

(Consultation)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal for a Council decision on the adoption by Croatia of the euro on 1 January 2023 (COM(2022)0282),

–  having regard to Article 140(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, (TFEU),

–  having regard to the Commission Convergence Report 2022 and the European Central Bank Convergence Report of June 2022,

—  having regard to its resolution of 1 June 2006 on the enlargement of the euro zone(1),

–  having regard to its resolution of 20 June 2007 on improving the method for consulting Parliament in procedures relating to the enlargement of the euro area(2),

–  having regard to Rule 106 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A9-0187/2022),

A.  whereas Article 140 of the TFEU provides for the achievement of a high degree of sustainable convergence by reference to the fulfilment by each Member State of the following criteria: the achievement of a high degree of price stability; the sustainability of the government's financial position, the Member State not being subject to an excessive deficit procedure as described in Protocol No 12 annexed to the Treaties; the observance of the normal fluctuation margins provided for by the exchange-rate mechanism; and the durability of convergence achieved by the Member State and of the Member State’s participation in the exchange-rate mechanism of the European Monetary System being reflected in the long-term interest-rate levels (the ‘Maastricht criteria’);

B.  whereas Croatia has complied with the Maastricht criteria in accordance with Article 140 TFEU and Protocol No 13 on the convergence criteria annexed to the Treaties, and Croatia’s legislation has been evaluated by the Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) as fully compatible with the requirements of the TFEU and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank;

C.  whereas the TFEU calls for an examination of other factors relevant to economic integration and convergence to be taken into account in the assessment, including balance of payments developments and integration of product, labour and financial markets; whereas the Commission considers that Croatia fulfils the conditions for the adoption of the euro also on these additional criteria;

D.  whereas, based on common practice and as has been done several times in the past, for the purpose of assessing the price stability criterion, the Commission excludes from the best-performing countries those whose inflation rates could not be seen as a meaningful benchmark for other Member States, and has therefore excluded two Member States as the best performers from the assessment;

E.  whereas current circumstances, such as the increase in energy prices and the Russian illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine had an impact on several indicators used in the convergence reports and would require an adequate reflection on their implementation; whereas adherence to those criteria contributes to the integration into the Economic and Monetary Union and to the Economic and Monetary Union’s long-term stability;

F.  whereas with the entry into force of the close cooperation framework on 1 October 2020, the ECB gained responsibility for directly supervising eight significant institutions and for overseeing 15 less significant institutions in Croatia;

G.  whereas Croatia committed to implement a number of measures following its entry in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) in July 2020 in the following four areas: anti-money laundering, business environment, public sector governance and insolvency framework;

H.  whereas the Rapporteur visited Croatia to assess the readiness of the country to enter the euro area;

1.  Approves the Commission proposal;

2.  Endorses the adoption by Croatia of the euro on 1 January 2023;

3.  Notes that Croatia fulfils all the criteria for adopting the euro as a result of ambitious, determined, credible and sustainable efforts by the Croatian Government and the Croatian people;

4.  Notes that the positive assessments of the Commission and the ECB have taken place against the background of a, longer than initially expected, COVID-19 shock and the subsequent economic recovery in 2021; notes, however, that Russia's unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine which began on 24 February 2022 had a limited impact on the historical data used to prepare the convergence reports; is convinced, therefore, of the full readiness of Croatia to adopt the euro as from 1 January 2023;

5.  Underlines that, notwithstanding the difficult socio-economic situation generated by the health crisis and the most recent increase in energy prices, Croatia’s adoption of the euro and the fulfilment of the necessary criteria represent a strong political signal of the viability and attractiveness of the single currency of the Union; welcomes therefore the sustained efforts undertaken by the Croatian Government in this regard; believes that Croatia’s adoption of the euro will contribute to the resilience and unity of the Union and enhance its positive image in the region, particularly since this is the first significant EU integration process after Brexit;

6.  Highlights, that adoption of the euro will strengthen Croatia’s economy and benefit its people and companies, as it will make the country´s economy more resilient, attract more foreign investment, increase the confidence of international investors and cut down currency exchanges, that will have a relevant effect in the country´s vital tourism sector;

7.  Welcomes Croatian government’s work on strengthening Croatia’s institutional capacity, the efforts to improve the business environment, and the effective and efficient implementation of structural reforms that contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth; welcomes in particular the efforts to strengthen the institutional independence of the Hrvatska narodna banka; calls on Croatian authorities to continue strengthen the institutional framework to ensure regulatory quality;

8.  Calls for the swift and effective implementation of reforms and investments of Croatia´s Recovery and Resilience Plan which will boost growth and strengthen its economic, social and territorial cohesion;

9.  Highlights that the convergence in banking supervision contributes to safeguarding financial stability by ensuring the application of uniform supervisory standards; highlights furthermore, that Croatia joining the Single Supervisory Mechanism via close cooperation with the ECB ensured a smooth way to join the Banking Union;

10.  Calls on the Croatian authorities to continue their good information and communication campaign on the adoption of the euro;

11.  Calls on the Croatian authorities to maintain the present course of practical preparations to ensure a smooth changeover process;

12.  Notes that according to the Commission Convergence Report 2022 the price level in Croatia has already achieved a higher level of price convergence with the euro area than other Member States when they joined the euro area; expects therefore sustained efforts from the Croatian government to ensure that further price convergence is achieved in a sustainable manner and that the introduction of the euro does not lead to artificial price increases;

13.  Calls on the Croatian Government to continue its actions in order to deliver on the commitment to implement a new anti-money laundering action plan by 2023;

14.  Calls on the Council to notify Parliament if it intends to depart from the text approved by Parliament;

15.  Asks the Council to consult Parliament again if it intends to substantially amend the text approved by Parliament;

16.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission, the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup and the governments of the Member States.

(1) OJ C 298 E, 8.12.2006, p. 249. (2) OJ C 146 E, 12.6.2008, p. 251.

European Parliament legislative resolution of 5 July 2022 on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol on the implementation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Government of the Cook Islands (12640/2021 – C9-0006/2022 – 2021/0312(NLE))

P9_TA(2022)0272 A9-0197/2022

(Consent)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the draft Council decision (12640/2021),

–  having regard to the draft protocol on the implementation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Government of the Cook Islands (12633/2021),

–  having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Article 43 and Article 218(6), second subparagraph, point (a) (v), and Article 218(7) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (C9‑0006/2022),

–  having regard to Rule 105(1) and (4) and Rule 114(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on Fisheries (A9-0197/2022),

1.  Gives its consent to the conclusion of the protocol;

2.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the Cook Islands.

European Parliament legislative resolution of 5 July 2022 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on temporary trade-liberalisation measures supplementing trade concessions applicable to Moldovan products under the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Moldova, of the other part (COM(2022)0288 – C9-0198/2022 – 2022/0188(COD))

P9_TA(2022)0273 A9-0201/2022

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2022)0288),

–  having regard to Article 294(2) and Article 207(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C9-0198/2022),

—  having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the undertaking given by the Council representative by letter of 29 June 2022 to approve Parliament’s position, in accordance with Article 294(4) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade (A9-0201/2022),

1.  Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2.  Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3.  Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Position of the European Parliament adopted at first reading on 5 July 2022 with a view to the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2022/… of the European Parliament and of the Council on temporary trade-liberalisation measures supplementing trade concessions applicable to products from the Republic of Moldova under the Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Moldova, of the other part

(As an agreement was reached between Parliament and Council, Parliament's position corresponds to the final legislative act, Regulation (EU) 2022/1279.)

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 on women’s poverty in Europe (2021/2170(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0274 A9-0194/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Articles 2 and 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU),

–  having regard to Articles 8, 9, 151, 153 and 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

–  having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’) and in particular its provisions on social rights and equality between men and women,

–  having regard to the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,

–  having regard to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’, and in particular Goal 1, which seeks to end poverty, Goal 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and improve living conditions for women, and Goal 8, which seeks to achieve sustainable economic growth,

–  having regard to the EU’s growth strategy ‘Europe 2020’, in particular its objective of reducing the number of people in the EU living below national poverty lines by 25 % by 2020, thereby lifting over 20 million people out of poverty, and the need to fully deploy Member States’ social security and pensions systems in order to ensure adequate income support,

–  having regard to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention),

–  having regard to International Labour Organization Convention No 190 on eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work,

–  having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan,

–  having regard to Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee(1),

–  having regard to Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation(2),

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers(3) (the Work-Life Balance Directive),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 5 March 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0152),

–  having regard to its resolution of 13 October 2005 on women and poverty in the European Union(4),

–  having regard to its resolution of 8 March 2011 on the face of female poverty in the European Union(5),

–   having regard to its resolution of 13 September 2011 on women entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises(6),

–  having regard to its resolution of 26 May 2016 entitled ‘Poverty: a gender perspective’(7),

–  having regard to its resolution of 4 April 2017 on women and their roles in rural areas(8),

–  having regard to its resolution of 14 June 2017 on the need for an EU strategy to end and prevent the gender pension gap(9),

–  having regard to its resolution of 3 October 2017 on women’s economic empowerment in the private and public sectors in the EU(10),

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 November 2018 on care services in the EU for improved gender equality(11),

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2019 on gender equality and taxation policies in the EU(12),

–  having regard to its resolution of 30 January 2020 on the gender pay gap(13),

–  having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on the gender perspective in the COVID-19 crisis and post-crisis period(14),

–   having regard to the resolution of 7 July 2021 entitled ‘An old continent growing older – possibilities and challenges related to ageing policy post-2020’(15),

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 February 2021 on reducing inequalities with a special focus on in-work poverty(16),

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 10 December 2019 entitled ‘Gender-Equal Economies in the EU: The Way Forward’,

–  having regard to the report of 5 March 2020 by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) entitled ‘Beijing +25: the fifth review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the EU Member States’,

–  having regard to the report of 27 May 2020 by the International Labour Organization entitled ‘COVID-19 and the world of work. Fourth edition’,

–  having regard to the policy brief of 15 July 2021 by Eurofound and the EIGE entitled ‘Upward convergence in gender equality: How close is the Union of equality?’,

–  having regard to the study of December 2017 by Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the Directorate-General for Internal Policies entitled ‘Gender perspective on access to energy in the EU’,

–  having regard to the EIGE’s 2019 and 2020 Gender Equality Indexes,

–  having regard to the position paper of June 2021 by Make Mothers Matter entitled ‘Mothers’ Poverty in the EU’,

–  having regard to the assessment of the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 2021 and Proposal for a Joint Employment Report 2021 of February 2021 by the European Anti-Poverty Network entitled ‘Working towards a Socially Inclusive and Poverty-proof Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic’,

–  having regard to the study of 19 May 2021 by Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the Directorate-General for Internal Policies entitled ‘COVID-19 and its economic impact on women and women’s poverty: Insight from 5 European Countries’,

–  having regard to the study of 14 June 2021 by Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of the Directorate-General for Internal Policies entitled ‘Gender equality: Economic value of care from the perspective of the applicable EU funds’,

–  having regard to its resolution of 14 April 2016 on meeting the anti-poverty targets in the light of increasing household costs(17) and the opinion of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality thereon,

–  having regard to the work of the EU Platform on Combatting Homelessness, launched in June 2021,

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (A9-0194/2022),

A.   whereas gender equality is a core value of the Union enshrined in Article 2 TEU; whereas Article 8 TFEU lays down the principle of gender mainstreaming;

B.  whereas the eradication of poverty is one of the priorities of the EU, enshrined in Article 3 TEU and in Article 34 of the Charter, and is a headline target in the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) action plan, reflecting the EU’s commitment to combat poverty in its policies;

C.  whereas in the EU, the number of women in poverty is still higher than the number of men in poverty(18); whereas despite a reduction in poverty in the EU among both women and men, women continue to be disproportionally more affected by poverty and the risk of social exclusion than men, in particular women who experience intersectional forms of discrimination; whereas in 2020, the risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) in the EU was higher for women (22,9 %) than men (20,9 %), though in both cases it has decreased since 2015 (24,9 % and 23,1 % respectively); whereas since 2017, the gender-poverty gap has increased in 21 Member States(19); whereas according to the data, poverty rates among women vary greatly between Member States; whereas owing to the strong correlation between female poverty and child poverty, 1 in 4 children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion;

D.  whereas according to estimates for 2019 in the EU-27, women are particularly affected by the risk of poverty (AROPE), with the poverty rate standing at 17,1 % after social transfers; whereas since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, women have been disproportionately affected in the socioeconomic sphere, including, in some cases, by loss of employment; whereas the employment rate of women has even fallen more sharply than it did during the 2008 recession; whereas this is, among other things, due to the increase of unpaid care, domestic and educational work carried out mainly by women, and has also resulted in an increase in women’s poverty; whereas even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of people in temporary and part-time posts were women, especially in the service sector, and whereas the pandemic has reinforced this trend; whereas the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet fully comprehended and whereas the socioeconomic impact will continue to be experienced in the coming years; whereas it is therefore essential to examine female poverty in context of the handling and aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis; whereas measures taken to exit the financial crisis of 2008 have not been sufficient to reduce women’s poverty; whereas reductions in funding for social public services and lower wages disproportionality affect women, owing to their greater reliance on social public services and allowances;

E.  whereas gender mainstreaming means taking into account the gender differences within the whole policy cycle and adding an intersectional approach taking into account diversity among women and men when designing, implementing and evaluating policies, programmes and projects in order to enhance gender equality; whereas until now EU policies have not deployed real mainstreamed policies or included an intersectional approach;

F.  whereas Article 3(3) TEU commits the Union to combating ‘social exclusion and discrimination’ and promoting ‘social justice and protection [and] equality between women and men’ in line with the social market economy concept; whereas the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan has the specific aim of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty by at least 15 million by 2030, including 5 million children; whereas the social, green and gender equality agendas are interlinked and share the goals of ensuring sustainable growth and a fair distribution of resources; whereas the discussions on the review of the current EU model of socioeconomic governance should take into consideration the EU’s commitment to reduce inequalities and eradicate poverty, in particular women’s poverty;

G.  whereas the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, has pointed out that European Union should develop an EU-wide anti-poverty strategy that ensures a structural, broad approach to eradicating female poverty; whereas a fairer social contract is needed for the post-pandemic European Union, including economic policies aimed at decreasing economic inequalities;

H.  whereas parental poverty often leads to child poverty; whereas investing in policies to support women also improves the living conditions of their families, and in particular of their children; whereas the EU and the Member States must respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children in line with the TEU; whereas the rights of children are jeopardised in situations of poverty; whereas eradicating child poverty is included in Principle 11 of the EPSR;

I.  whereas single-parent families are at greater risk of poverty and social exclusion and bear a higher probability of transmission of poverty over several generations; whereas 85 % of single-parent families are headed by women; whereas in 2020, 42,1 % of the EU population living in single-adult households with dependent children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion;

J.  whereas women's poverty is the result of a lifetime of discrimination; whereas gender stereotypes still influence the division of labour at home, in education, in the workplace and in society and access to power and decision-making; whereas unpaid care and domestic work, which are mostly carried out by women, imposes a disproportionate burden on women; whereas globally, women make up over 70 % of workers in the health and care sector; whereas these kinds of jobs have systematically been undervalued because they have been, and still are, performed for free by women within households; whereas women have lower pay than men; whereas women have more part-time contracts due to time poverty; whereas women are suffering in-work poverty that leads to higher risks of poverty and social exclusion due to low labour intensity;

K.  whereas due consideration should be given to the recommendations of the EPSR on gender equality, equal opportunities and active support to employment;

L.  whereas women’s poverty is multidimensional and for this reason we need to combat all causes and consequences of all facets of women’s poverty, including material deprivation, but also the lack of access to different resources and services, which limits their ability to fully enjoy their citizenship; whereas female poverty is directly influenced by the lack of fair valuation of work mainly carried out by women, career breaks due to maternity leave or care responsibilities, unequal sharing of unpaid caring responsibilities and domestic work and segregation in education and subsequently in the labour market; whereas women’s poverty results in their exclusion from certain social and political aspects of life; whereas at the same time, the lack of adequate access to resources and services increases women’s risk of falling into or remaining in poverty, which shows the mutual interdependence between poverty and social and political exclusion;

M.  whereas the impact of poverty on women and men differs and whereas indicators to better understand the feminisation of poverty such as age, life expectancy, income inequality, the gender pay gap, type of household and social transfers therefore also need to be considered; whereas synergies between various actions carried out and political measures supporting gender equality in employment, education, taxation policies and housing can help to combat deep-rooted causes of poverty and social exclusion more effectively;

N.   whereas there is an increased risk of poverty and social exclusion among some groups of women such as single mothers, women above the age of 65, women with disabilities, women with low levels of education and women from migrant backgrounds;

O.  whereas women outnumber men at older ages within the EU-27 population; whereas in 2019, there were more than twice as many very old women (aged 85 years or more) as very old men; whereas ageing developments will have profound implications for governments, business and civil society, impacting especially health and social care systems, labour markets, public finances and pension entitlements;

P.  whereas figures show that on average in the EU 29,5 % of women with disabilities are at risk of falling victim to poverty and social exclusion, compared with 27,5 % of their male counterparts;

Q.  whereas women from more vulnerable groups, such as young women, women with disabilities, women with a migrant background, Roma women, women from religious or ethnic minorities, as well as LBTQI+ women, face additional and intersecting forms of discrimination when accessing education, healthcare, employment and social services, and are therefore exposed to a higher risk of poverty;

R.  whereas Roma people face discrimination in accessing employment initiatives such as the Youth Guarantee; whereas public employment services often lack the capacity to reach them or apply indirect discrimination practices;

S.  whereas, in relation to poverty data, the statistical household unit defines poverty within households, and does not consider the gender inequalities in the internal distribution of resources, making it difficult to obtain reliable gender-disaggregated data;

T.   whereas women's poverty increases the risk of homelessness, lack of access to adequate housing and energy poverty; whereas policy measures tailored specifically to single parents are needed;

U.   whereas gender equality in the labour market is an important instrument for eliminating poverty among women that benefits not only women but the economy as a whole, with a positive impact on GDP, employment levels and productivity; whereas improving gender equality would lead to an increase in EU GDP per capita of between 6,1 and 9,6 % and an additional 10,5 million jobs, which would benefit both women and men, by 2050;

V.  whereas although work in highly female-dominated sectors is essential and of high socioeconomic value, it is undervalued and lower paid than work in male-dominated sectors; whereas there is an urgent need to reassess the adequacy of wages in female-dominated sectors related to their social and economic value and to move forward on minimum wages, minimum income and pay transparency in EU regulations;

W.   whereas the right to work is an essential precondition if women are to enjoy economic independence, professional fulfilment and effective equal rights;

X.  whereas the average gender employment gap stands at 11,5 %, with women disproportionally highly represented in low-paid, precarious job sectors; whereas women are more represented in flexible work forms, atypical and flexible contracts (part-time work, temporary work, etc.); whereas women face pregnancy and maternity discrimination; whereas the gender pay gap stood at 14,1 % at EU level in 2019, though there were significant differences between Member States(20); whereas the gender gap in earnings has increased in 17 Member States since 2010, while the gender gap in income has gone up in 19 Member States, leading to an overall increase in gender inequality in earnings and income in the EU(21); whereas about 10 % of the working population in the EU is at risk of poverty, and it is mainly women who are paid minimum wage or less than a living wage, owing, among other things, to the greater involvement of women in the informal economy; whereas combating undeclared work and setting adequate and fair levels of minimum wages that provide for a decent standard of living can help to reduce wage inequality, the gender pay gap and female poverty;

Y.  whereas the European Social Charter recognises the right of all workers, and therefore also female workers, to fair remuneration that is sufficient for a decent standard of living for themselves and their families, and the right to equal pay for work of equal value; whereas, furthermore, it establishes the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion, and it is contributing to reducing the existing pay gap between men and women;

Z.   whereas the rate of trans people in paid employment is only 51 %, compared with 69,3 % of the general population; whereas unemployment is a particular issue for trans women, who are nearly three times as likely to be unemployed as the general population average(22);

AA.  whereas only 20,7 % of women with disabilities and 28,6 % of men with disabilities are in full-time employment; whereas in some Member States, persons with disabilities often lose their disability entitlements upon taking up employment, which increases their risk of in-work poverty;

AB.  whereas the gender pension gap averaged 29,4 % in 2019(23) as a result of the imbalances created by persistent lifelong inequalities; whereas this pension gap means that women are more likely to fall below the poverty line as they get older, also bearing in mind that female life expectancy is longer than male life expectancy, deepening the consequences of poverty and social exclusion; whereas greater labour inclusion throughout a person’s lifetime will help to close the gender pension gap;

AC.   whereas the technological and digital revolution we are witnessing is increasing digital progress and new business opportunities and whereas this technological and digital revolution is changing economic patterns, social systems and the labour market; whereas everyone in our society, especially women, must have the chance to participate in this prosperity;

AD.   whereas policies targeted at increasing the participation of women in the fields related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and artificial intelligence, and the adoption of a multi-level approach to address the gender gap at all levels of education and employment in the digital sector need to be further promoted;

AE.   whereas girls outperform boys in school but often encounter greater difficulties or are prevented from translating this educational success into professional accomplishment by family and other pressures;

AF.   whereas women who live in rural areas are particularly affected by poverty; whereas many women who live in rural areas are not even registered on the labour market or as unemployed; whereas the rate of unemployment among women in rural areas is extremely high, and those who are employed have very low incomes; whereas women in rural areas have limited access to education;

AG.  whereas a common EU approach to the care sector, in addition to Member State policies, would create significant added value; whereas women take on unpaid care work more often than men, and caring for children or dependants is therefore one of the most common reasons for women to reduce their working hours or withdraw from the labour market; whereas women more regularly put their careers on hold or take on short-term, part-time, precarious or even informal employment that can be adapted to a caregiving schedule, which affects their earnings and their contributions to their pension funds and thus has an impact on their economic independence in old age; whereas universal access to high-quality healthcare and social services and facilities at affordable prices, such as early childhood care and education or care for other dependants, is not only key for avoiding increasing poverty, especially for women, but is also critical for an economy that serves the public interest; whereas investment in these services therefore has a positive impact on women’s economic independence and their ability to participate in the labour market; whereas social protection measures are absolutely key for tackling female poverty, not only economically but also in its multidimensionality;

AH.  whereas poverty exacerbates the impacts of gender-based violence on women as increased economic difficulties make it hard for women in abusive relationships to leave their partner; whereas gender-based violence is a structural problem that can be found across all socioeconomic groups and is independent of origin or belief; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation as it makes them and their families economically dependent on their abusers; whereas gender-based violence also contributes to poverty and social exclusion as violence has consequences for health and can lead to the loss of one’s job and homelessness;

AI.  whereas harassment at the workplace, including sexual and psychological harassment, of which women are usually the victims, has a deterrent effect on women, including increased absenteeism, reduced productivity and consequently loss of income and contributes to driving them out of the labour market, which has a negative impact on an individual’s career and economic independence; whereas reporting harassment at the workplace can lead to dismissal or isolation of the victim;

AJ.  whereas it is estimated that currently 1 in 10 girls cannot afford sanitary products; whereas in its resolution of 15 January 2019 on gender equality and taxation policies in the EU, Parliament called on all Member States to eliminate the so-called care and tampon tax by making use of the flexibility introduced in the VAT Directive and by applying tax exemptions or 0 % VAT rates to these essential basic goods;

AK.  whereas Russia’s war against Ukraine is resulting in a further increase in poverty, especially among women, both because it forces Ukrainian women and children to flee to neighbouring countries and due to the rising prices of basic services and goods that all Europeans are experiencing, but which particularly affect those who already have fewer resources;

1.  Points out that, according to Eurostat, there are currently 64,6 million women and 57,6 million men living in poverty in the Member States, which shows that the impact of poverty on women and men is different; calls on the Commission to develop an ambitious 2030 European anti-poverty strategy, with concrete targets for reducing poverty and a focus on ending women’s poverty and breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty risks;

2.  Underlines that women’s poverty also needs to be analysed from an intersectional approach, which entails a gender-sensitive analysis that takes into account intersecting forms of discrimination on the grounds of characteristics such as socioeconomic background, migrant and ethnic origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; calls for the EIGE’s Gender Equality Index to be incorporated into the social scoreboard; calls on the EIGE to provide data disaggregated intersectionally and by gender, and calls on the Member States to use this data in order to better address country-specific challenges and develop national recovery plans, as well as to improve synergies among different packages, funds and policies;

3.  Underlines the importance of policies that take into account the demographic challenge and promote equal opportunities for all, particularly those that are most hit by the crisis, such as vulnerable groups, families in all their diversity, the young generation and the elderly, and of ensuring that all business opportunities offered by the current technological and digital revolution should focus on women;

4.  Calls on the Member States to do similar and regular work on collecting and analysing disaggregated data when they design or evaluate their policies and practices in order to gather information and figures on the situation of women in specific precarious conditions, such as women suffering from energy precariousness, the digital divide, occupational diseases, undernutrition and malnutrition;

5.   Urges the Commission and the Member States to effectively address the inequalities women face, tackling their main components, and therefore barriers in the labour market, as well as access to affordable quality services such as childcare and long-term care services and to promote access to public pension schemes for self-employed people, inactive persons, the unemployed (either short or long term), or those in ‘atypical’ employment;

6.   Notes that poverty continues to be measured based on accumulated household income, which assumes that all members of the household earn the same and distribute resources equally; calls for individualised rights and calculations based on individual income in order to combat the true extent of women’s poverty;

7.  Calls for multidimensionality in measuring poverty, including time poverty; calls on Eurostat to coordinate with Member States the gender-sensitive design of the European Time Use Survey and how regular it should be carried out;

8.  Welcomes the Commission’s announcement of a ‘European care strategy’, but calls on it to go beyond measures in the care sector and ensure a transition towards a caring economy that takes a holistic, gender-responsive and lifelong approach to care, including measures to promote ecological sustainability, fair working conditions and adequate wages in order to maintain the attractiveness of work in the care sector, end discrimination, combat poverty, violence and abuse, set minimum standards and adequate quality guidelines for care throughout a person’s lifetime and provide support for formal and informal carers, unpaid carers and the people they care for; calls on the Member States to create incentives for employers to promote a better work-life balance;

9.   Notes that all Member States have increased care packages during the pandemic and introduced special provisions for single-parent households; urges the Member States to extend such provisions during the recovery period;

10.  Is convinced that the axiom that ‘work is the best cure for poverty’ no longer applies today in the face of low-wage sectors, atypical and precarious working conditions and the dismantling of social security systems and that effective collective agreements and minimum wage systems are needed to achieve a poverty-free society;

11.   Calls on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee sufficient financial protection, not only for people with lifelong employment, but also for those who provide unpaid care work for dependants and household and educational care services, those who are in precarious employment and those who experience long periods of unemployment;

12.   Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote policies that aim to eliminate precarious work and involuntary part-time work in order to improve the situation for women in the labour market;

13.  Stresses the pivotal role of women working in the social, care, cleaning, education, health and retail sectors that keep our societies functioning, as shown by the COVID-19 crisis; calls for typically female-dominated work to be reassessed and revaluated and for cross-sector gender-neutral job evaluation tools to be developed and applied in order to better assess and more fairly remunerate female-dominated work and ensure equal pay for equal work and work of equal value, while at the same time strengthening women’s entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises;

14.   Notes that the vast majority of retail workers and cleaners are women and are often only paid the minimum wage, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has put them at even greater risk of poverty; stresses the urgent need to improve wages and combat precarious employment; urges the Member States to raise the status of health professionals by means of decent wages and working conditions and, in particular, by concluding proper employment contracts;

15.  Highlights that in order to tackle the multidimensionality of women’s poverty, it is necessary to overcome the segregation of unpaid domestic work and care responsibilities mainly performed by women and strengthen the fight against stereotypes in order to reinforce care service work-life balance measures and family-friendly working arrangements, such as adaptable working hours and the possibility of teleworking to promote the ‘equal earner-equal carer’ model (time use policy)(24),so as to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional life with their private life; urges the Member States to fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive so as to ensure a fair division of work and family life, and invites them to go beyond the directive’s minimum standards; stresses that in-work poverty needs to be addressed at its root causes, for example by promoting education and training, establishing minimum wages and ensuring social protection; calls on the Commission to urge the Member States to invest in qualitative education and training and support them in doing so, to share good practices and to pay specific attention to lifelong learning;

16.   Stresses that women are disproportionately, and often involuntarily, concentrated in precarious work, including high levels of part-time work and low-paid, fixed-term and zero-hour contracts; urges the Member States to implement the International Labour Organization recommendations intended to reduce the scale of precarious work, such as restricting the circumstances in which precarious contracts can be used and limiting the length of time workers can be employed on such contracts;

17.  Calls on the Member States to implement active and effective policies to prevent and combat harassment in the workplace, including sexual and psychological harassment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure proper and adequate funding mechanisms for programmes and actions to combat harassment in the workplace, including mechanisms to support women in reporting cases of harassment; calls on the Member States and the EU to ratify International Labour Organization Convention No 190 on eliminating violence and harassment in the world of work;

18.  Stresses the importance of increasing awareness about the consequences of women’s choices in the labour market and the importance of their economic independence to protect them from poverty and social exclusion;

19.  Expresses its concern that women with children are discriminated against in the workplace because they are mothers and not because their job performance is inferior to that of their peers; urges the Member States to actively promote a positive image of mothers as employees;

20.  Underlines the crucial role of high-quality public services in combating women’s poverty, in particular services for early childhood education and care, or care for other dependants such as elderly people; calls on the Member States to establish appropriate mechanisms to recognise this life achievement;

21.  Stresses that climate change also has a big impact on female poverty as women are more dependent on natural resources and, since they constitute the majority of poor people in the EU, have fewer resources to protect themselves against the negative effects of climate change; regrets that a gender perspective has not been consistently introduced in the EU’s climate policies; calls on the Commission to mainstream gender equality into the EU’s climate change policies and legislation; is of the opinion that the Fit for 55 package and the social climate fund should be designed and implemented with a clear gender dimension and benefit women as equally as men;

22.  Calls for the EU and the Member States to protect women living in energy poverty by providing a timely and coordinated response to address the long-term impact of the energy crisis; highlights that access to affordable utilities must be guaranteed to low-income households, and in particular older women and single mothers;

23.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to mainstream gender equality into all policies, programmes and actions and establish better work-life balance policies and adequate measures to guarantee women’s participation in the labour market, such as better maternity leave, significantly longer paternity leave periods, paid and non-transferable parental leave, flexible working hours, on-site childcare facilities, care services and remote working policies; stresses the importance of gender mainstreaming and tailoring the economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the specific needs of women and the structure of their economic activities;

24.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to mainstream gender equality into all transport-related legislation, policies, programmes and actions and to include a gender perspective in the design of mobility, affordable housing and urban planning;

25.  Highlights that homelessness among women should not be underestimated and misperceived as a minor social problem in the EU; points at the lack of comprehensive disaggregated data on the nature and extent of women’s homelessness, which makes this problem less visible; urges the EU and its Member States to integrate a gender perspective into policies and practices that address homelessness and the lack of access to affordable and adequate housing and energy, and to develop specific strategies aimed at eradicating these problems by 2030, while ensuring that services work appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of homeless women; stresses the importance of recognising gender-based violence as one of the root causes aggravating the risk of homelessness among women, and stresses the need to look at how women’s needs intersect with broader socioeconomic and structural barriers; calls on all actors to integrate a gender perspective into the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness; is convinced that the ‘housing first’ principle can play an important role in fighting homelessness and calls for these projects to be rolled out in all Member States;

26.  Notes that the worsening social and economic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased all forms of abuse and violence towards women, as well as prostitution, in violation of their human rights; underlines the need to increase public, financial and human resources in order to support groups at risk of poverty and tackle situations posing a risk to children and young people, the elderly, people with disabilities and the homeless;

27.  Notes that women’s economic independence plays a crucial role in their ability to escape situations of gender-based violence; calls, therefore, for the provision of support and protection measures to support women in these situations, the adoption of a comprehensive directive on preventing and combating all forms of gender-based violence, the addition of gender-based violence in the list of EU crimes, the EU ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the ratification thereof by Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia; stresses that a life free from violence is fundamental if women are to participate in the labour market, reach their full potential and be financially independent; condemns deliberate disinformation about tools and initiatives to combat gender-based violence in the EU; expresses concern that this disinformation is gaining a foothold in Europe and thus making it even more difficult to protect women from violence;

28.  Calls on the Member States to combat harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, early and forced marriage and so-called ‘honour-related violence’, which specifically injures and limits young women and girls;

29.   Considers prostitution to be a serious form of violence and exploitation affecting mostly women and children; calls on the Member States to take specific action to combat the economic, social and cultural causes of prostitution so that women in a situation of poverty and social exclusion do not fall victim to such exploitation; calls on the Member States to take specific action to help prostitutes with their social and professional reintegration;

30.   Calls on the Commission to propose proactive measures through the European social funds and the European agricultural fund for rural development to promote women’s employment, the facilitation of access to social services and socioeconomic development in rural areas; encourages the Member States, in cooperation with regional and local authorities, to reduce the risk of poverty among women in rural areas by empowering them and improving their quality of life through the provision of quality educational programmes and quality employment conditions, including teleworking and a decent income; calls for positive action encouraging women farmers in particular to stay in rural areas, including the promotion of community centres that can provide technical advice and assistance to keep farms operating and help them to survive and encourage young people to invest in agriculture and livestock to ensure its long-term survival;

31.  Stresses the crucial role of all EU social funds and programmes, particularly the European Social Fund Plus, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers, the Just Transition Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund; highlights that through the ESF+, the Member States and the Commission should aim to mitigate the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis, particularly on women, to increase the numbers of women in employment and help them to reconcile their work and personal lives, to combat poverty and its gender dimension, the feminisation of poverty and gender discrimination in the labour market and in education and training, to support the most vulnerable and to combat child poverty; calls on the Member States to make full use of funds with a gender perspective;

32.   Emphasises that national efforts to ensure Roma inclusion should be accelerated in all Member States; calls on the Commission to promote inclusion and thereby ensure the participation of Roma girls and women at all levels, including those working at local, regional and EU level; points out that this should take into account equality between men and women and focus on the elevation of Member States’ good practices to Union level;

33.   Calls on the Commission and the Member States to supplement the EU’s financial aid with study programmes and projects that give talented Roma girls and women the opportunity to use continuing education to free themselves from intergenerational poverty, promoting their social integration and developing their knowledge, with a view to improving the situation of the Roma community; calls on the Member States to indicate the level of support they would need in order to implement the recommended measures to integrate the Roma population;

34.  Underlines that an increase in women’s poverty has a great impact on wider society; expresses concern about the impact this will have in terms of child poverty; welcomes, in this regard, the adoption of Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee;

35.  Highlights the major contribution of women in the fields of employment, culture, education, science, and research; recognises the profound deterioration in the living conditions of women employed in arts and culture, and in micro and small agricultural and rural businesses resulting from the suspension of economic and cultural activities during the pandemic period;

36.  Calls for a gender-sensitive approach to the digital transition; urges the Commission to use existing programmes and funding and make available additional funding where needed to fight against women’s digital poverty in order to equip women with the necessary skills to operate safely in the digital environment, and to improve their digital literacy;

37.   Calls on the Commission and the Member States to investigate barriers to female entrepreneurship and in particular to conduct a comprehensive analysis of women’s access to finance, helping to end female poverty in the European Union by empowering women to become entrepreneurs and founders of small and medium-sized enterprises contributing to the twin transition; notes that women’s entrepreneurship creates jobs, strengthens the single market and reduces unemployment; notes that a reduced bureaucratic burden for entrepreneurs removes barriers to ensure more women can start businesses; emphasises the importance of knowledge about entrepreneurship and practical experience in schools; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote women’s empowerment through education, vocational training and lifelong learning; calls, in particular, for greater promotion of STEM subjects and digital, artificial intelligence and financial literacy, in order to combat prevailing stereotypes and ensure that more women enter these sectors and contribute to their development;

38.  Calls on the Member States to ensure that all new fiscal policy, including taxation which has a clear gender dimension, tackles and eliminates socioeconomic and gender inequalities in all their dimensions(25); calls on the Member States to avoid gender discrimination in their tax policies and eliminate VAT on women’s sanitary goods, which disproportionally jeopardises the dignity of lower-income women, and thereby ensure that all women have access to these essential products;

39.  Calls on the Member States to take the gender dimension into account when reforming pension systems and adapting the retirement age and to consider the differences between the work patterns of women and men, including all unpaid employment practices, taking into account the higher risk of discrimination of women in the labour market, in particular older women; urges the Member States to take specific measures to prevent and combat the risk of poverty for older and retired women resulting from population ageing and the proportion of older women in disadvantaged or vulnerable positions; calls on the Member States to include compensation for unpaid care work in their pension systems, for example through care credits or other measures added to the carer’s pension, irrespective of whether the care is provided to underage children, elderly persons or sick or disabled persons, while at the same time encouraging men to become carers;

40.  Calls on the Commission to refrain from promoting any policy recommendation that would lead to an increase in precarious working relations, the deregulation of working hours, a reduction in salaries, an attack on collective bargaining or the privatisation of public services and social security;

41.  Welcomes the ongoing negotiations for the adoption of a directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union; calls for the EU institutions to adopt an EU framework favouring the establishment or adaptation of a minimum wage per country based inter alia on a national basket of goods and services at real prices, including, among other things, adequate housing, healthy and balanced food, clothing, sustainable transport and energy, health and care and resources enabling people to meaningfully participate in society, culture and education, which would ensure a decent standard of living that would partially help to reduce in-work poverty, in particular for women; calls for fair and adequate minimum wages in the Member States as a necessary safeguard to ensure fairer wage distribution and to guarantee a wage floor protecting women and men in the labour market; is of the opinion that the creation of a minimum wage framework must be achieved and preserved through clear rules, transparent procedures and effective practices, using criteria and guiding indicators to assess adequacy and with the contribution of consultative bodies, among others, and the involvement of social partners;

42.  Calls on the Member States to be ambitious in their implementation of the European Child Guarantee and the Pay Transparency Directive, as well as the future Directive on Minimum Wages and Recommendation on Minimum Income;

43.  Regrets that overall, gender mainstreaming has not yet been applied across the EU budget, as pointed out by the European Court of Auditors, and calls for this situation to be reversed as a matter of urgency; underlines that gender mainstreaming has to be applied at all levels of the policy cycle and must be based on reliable data; highlights the importance of the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting, including in all programmes in the 2022 budget, in order to achieve gender equality and eliminate women’s poverty; calls on the Commission, in this context, to accelerate the introduction of an effective, transparent and comprehensive methodology and to closely cooperate with Parliament in measuring relevant gender expenditure, as provided for in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making(26), in order to be able to show tangible results for the 2022 budget and with a view to extending the methodology to all multiannual financial framework programmes;

44.  Points out that the EU’s fiscal capacity requires a potential revision of the current economic and social governance to reduce inequalities and female poverty and achieve gender equality; calls for economic and social governance to be consistent with the achievement of gender equality objectives and for the ending of female poverty;

45.  Calls on the Council to establish a dedicated configuration on gender equality in order to deliver common and concrete measures to address the challenges in the field of women’s rights and gender equality and ensure that gender equality issues are discussed at the highest political level;

46.  Calls on the Commission and Member States to analyse the unequal gender impact of inflation and energy price hikes triggered in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine and to take this into account when implementing measures to alleviate its impact on the poorest;

47.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 223, 22.6.2021, p. 14. (2) OJ L 204, 26.7.2006, p. 23. (3) OJ L 188, 12.7.2019, p. 79. (4) OJ C 233 E, 28.9.2006, p. 130. (5) OJ C 199 E, 7.7.2012, p. 77. (6) OJ C 51 E, 22.2.2013, p. 56. (7) OJ C 76, 28.2.2018, p. 93. (8) OJ C 298, 23.8.2018, p. 14. (9) OJ C 331, 18.9.2018, p. 60. (10) OJ C 346, 27.9.2018, p. 6. (11) OJ C 363, 28.10.2020, p. 80. (12) OJ C 411, 27.11.2020, p. 38. (13) OJ C 331, 17.8.2021, p. 5. (14) OJ C 456, 10.11.2021, p. 191. (15) OJ C 99, 1.3.2022, p. 122. (16) OJ C 465, 17.11.2021, p. 62. (17) OJ C 58, 15.2.2018, p. 192. (18) Eurostat webpage entitled ‘Living conditions in Europe – poverty and social exclusion’, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at:https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Living_conditions_in_Europe_-_poverty_and_social_exclusion&oldid=544210 (19) European Institute for Gender Equality, ‘Gender Equality Index 2020: Digitalisation and the future of work’, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020. (20) Eurostat webpage entitled ‘Gender pay gap statistics’, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Gender_pay_gap_statistics (21) ‘Gender pay gap statistics’. (22) https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/7341d588-ddd8-11ea-adf7-01aa75ed71a1/language-en (23) Eurostat article of 3 February 2021 entitled ‘Closing the gender pension gap?’. (24) EIGE Gender Statistics Database, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs/browse/ta/ta_timeuse (25) Report by Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of April 2017 entitled ‘Gender equality and taxation in the European Union’. (26) OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1.

European Parliament recommendation of 5 July 2022 to the Council and the Commission on the negotiations for a cooperation agreement between the European Union and the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-INTERPOL) (2022/2025(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0275 A9-0200/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

–  having regard to the TFEU, and in particular Article 16, Article 82(1) and Article 87(2) thereof,

–  having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’), and in particular Articles 7, 8, 47 and 52 thereof,

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)(1),

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA(2) (Law Enforcement Directive),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data(3) (EUDPR), and in particular Article 42(1) thereof,

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/794 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and replacing and repealing Council Decisions 2009/371/JHA, 2009/934/JHA, 2009/935/JHA, 2009/936/JHA and2009/968/JHA(4),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2019 on the European Border and Coast Guard and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1052/2013 and (EU) 2016/1624(5),

–  having regard to Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (‘the EPPO’)(6),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2018/1727 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust)(7),

–  having regard to Opinion 8/2021 of the European Data Protection Supervisor of 25 May 2021 on the Recommendation for a Council decision authorising the opening of negotiations for a cooperation agreement between the EU and Interpol,

–  having regard the study of its Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of February 2022 entitled ‘Ensuring the rights of EU citizens against politically motivated Red Notices’,

–  having regard to Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data,

–  having regard to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s resolutions 2161 (2017) on abusive recourse to the Interpol system: the need for more stringent legal safeguards and 2315 (2019) on Interpol reform and extradition proceedings: building trust by fighting abuse,

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of borders and visa and amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1726 and (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA(8),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration and amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1726, (EU) 2018/1862 and (EU) 2019/816(9),

–  having regard to Rules 114(4) and 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (A9-0200/2022),

A.  whereas present-day terrorism and serious and organised crime are dynamic, complex, innovative, globalised, mobile and often transnational phenomena, requiring a robust response and more effective, coordinated EU cooperation with international law enforcement authorities and bodies such as the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol); whereas the Commission’s 2020 EU Security Union strategy calls on the Member States to step up multilateral cooperation and coordination between the EU and Interpol, as this is essential to enhancing cooperation and information exchange; whereas Parliament’s resolution of 17 December 2020 on the EU Security Union strategy(10) stresses the need for stronger cooperation between the Member States and for better coordination at EU level between all actors;

B.  whereas effective international cooperation, in full respect of fundamental rights, is an important component of effective law enforcement and judicial cooperation, especially on types of crime involving the processing and sharing of personal data; whereas the legality of processing personal data is governed by the Union data protection acquis, and whereas that also applies to bilateral agreements with key partners who play an important role in obtaining information and potential evidence from beyond the EU;

C.  whereas Interpol is the world’s largest international criminal police organisation and has an important role to play all over the world; whereas Interpol is based on inter-governmental cooperation; whereas in December 2021, the Council adopted a negotiating mandate for the Commission to enter into negotiations, with the expectation of concluding by the end of 2022, on an international agreement on behalf of the EU seeking reinforced cooperation with Interpol, including access to Interpol’s databases and the strengthening of operational cooperation; whereas it is paramount to ensure that the final agreement puts in place robust measures to guarantee compliance with the principles relating to the processing of personal data, as set out in the Union data protection acquis, as well as the correctness of the personal data received through such cooperation, and to ensure that all future cooperation and exchange of personal data respect fundamental rights, including the right to data protection and privacy;

D.  whereas the EU and Interpol already have long-standing cooperation in a range of law enforcement-related areas through the operational implementation of the EU policy cycle / EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) and by supporting the activities of Member States in cooperation with EU agencies, such as the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training , the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, and the EU Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, on the basis of agreements or working arrangements; whereas on 5 November 2001, Europol and Interpol signed an operational agreement followed by a memorandum of understanding allowing the transfer of personal data through their respective liaison officers; whereas on 27 May 2009 Frontex signed a working agreement with Interpol establishing a framework for cooperation with the objective of facilitating the prevention, detection and combating of cross-border crime and improving border security to combat illegal immigration, people smuggling and trafficking in human beings;

E.  whereas individual EU Member States, in their capacity as Interpol member countries, can directly access Interpol’s 19 databases, which include potentially valuable information on individuals, stolen property, weapons and threats; whereas these databases contain millions of records with information that could directly help to combat serious and organised crime and terrorism; whereas Frontex, Eurojust and the EPPO currently do not have any access to these databases, in line with their mandates – either directly or on a ‘hit/no hit’ basis – due to the lack of an agreement with Interpol, which is required for this purpose under Interpol’s rules on the processing of data;

F.  whereas current cooperation between the EU and Interpol is already close in the area of counterterrorism; whereas it should be stepped up and extended to new areas; whereas procedures should be improved, accelerated and streamlined to address a series of indispensable operational needs in order to facilitate swift access to information related to serious and organised crime and terrorism and to implement existing Union legal acts;

G.  whereas the EU is the largest donor of funds to Interpol, which are mainly assigned to information exchanges in the field of law enforcement, but also include border management cooperation and capacity building activities, and to projects and programmes targeting a range of terrorism and serious crime activities; whereas this gives the EU an important role to play in improving the functioning of Interpol, and in particular, its transparency and accountability;

H.  whereas the new agreement should establish a modern and coherent framework for the cooperation of EU bodies and agencies with Interpol, based on the already existing modes of cooperation; whereas the agreement should be in compliance with the general requirements of the Charter, the applicable Union data protection acquis, namely the EUDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive, the specific data protection requirements and safeguards laid down in the basic acts establishing the EU bodies, agencies and IT systems and the relevant Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) jurisprudence and fundamental rights standards;

I.  whereas the agreement should respond to operational needs, taking into account the latest developments in combating terrorism and cross-border, transnational, serious and organised crime; whereas the agreement provides the legal basis for the exchange of operational information, including personal data, and access to relevant Interpol databases by Union bodies and agencies in line with their mandates, under the condition that the agreement is legally binding and enforceable against all parties and that it includes all the necessary data protection safeguards;

J.   whereas no fundamental rights impact assessment on the Commission Recommendation has been carried out;

K.  whereas the adoption of the Union legal framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the area of justice and home affairs in May 2019 led to exploratory talks between the EU and Interpol on the need to enter into a cooperation agreement; whereas an advanced and shared data infrastructure is currently in place in the EU for police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration, as well as borders and visas; whereas this infrastructure, and the IT systems and EU databases that constitute it, allows for limited and highly regulated information sharing with third countries or international organisations;

L.  whereas the new agreement should govern cooperation between Interpol and Europol, the EPPO, Eurojust and Frontex and provide direct access by these bodies, agencies and Member States for purposes strictly linked to the performance of their tasks, as regulated in their respective basic acts to two of Interpol’s databases – the Stolen and Lost Travel Document (SLTD) and Travel Document Associated With Notices (TDAWN) databases via the European Search Portal (ESP), in compliance with EU data protection requirements and in full respect of fundamental rights;

M.  whereas according to the Interpol constitution, Interpol is obliged not to assist or aid member countries that act in violation of international human rights law;

N.  whereas governmental, international and non-governmental organisations continue to report abuses by some member countries of Interpol’s notice and diffusion system in order to persecute political opponents, national human rights defenders, lawyers, civil society activists and journalists, in violation of international standards on human rights and Interpol’s own rules; whereas according to reports by the Commission and civil society organisations, Interpol has reformed and strengthened its red notices review processes, as well as its support systems for National Central Bureaus in member countries, reformed the setup and functioning of the Commission for the Control of Files, which enforces its complaints mechanism, appointed a data protection officer and implemented a learning and knowledge-sharing programme; whereas despite those reforms, serious concerns remain related to possible abuses of the Interpol system that impact fundamental rights, as recent reports still emphasise the need for more legal safeguards, more transparency and better implementation of reforms; whereas there are significant challenges with the mechanisms to update information regarding red notices and diffusions, as they sometimes remain in effect in the national databases despite having been updated and removed by the General Secretariat of Interpol; whereas both written sources and interviews with governmental and non-governmental organisations suggest that Interpol’s vetting process remains inconsistent;

O.  whereas Article 3 of Interpol’s constitution prohibits any intervention or activity of political, military, religious or racial character; whereas abuses in high profile cases in multiple member countries of Interpol have still been observed in recent years; whereas politically motivated extraditions are often triggered by the abusive issuing of a red notice or ‘wanted person diffusion’ through Interpol; whereas scarce information is made available by Interpol on the manner in which it reviews red notices, its administrative ability to do so and the outcomes of these reviews, leading to a lack of transparency as regards how Interpol works towards effectively countering politically motivated red notices; whereas member countries and other international organisations have little access to information about the overall handling of red notices and diffusions; whereas no information is available on the countries making the requests for such notices, how many requests are accepted and refused, the grounds for refusal, which countries perform better or worse in terms of acceptance or refusal of requests and the development of these practices over time; whereas this makes it impossible to evaluate the quality of the General Secretariat of Interpol’s vetting process, the work of the National Central Bureaus or the quality of the requests submitted by countries;

P.  whereas Parliament, in its resolution of 16 September 2021 on the case of human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor in the United Arab Emirates(11), expressed deep concern about the candidacy and appointment as Interpol’s president of the General Inspector of the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates, Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, and called on the members of Interpol’s General Assembly, and in particular the EU Member States, to duly examine the allegations of human rights abuses levelled against him; whereas on 11 May 2022, investigations into claims of torture were opened against Interpol’s president in France;

Q.  whereas cooperation between the European Union and Interpol is underpinned by trust in Interpol’s system and internal processes; whereas trust in Interpol’s system of red notices and diffusions relies on the prevention and swift tackling of misuse of Interpol notices by countries seeking to use Interpol systems for political and repressive ends; whereas, Interpol must ensure that the personal data processed internally through its systems complies with human rights and the rule of law;

R.  whereas numerous authoritarian countries still remain member countries of Interpol; whereas in recent years authoritarian regimes have been successful in politically abusing the system of red notices and diffusions, persecuting individuals outside of their jurisdictions and subjecting them to real, practical, and invasive restrictions on their lives and fundamental rights;

S.  whereas Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a direct threat to international law enforcement cooperation and its continued access to Interpol’s databases is a threat to the integrity of the EU’s cooperation with Interpol; whereas Russia is responsible for a very large number of red notices and diffusions worldwide and is responsible for circulating most politically motivated red notices, including against EU citizens – such as the Lithuanian judges, prosecutors and investigators looking into the events in Vilnius on 13 January 1991; whereas besides Russia, other countries have also used the system of red notices to politically target their citizens;

1.  Recalls that EU values, fundamental rights and the Union data protection acquis, namely the EUDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive, must be the basis of Union policy in the area of law enforcement cooperation, ensuring compliance with the principles of necessity, proportionality, legality and the presumption of innocence, and guaranteeing accountability and judicial redress, while ensuring effective protection of individuals, particularly the most vulnerable; recalls, further, that compliance with these rights and principles, including the right to privacy and the protection of personal data, should be at the core of the development of digitalisation in the area of justice and security and the development of the interoperability framework; stresses that these principles should be at the core of the negotiations between the EU and Interpol on a cooperation agreement;

2.  Underlines the absolute necessity of basing the agreement with Interpol on the full respect of the Charter, the Union data protection acquis and the specific data protection requirements and safeguards codified in the basic acts establishing the relevant EU agencies, bodies and large-scale IT systems and their respective mandates; stresses, therefore, that the Council Decision on the possible conclusion of this envisaged agreement should also be based on Article 16 TFEU;

3.  Notes that prior to adopting the Recommendation for a Council Decision authorising the opening of negotiations for a cooperation agreement between the European Union and Interpol, the Commission did not perform a fundamental rights impact assessment on the necessity and proportionality of each envisaged measure or on the legal feasibility of all envisaged measures under a single overarching agreement;

4.  Recommends that the Commission follow the Council’s differentiation between the areas of law enforcement, judicial cooperation in criminal matters and border security as part of border management;

5.  Recommends that the Commission ensure access to Interpol’s different databases on the basis of the needs and according to the scope of competences laid down in the respective mandates of the different EU bodies and agencies; recalls that Interpol’s databases contain millions of records with information that could potentially help to combat crime; recalls, however, that there are documented problems with the accuracy, reliability and origin of the data within those databases that should be addressed;

6.  Stresses that the Commission should guarantee controlled access to Interpol’s databases by EU Member States, and EU bodies and agencies, and should also ensure the necessary concrete, specific and effective safeguards for each type of cooperation included in the envisaged agreement in order to ensure full compliance with the Union data protection acquis, with the specific safeguards and data protection requirements stipulated by the legal bases of the Union bodies, agencies and the EU large-scale IT systems, and with, fundamental rights; stresses that regarding the controlled access to the databases, the agreement should at least comply with the safeguards already provided by the Interoperability Regulations(12), the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) Regulation(13) legal base and Regulation (EU) 2016/794;

7.  Recommends that the Commission negotiate with Interpol on requirements relating to high standards for the quality and verifiability of information in Interpol’s databases and the transparency of information sources;

8.  Expects special vigilance during the negotiations due to the sensitivity of personal data included in the various databases and to the fact that most third country members of Interpol do not offer an adequate level of data protection and are not party to an international agreement pursuant to Article 218 TFEU allowing for the exchange of operational personal data with the EU;

9.  Calls on the Commission to introduce the necessary robust safeguards and guarantees to ensure compliance with EU data protection requirements and fundamental rights in order to authorise the ETIAS Central Unit established within Frontex and the EU Member States to access Interpol’s SLTD and TDAWN databases via the ESP, and as are needed to efficiently implement the Visa Information System (VIS) Regulation(14), as later revised, authorising EU Member States to access Interpol’s SLTD and TDAWN databases via the ESP when examining applications for visas or residence permits; insists that, when hits occur, no information be shared with Interpol or the owner of the data in Interpol’s databases and recalls that, as provided for in the ETIAS and VIS Regulations, until this is agreed upon and practically guaranteed, the two systems will not be checking against the Interpol databases;

10.  Recommends that the envisaged agreement clearly set out which EU bodies and agencies should have access rights to which specific Interpol databases, and for which of their specific tasks and purposes; considers that the envisaged agreement should not create an obligation for EU agencies to cooperate with Interpol beyond what is already set out in relevant Union law;

Data protection, processing and storage of personal data, judicial redress

11.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that the agreement complies with the EU data protection acquis and protects individuals’ fundamental rights and freedoms by ensuring a level of protection for personal data processed under this agreement that is essentially equivalent to that of EU primary and secondary law; stresses that the envisaged cooperation agreement should not lead to a weakening of the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons, in particular of their rights to data protection and to privacy, and should provide effective remedy to any violation of these rights;

12.  Stresses that the agreement should guarantee that the transfer of personal data is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for and proportionate to the purpose for which it is to be transferred, in line with the Union data protection acquis; highlights further that it should provide for the possibility to introduce any restriction on access or use, including a restriction on further transfers, or erasure at the time of transfer; stresses as well that data subjects must have their enforceable and effective rights ensured;

13.  Considers it is necessary to require that the purposes for which data may be transferred should be clearly indicated in the agreement and that any further data processing incompatible with the initial purpose should be prohibited; considers that the agreement has to clearly indicate that decisions based solely on the automated processing of personal information without human involvement are not allowed;

14.  Stresses that the envisaged agreement should clearly outline the procedures regarding Interpol’s obligation to notify in the event of a personal data breach, and the description of the minimum information to be provided with the notification of the breach; calls on the Commission to ensure in the agreement that Interpol notifies the relevant EU agencies and Member State authorities, including national data protection authorities, in the event of a personal data breach, without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours;

15.  Recommends that oversight of the data consulted be done by one or more independent bodies responsible for data protection with effective powers of investigation and intervention and with the power to hear complaints from individuals about the use of their personal data;

16.  Recommends that the Commission guarantee that Interpol does not retain data for longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was transferred; expects, in this context, the agreement to provide clear and specific rules on storage, including on storage limitation, review, rectification and deletion of personal data;

17.  Calls on the Commission to ensure effective and enforceable rights to administrative and judicial redress, and effective remedy for all data subjects, meaning any person whose data is processed under this agreement;

18.  Underlines that the agreement explicitly clarifies that Interpol will not have reciprocal direct or indirect access to EU databases;

Interoperability

19.  Stresses that law enforcement cooperation and information sharing are important tools to combat crime and terrorism and pursue justice, but they need to be targeted and subject to appropriate and predefined safeguards and oversight; underscores that they should address fundamental rights challenges, in particular by enhancing data quality, mitigating bias, detecting errors and avoiding any form of discrimination in the decision-making process;

20.  Recommends that particular attention be paid to fundamental rights challenges and the necessity of adequate mitigating measures and non-discrimination mechanisms, as well as improved data quality and protection with a view to the establishment of frameworks for future development of an enhanced connection between the EU’s and Interpol’s information systems in the fields of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration, as well as integrated borders management and visas, providing a pivotal legislative framework for current and future developments in the EU’s digital infrastructure;

21.  Recommends that in view of the rules governing access to personal data and information sharing in the different EU systems and databases, the terms of the future cooperation agreement with Interpol should provide the safeguards and guarantees needed to give Member States and relevant EU agencies controlled access to Interpol’s databases via the ESP as required to carry out their tasks, in line with their access rights and EU or national law covering such access and in full compliance with EU data protection requirements and fundamental rights;

22.  Recalls that Interpol’s databases contain a large volume of data on third country nationals’ travel documents, and that using these databases could minimise information gaps, increase positive matches and subsequently improve the operational results of the ETIAS and revised VIS Regulation; highlights that the cooperation agreement with Interpol should provide the required legal basis, including data protection safeguards and guarantees, and authorise the ESP to connect directly with Interpol databases; highlights that the cooperation agreement should therefore also provide scope for establishing secure ESP and the ETIAS connections with Interpol’s IT infrastructure, so as to allow access to Interpol’s databases;

23.  Stresses that in line with the current EU framework, the new agreement should guarantee that any automated queries of Interpol’s SLTD and TDAWN databases via the ESP using interoperability should be performed in such a way that no information is revealed to the state that is owner of the Interpol alert;

Transfer of data and onwards transfers

24.  Recalls that according to the Union data protection acquis, the transfer of personal data from the EU to third countries and international organisations is allowed only if the recipients of this information are able to guarantee an essentially equivalent level of personal data protection to that of the Union; underlines, in this context, that in the absence of an adequacy decision on Interpol, the agreement should constitute the legal basis allowing the transfer of personal data to Interpol, provided that it is legally binding and enforceable against all parties to the agreement and that it includes appropriate data protection safeguards;

25.  Stresses that the transfer of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origins, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person and data concerning a person's health and sex life or sexual orientation, should only be allowed in exceptional circumstances and where such transfer is necessary and proportionate in the individual case for preventing or combating criminal offences that fall within the scope of the agreement; emphasises that the agreement must provide appropriate safeguards to address the specific risks of processing special categories of data, especially for minors and victims of offences;

26.  Recommends limiting the application of derogations for onward transfers of personal data to the cases provided for in Chapter V of the EUDPR; stresses that the specific requirements under the regulations establishing the concerned EU agencies or bodies must be fully respected, including the specific provisions related to the transfers of operational data by Europol and the EPPO;

27.  Recommends that the agreement ensure that transfers of personal data must be subject to confidentiality obligations, and necessary and proportionate for the purposes specified in the agreement, namely prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences, safeguarding against threats to public security and protecting external borders;

28.  Recommends that the agreement explicitly lay down that personal data transferred by the EU to Interpol will not be used to request, hand down or execute a death penalty or any form of cruel and inhuman treatment, and that personal data will not be transferred if there is any risk that the data will be used for this purpose;

Red notices and diffusions

29.  Stresses, with a view to future cooperation, that despite recent reforms, transparency and accountability remain a challenge both at the individual and the organisational level in Interpol, as does a lack of available statistical information on the operation of its notices and diffusions system; calls, therefore, on the Commission, to ensure commitment and guarantees from Interpol that it will further develop the necessary structures and rules, as well as substantive tools allowing consistent and transparent processing of requests, reviews, challenges, corrections and deletions;

30.  Calls on the Commission to negotiate a firm requirement that Interpol improve the transparency of its red notices and diffusions review system, in particular of the role and work of its Notices and Diffusions Task Force; calls on the Commission to use the negotiations with Interpol to request that the organisation produce, update and make available procedural and substantive tools on the legal handling of red notices and diffusions, ensuring the consistent and transparent processing of requests, reviews, challenges, corrections and deletions;

31.  Recommends, in order to improve efficiency and increase transparency, an annual publication of statistical data on the processing of red notices and diffusions, including information on the number of submissions, the country of origin, the criminal offence category, the reasons or justifications for the denials and the use of sanctions in cases of abuse; calls on the Commission to ensure that statistical data on EU Member States’ handling of requests for red notice arrests and diffusions are collected for all Member States;

32.  Stresses that, in the context of this agreement, Interpol should develop public risk profiles of red notices and diffusions, based on the annual statistical publication referred to in the paragraph above, which would allow for the evaluation of the risk of abuse by the requesting countries, and would contribute to evaluating the effectiveness of Interpol’s enforcement mechanisms;

33.  Calls on the Commission, in the context of this agreement, to explore possible ways that the ESP could address the problem of politically motivated red notices and diffusions, which in practice would be one of the tools that could prove effective against politically motivated red notice requests in some situations;

34.  Recalls the Council’s statement on Interpol’s red notices as regards the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2022/991 of the European Parliament and of the Council(15), supporting efforts undertaken at Interpol to prevent the abuse of red notices and diffusions for political reasons or violations of human rights and calling for a continued and regular exchange on the matter between Interpol and its National Central Bureaus in order to raise further awareness of the actions that Member States should take in cooperation with Interpol;

35.  Expects the Council to deliver on its commitment to continue to support Interpol in the promotion of its existing standards and procedures for data quality and compliance;

36.  Calls on the Commission to also work internally, making use of existing technical tools available under the EU security framework, to establish a verification mechanism for EU Member States to exchange information on the identification and removal of politically motivated red notices and diffusions, on best practices in this field and on risk profiles of third countries creating red notices;

37.  Calls on the Commission to recognise the risk of authoritarian regimes systematically undermining the trust-based international law enforcement cooperation by abusing the tools provided by Interpol; calls on the Commission to encourage Interpol to increase its efforts in effectively countering this misconduct;

38.  Calls on the Commission to include provisions regarding support to Interpol in the agreement to increase the currently small number of staff dealing with the review of red notices and diffusions within the Commission for the Control of Files and to improve the statistical information on the operation of red notices and diffusions; calls on the Commission to use the EU's role and influence to support improvements that will strengthen protection of notices and diffusions from misuse;

Russia

39.  Notes the announcement by Interpol’s Secretary-General that it would implement enhanced monitoring measures to identify and prevent any further abuse of Interpol’s systems by Russia; remains concerned, however, that monitoring alone will not fully mitigate the risks of Russian abuse; stresses, therefore, that given the current special circumstances, including Russia’s blatant breaches of international law and disregard for the rules-based international system, Interpol’s Executive Committee and General Secretariat should take immediate and firm measures to revoke the access rights of the Russian Federation and Belarus to Interpol’s systems, as their actions are a direct threat to international law enforcement cooperation and constitute a serious breach of fundamental rights; urges Interpol’s Executive Committee to prepare and propose to the General Assembly the necessary amendments to the Interpol constitution to enable the suspension of member countries from Interpol and calls on the EU Member States to support this initiative with a view to suspending Russia and other countries that consistently abuse Interpol for political reasons from the organisation; urges Interpol’s General Secretariat to put forward a proposal to the Executive Committee for corrective measures for the Russian Federation according to Article 131(3) of Interpol’s Rules on the Processing of Data, including suspension of the access rights of the Russian National Central Bureau;

40.  Strongly recommends that the Commission put forward enhanced monitoring measures, in the context of this agreement, regarding notices and diffusions issued before the war in Ukraine by Russian authorities; calls on the Commission to advise Member States on specific measures to apply as regards notices and diffusions issued by Russian authorities before the war and in the current context;

Final remarks

41.  Demands that the agreement provide for the possibility of its suspension or termination in case of any breach of its provisions, notably those on personal data by one of the parties, specifying that personal data falling within the scope of the agreement transferred prior to its suspension or termination may continue to be processed in accordance with the terms of the agreement;

42.  Considers that the envisaged agreement should contain a clause on a review report by the Commission three years after its entry into force, and every three years thereafter, assessing the effective implementation of the agreement and its respect of fundamental rights; considers it important that the agreement provide for a monitoring mechanism and periodic reviews to evaluate its functioning in relation to the operational needs of the relevant Union agencies, including statistics on the number of criminals arrested and convicted with the help of Interpol data, as well as its compliance with data protection and other fundamental rights;

43.  Recommends, as was confirmed by the CJEU, in its opinion of 8 September 2016 on the draft agreement between Canada and the European Union on the Transfer of Passenger Name Record data from the European Union to Canada, that the citations of the agreement include all the relevant substantive legal bases, including Article 16 TFEU;

44.  Recommends that any dispute settlement to be negotiated fall under the ultimate jurisdiction of the CJEU;

45.  Calls on the Commission to report to Parliament on the conduct and the outcome of the negotiations, both on a regular basis and whenever requested; recalls that Parliament has consenting power on the conclusion of the envisaged cooperation agreement and that it should thus be closely involved in the negotiating process; calls on the Commission to ensure that reporting to Parliament is a part of the monitoring and evaluation mechanisms foreseen in the cooperation agreement;

o
o   o

46.  Instructs its President to forward this recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-INTERPOL).

(1) OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1. (2) OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 89. (3) OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39. (4) OJ L 135, 24.5.2016, p. 53. (5) OJ L 295, 14.11.2019, p. 1. (6) OJ L 283, 31.10.2017, p. 1. (7) OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 138. (8) OJ L 135, 22.5.2019, p. 27. (9) OJ L 135, 22.5.2019, p. 85. (10) OJ C 445, 29.10.2021, p. 140. (11) OJ C 117, 11.3.2022, p. 109. (12) Regulation (EU) 2019/817 and Regulation (EU) 2019/818. (13) Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 September 2018 establishing a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) and amending Regulations (EU) No 1077/2011, (EU) No 515/2014, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2016/1624 and (EU) 2017/2226 (OJ L 236, 19.9.2018, p. 1). (14) Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 60). (15) Regulation (EU) 2022/991 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2022 amending Regulation (EU) 2016/794, as regards Europol’s cooperation with private parties, the processing of personal data by Europol in support of criminal investigations, and Europol’s role in research and innovation (OJ L 169, 27.6.2022, p. 1).

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 on the Indo-Pacific strategy in the area of trade and investment (2021/2200(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0276 A9-0170/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the joint communication of 16 September 2021 of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific (JOIN(2021)0024),

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 16 April 2021 on an EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,

–  having regard to the Netherlands’ Indo-Pacific strategy of 13 November 2020 entitled ‘Indo-Pacific: Guidelines for strengthening Dutch and EU cooperation with partners in Asia’,

–  having regard to the German Federal Government’s policy guidelines on the Indo-Pacific region of September 2020,

–  having regard to the joint communication of 1 December 2021 of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy entitled ‘The Global Gateway’(JOIN(2021)0030),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 18 February 2021 entitled ‘Trade Policy Review – An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy’ (COM(2021)0066),

–  having regard to the joint communication of 12 March 2019 of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy entitled ‘EU-China – A strategic outlook’ (JOIN(2019)0005),

–  having regard to the joint communication of 19 September 2018 of the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy entitled ‘Connecting Europe and Asia – Building blocks for an EU Strategy’ (JOIN(2018)0031),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 9 March 2021 entitled ‘2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade’ (COM(2021)0118),

–  having regard to the 2021 State of the Union address by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of 15 September 2021,

–  having regard to the joint press release of 3 December 2021 by the European External Action Service and the US Department of State on the high-level consultations on the Indo-Pacific,

–  having regard to the 11th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership meeting, hosted by Cambodia on 16 November 2021,

–  having regard to the EU’s One China policy as outlined in the EU-China strategic outlook of 12 March 2019,

–  having regard to the Comprehensive Investment Agreement concluded in principle by the EU and China on 30 December 2020,

–  having regard to its recommendation of 21 October 2021 to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation(1),

–  having regard to its recommendation of 29 April 2021 to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning EU-India relations(2),

–  having regard to the non-paper of the Commission services of 26 February 2018 on feedback and the way forward on improving the implementation and enforcement of trade and sustainable development (TSD) chapters in EU free trade agreements, and to its 15-point action plan on TSD chapters,

–  having regard to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of 16 September 2010 between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Korea, of the other part(3),

–  having regard to the FTA(4) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) of 19 October 2018 between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Singapore, of the other part,

–  having regard to the FTA(5) and the IPA of 30 June 2019 between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, of the other part,

–  having regard to the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Japan(6),

–  having regard to the Partnership Agreement between the European Union, on the one part, and the members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, of the other part,

–  having regard to the negotiations on FTAs between the EU and Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, which are under way, and to the negotiations on FTAs between the EU and Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, which are currently on hold,

–  having regard to its resolution of 3 October 2017 on EU political relations with the EU-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)(7),

–  having regard to the decision taken at the ASEAN ministerial meeting of 21 January 2019 to establish an EU-ASEAN strategic partnership,

–  having regard to the 29th EU-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee Meeting held on 11 February 2022,

–  having regard to the inaugural European Parliament-ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Inter-Regional Dialogue held on 22 June 2021,

–  having regard to the Paris Agreement on climate change of 12 December 2015 and the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 on the European Green Deal (COM(2019)0640),

–  having regard to the Commission report of 27 October 2021 on implementation and enforcement of EU trade agreements (COM(2021)0654),

–  having regard to its resolution of 26 November 2020 on the EU Trade Policy Review(8),

–  having regard to its resolution of 20 May 2021 on Chinese countersanctions on EU entities and MEPs and MPs(9),

–  having regard to its resolution of 16 September 2021 on a new EU-China Strategy(10),

–  having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on connectivity and EU-Asia relations(11),

–  having regard to its resolution of 9 June 2021 entitled ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: Bringing nature back into our lives’(12),

–  having regard to its resolution of 7 October 2020 entitled ‘Implementation of the common commercial policy – annual report 2018’(13),

–  having regard to its resolution of 18 May 2017 on the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the Republic of Korea(14),

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Fisheries,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade (A9-0170/2022),

A.  whereas the Indo-Pacific region has become a geopolitical and geo-economic reality; whereas the region’s growing economic, demographic and political weight makes it a key player in shaping the international order and in addressing global challenges; whereas the global economy’s centre of gravity has shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific;

B.  whereas Europe and the Indo-Pacific together represent over 70 % of global trade in goods and services and over 60 % of foreign direct investment (FDI) with their annual trade reaching EUR 1,5 trillion in 2019; whereas the Indo-Pacific region accounts for 60 % of global gross domestic product (GDP) and contributes to two thirds of global economic growth; whereas the EU is the biggest investor in the region, which includes four of the EU’s top 10 global trading partners (China, Japan, South Korea and India)(15);

C.  whereas the EU currently has four bilateral trade agreements in place in the region (with Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam), five strategic partnerships (with ASEAN, China, India, Japan and South Korea) and two connectivity partnerships (with Japan and India);

D.  whereas the EU and ASEAN opened a new chapter in their long-standing relations by entering into a Strategic Partnership in December 2020;

E.  whereas enhanced inter-parliamentary relations and parliamentary diplomacy between the European Parliament and the parliaments of Southeast Asia – through the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) – should reflect the future agenda of broader and deeper EU-ASEAN relations; whereas the European Parliament and AIPA are natural partners with a significant potential to contribute towards strengthening EU-ASEAN relations;

F.  whereas EU-ASEAN relations are based on the shared values and principles of a rules-based international order, effective and sustainable multilateralism, and free and fair trade; whereas EU-based entities are the largest provider of FDI to the ASEAN region; whereas the EU is ASEAN’s third largest trading partner and ASEAN as a whole is the EU’s third largest trading partner outside Europe; whereas negotiations on an EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement have been suspended by mutual agreement since 2009;

G.  whereas Korea’s efforts with regard to the implementation of the TSD chapter are less than optimal; whereas more concrete improvements are needed;

H.  whereas several Indo-Pacific countries benefit from EU tariff preferences under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), facilitating access to EU markets, and whereas the least developed countries in the region benefit from the duty-free, quota-free Everything but Arms (EBA) arrangement; whereas Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka are beneficiaries of the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance (GSP+); whereas these instruments have contributed to the economic development of these countries, their respect for human and labour rights, the protection of the environment and improvements in good governance;

I.  whereas geopolitical competition in the global order between key players continues to rise, in particular between the US and China, with significant effects on global trade; whereas recent events have affected globally sustainable supply chains and the sourcing of critical raw materials, which has escalated energy and food prices; whereas EU-China relations have a multifaceted nature where China is a partner for cooperation, but is also an economic competitor and a systemic rival in a number of areas;

J.  whereas the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is an open, forward-looking trade agreement that aims to secure a level playing field and a rules-based trade environment in the Indo-Pacific and provides a model of regional trade integration; whereas the US withdrew from the agreement in January 2017 while China, Taiwan and the UK formally submitted a request to accede to it in 2021;

K.  whereas the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – led by ASEAN and signed as well by Australia, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand – entered into force in January 2022, thereby creating the world’s largest trading bloc; whereas the RCEP stands to promote greater regional cooperation in trade and investment and in digital trade while addressing regulatory issues to ease cross-border movements while including only limited provisions on labour and the environment;

L.  whereas the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated a number of geopolitical trends that were already under way; whereas it also highlighted the need for deepening international cooperation such as in the health sector; whereas it has also shown the lack of resilience of Member States’ economies and vulnerabilities in the global supply chains and has made clear the need for more diversification;

M.  whereas the geopolitical reality has dramatically changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and makes the EU’s further engagement with Indo-Pacific partners even more important and urgent in order to diversify our trade relations, to deepen our cooperation on critical and emerging technologies, digital issues and raw materials, to strengthen and diversify supply chains and improve their resilience and sustainability, and to help tackle global challenges;

N.  whereas climate change and environmental degradation are existential threats to the Indo-Pacific region, Europe and the rest of the world; whereas in 2021 alone, over 57 million people were affected by climate change disasters in the Indo-Pacific region(16);

O.  whereas, as stated in the Trade Policy Review, the EU works together with its partners to ensure adherence to universal values, notably the promotion and protection of human rights; whereas this includes core labour standards, social protection, gender equality and the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss;

P.  whereas the EU’s outermost regions and overseas countries and territories, which are constitutionally linked to its Member States, are an important part of the EU’s approach to the Indo-Pacific;

1.  Welcomes the EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, which identifies sustainable and fair trade and investment as a priority; believes its main focus on inclusiveness and cooperation based on shared values and principles, including a commitment to respecting democracy, human rights and the rule of law, is essential; calls for the EU’s strategic approach and engagement with the Indo-Pacific region to be developed based on the multilateral, rules-based international order with a modernised World Trade Organization at its core, based on the principles of open environment for trade and investment, a level playing field, reciprocity and mutual benefit; stresses that this new approach should constitute a fundamental reorientation based on shared interests as the region is vital to EU prosperity; notes that the Indo-Pacific region hosts major waterways that are of vital importance to EU trade with 40 % of the EU’s foreign trade passing through the South China Sea, making ocean governance and stability in this region a shared concern and area of cooperation; underlines the need to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific for all and to preserve free and open maritime supply routes in full compliance with international law, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the principle of freedom of navigation;

2.  Calls on the Commission to strengthen partnerships with all relevant actors in the Indo-Pacific, taking into consideration sub-regional dynamics and specificities, that reinforce the rules-based international order and address common global challenges, and calls on the Commission to work closely with its like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific to reinforce value chains by strengthening the resilience, sustainability and circularity of our economies, by diversifying trade relations in order to reduce strategic dependencies in critical supply chains with a particular focus on technologies, raw materials and agricultural products, by working towards the full implementation and better enforcement of existing trade agreements, by finalising ongoing trade negotiations and by developing cooperation in strategic sectors; underlines the importance of working together with like-minded Indo-Pacific countries on establishing technical and industrial standards, in order to further promote the EU as a global standard-setter; underlines the importance of developing new Digital Partnership Agreements, building on data protection adequacy decisions, and starting with Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore; further calls on the Commission to closely work together with Indo-Pacific partners in the process of implementing the planned due diligence framework;

3.  Recalls the EU’s commitment to enforce women’s rights and human rights, and to monitor the gender impact of its trade preferences; reiterates its support for gender mainstreaming in trade policy and calls for effective measures to combat the exploitation of women in export-oriented industries;

4.  Stresses that the EU should make better and more strategic use of its economic leverage while respecting the political and economic specificities of its partners and their interests in order to reach its geopolitical and transformational goals, by deploying its full, integrated range of policy instruments, including the GSP mechanism, for this purpose and to promote global standards on sustainable development, the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the circular economy, human rights, including the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, labour rights, International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, gender equality, good governance, the fight against climate change and the implementation of the Paris Agreement, combating deforestation and biodiversity loss, and sustainable fishing;

5.  Calls for a swift implementation of the recently adopted EU Global Gateway strategy in coordination with the Indo-Pacific strategy in order to boost sustainable connectivity in and with the Indo-Pacific region; welcomes, in this context, the progress which has been made in the connectivity partnerships with Japan and India; advocates the establishment of a connectivity partnership with ASEAN in order to link with ASEAN’s existing master plan on connectivity; seeks increased collaboration with other regional partners such as Australia and the Republic of Korea; emphasises the need to link the Global Gateway strategy to other initiatives for trusted connectivity such as Build Back Better World and the Blue Dot Network, and to also foster cooperation on high-quality infrastructure with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD);

FTAs and IPAs in force: enforcement, implementation and upgrading

6.  Welcomes the substantial growth in bilateral trade between the EU and South Korea since the FTA entered into force in 2011; is pleased with the recent steps taken by South Korea in respect of the ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions No 29, No 87 and No 98 and the implemented changes to the labour code following the TSD panel of experts’ report; awaits tangible implementation of the ratifications; recalls that the panel notes in the text of the FTA the absence of explicit targets and milestones related to the ratification of ILO conventions; calls on South Korea to speedily take the necessary steps to ratify the outstanding ILO Convention No 105 and to continue to make progress with regard to gender equality and women’s rights; supports further cooperation between the EU and South Korea on semiconductors;

7.  Calls on the remaining EU Member States to proceed with the internal ratification of the EU-Singapore IPA and Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), signed in October 2018, in particular given the importance of Singapore as the EU’s largest FDI destination in Asia, with EU FDI stocks in Singapore amounting to EUR 256 billion at the end of 2020; calls on Singapore to make increased efforts towards ratifying and implementing the fundamental ILO conventions;

8.  Believes the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) has been instrumental in creating more sustainable trade; welcomes the increase in the preference utilisation rates for EU exports to Japan in 2020; calls for the start of negotiations for including data flow provisions in the EPA; notes that progress has been made in the expansion of the list for geographical indication (GI) protection for both parties, the utilisation rates of tariff rate quotas opened by Japan for EU exporters and the process for ratification of ILO Convention No 105 by Japan; underlines that further swift progress is needed in the implementation of the agreement, including liberalisation of trade in services and the ratification of ILO Convention No 111; reiterates its call for an early review of the TSD chapter in order to strengthen its enforcement provisions;

9.  Calls on the Member States to ratify the EU-Vietnam IPA so that it enters into force and creates favourable conditions to boost EU investment in Vietnam and in the region, in particular in areas promoting green transformation and the circular economy; underlines the importance of the TSD chapter for the EU and calls for a swift completion of setting up the domestic advisory groups; recalls concerns with regard to human rights violations; considers that a revision of the Criminal Code of Vietnam is important to ensure the effective implementation of ILO core conventions; urges Vietnam to complete its key labour reforms in accordance with the agreement and to swiftly ensure the ratification of ILO Convention No 87 by 2023; urges Vietnam to continue working to achieve equal treatment of EU Member States with regard to pharmaceuticals and to guarantee full implementation of the sanitary and phytosanitary provisions;

10.  Calls for continuing actions oriented at raising awareness among businesses, stakeholders, civil society, social partners and citizens of existing FTAs in the region and the opportunities they provide; calls for strengthened technical and financial support where necessary to help partner countries to effectively implement FTAs, in particular the chapters on TSD; calls on the Commission to work together with our Indo-Pacific partners also in the context of the TSD review;

11.  Recalls the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in accelerating FTA negotiations between the EU and ASEAN Member States;

Bilateral FTA in negotiations and/or under ratification (positive trade agenda)

12.  Calls for substantive progress in negotiations on the EU-Australia and EU-New Zealand FTAs aiming to conclude by mid-2022 in order for the European Parliament to be able to duly ratify these balanced agreements in the current parliamentary mandate, without compromising the content of the agreement for the sake of the calendar; believes that, especially in the current geopolitical situation, it is of utmost importance that democracies strengthen their mutual relations, including when it comes to trade; underlines the importance of a comprehensive and enforceable TSD chapter and recalls the need for the Paris Agreement as an essential clause in order to reflect the ambition of achieving a gold standard agreement in these areas; reiterates the need to take the agricultural sector’s specificities and sensitivities into account and to achieve GI protection in both countries;

13.  Welcomes the decision to resume negotiations with India on a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement promoting shared democratic values and human rights, core labour rights and gender equality, a commitment to promoting an inclusive, coherent and rules-based global order, effective multilateralism and strengthened enforcement on TSD with a focus on combating climate change and biodiversity loss; welcomes the decision to launch negotiations for a separate IPA and for an agreement on geographical indications; welcomes the establishment of permanent structures between the EU and India such as high-level dialogues in several sectors; welcomes India’s engagement to meet the EU’s ambition on content and timetable; welcomes the common proposal by President von der Leyen and Prime Minister Modi to create an EU-India Trade and Technology Council;

14.  Underlines the need for the EU to engage in a comprehensive dialogue with China that firmly defends the EU’s interests and values, taking into account the present geopolitically challenging global context, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine; highlights that China is a cooperation and negotiating partner for the EU, but it is also a competitor in an increasing number of areas, and a systemic rival; reiterates, as underlined in its resolution of 16 September 2021 on a new EU-China strategy, its call for the EU to develop a more assertive, comprehensive and coherent EU-China strategy that unites all Member States and shapes relations with China in the interest of the EU as a whole; emphasises that this strategy should promote a rules-based multilateral order, should have the defence of EU values and interests at its core and should be based on the three principles of cooperating where possible, competing where needed, and confronting where necessary; stresses that it is particularly important to continue engaging with China to promote solutions to common challenges and to cooperate on issues of common interest such as fighting climate change; acknowledges that the support of China was vital for the conclusion of the Paris Agreement;

15.  Acknowledges that China’s continued delay in complying with all WTO rules continues to complicate trade relations between the EU and China; considers that the main issues to be solved are the multiple barriers European companies face in accessing the Chinese market, the protection of intellectual property rights, counterfeiting, product safety concerns, social and environmental standards, forced technology transfers, obliged joint ventures, unfair subsidies and unfair competition by state-owned enterprises;

16.  Acknowledges that the discussions on the ratification of the Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI) between the EU and China have been put on hold in the European Parliament on account of China’s decision to sanction, among others, five individual Members of the European Parliament and its standing Subcommittee on Human Rights for criticising China’s human rights record; underlines that the European Parliament cannot start the consideration and ratification process for the CAI until the Chinese sanctions against MEPs and EU institutions have been lifted; further recalls the coercive pressure China has put on Member States such as in the case of Lithuania and strongly condemns this practice; recalls that it is essential for China to abide by international standards, including with regard to its impact on climate, the environment, biodiversity, poverty, health, labour rights, human rights and related to the prevention and fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing;

17.  Urges the EU to launch a structured dialogue with Taiwan on cooperating in green technology and the digital economy, including the semiconductor industry, with a view to signing a memorandum of understanding that benefits both the EU and Taiwan; repeats its call on the Commission to begin an impact assessment, public consultation and scoping exercise on a bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan in preparation for negotiations to deepen bilateral economic ties; also calls on the Commission to look into options to boost cooperation on resilient supply chains with Taiwan; underlines that Taiwan is a member of the WTO; calls for closer cooperation in global health crises and the trading of medical supplies;

18.  Welcomes recent progress in negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia, including on sustainability related areas, and the renewed commitment by both sides to conclude this agreement; stresses that according to the World Bank(17), the agreement could bring 2,13 % growth to the GDP of Indonesia by 2030; highlights the essential need for further steps to be considered before an agreement can be concluded, notably on sustainability, deforestation, with a focus on palm oil, and a more enforceable TSD chapter, as well as the Paris Agreement;

19.  Recalls that the Philippines is a lower income country benefiting from the EU’s GSP+ mechanism; recalls that the Philippines will have to reapply for the GSP+ benefits under the new GSP Regulation as of 2024; notes that negotiations on a bilateral trade and investment agreement with the Philippines, which started in 2015, have been put on hold; recalls serious concerns with regard to human rights violations; recalls that negotiations should resume only once the worrying and critical situation concerning human rights, good governance and the rule of law has improved;

20.  Takes note of the fact that negotiations on a bilateral trade and investment agreement with Malaysia have been put on hold since 2012; invites the Malaysian authorities to take a position on the possible resumption of negotiations and invites both parties to take stock of the findings of the sustainability impact assessment; underlines that a possible resumption of negotiations should be preceded by tangible improvement of the human rights situation in the country;

21.  Notes that negotiations for a bilateral trade and investment agreement with Thailand were launched in 2013 and were put on hold in 2014; acknowledges that the EU in recent years has taken steps towards broadening its engagement with Thailand; stresses the importance of taking steps (in line with the Council conclusions of 2019) towards the resumption of negotiations on an ambitious and comprehensive FTA and invites the Thai authorities to provide clear indications in this respect and to engage in structural reforms; underlines that a possible resumption of negotiations on a comprehensive FTA should be preceded by a tangible improvement in the democratic situation in the country;

22.  Calls on the Commission to closely monitor the situation in Myanmar after the 2021 coup and assess whether an investigation should be launched with a view to its possible withdrawal of the EBA trade preferences;

23.  Calls on the Commission and the authorities of Cambodia to work towards a common understanding for the steps to be taken towards reaching the conditions for enabling the reinstatement of the EBA trade preferences for Cambodia under the EBA scheme;

24.  Welcomes the review of the GSP Regulation; highlights that current GSP+ beneficiary countries and EBA countries graduating to lower middle income countries will be required to (re)apply for the GSP+ status under the new GSP Regulation; calls for GSP, GSP+ and EBA beneficiary countries in the region to engage in strengthening the effective implementation of their international commitments on human rights, labour rights, the environment, good governance and sustainable development;

25.  Welcomes the long-awaited conclusion in principle of the EU’s International Procurement Instrument in order to achieve reciprocity and a level playing field in international procurement markets; underlines the need to further strengthen the EU’s trade defence toolbox by swiftly adopting a strong foreign subsidies regulation and taking a clear stance against economic coercion by third countries, such as China’s unacceptable coercion of Lithuania at the end of 2021, through a new anti-coercion instrument;

EU attitude towards regional and multilateral relations and negotiations

26.  Calls for further engagement with ASEAN and its member states and for the development and promotion of the EU-ASEAN strategic partnership; calls on both sides to use the momentum of the planned EU-ASEAN Summit in 2022, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the EU-ASEAN bilateral relationship, to present a new EU-ASEAN action plan for the upcoming period to promote increased multifaceted cooperation in key areas, and emphasises the need to revive the initiative for a region-to-region FTA between the EU and ASEAN, based on shared values and principles including sustainable development and promoting fundamental rights and gender equality, once the conditions are met; calls for a parliamentary dimension to the 45th anniversary summit and reiterates its intention to create an EU-ASEAN parliamentary assembly to strengthen the democratic dimension of the partnership;

27.  Calls for a new strategic approach towards the CPTPP as a core element of the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy; stresses that closer cooperation would allow the EU to reap important economic benefits with regard to possible welfare gains, diversification of supply chains and reduction of strategic dependencies, and would give the EU the opportunity to continue to shape standards in the Indo-Pacific region and globally; emphasises that the EU should study the option of joining the CPTPP in the future and also explore the possibilities of linking existing agreements with partners, for instance through their rules of origin protocols, in order to increase the preference utilisation rate of those agreements and maximise their added value;

28.  Calls on the Commission to continue to thoroughly monitor the direct economic effects of the RCEP on the EU’s economy and to evaluate its long-term strategic and geopolitical implications;

o
o   o

29.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, the Secretary-General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and the respective countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

(1) OJ C 184, 5.5.2022, p. 170. (2) OJ C 506, 15.12.2021, p. 109. (3) OJ L 127, 14.5.2011, p. 6. (4) OJ L 294, 14.11.2019, p. 3. (5) OJ L 186, 12.6.2020, p. 3. (6) OJ L 330, 27.12.2018, p. 3. (7) OJ C 346, 27.9.2018, p. 44. (8) OJ C 425, 20.10.2021, p. 155. (9) OJ C 15, 12.1.2022, p. 170. (10) OJ C 117, 11.3.2022, p. 40. (11) OJ C 456, 10.11.2021, p. 117. (12) OJ C 67, 8.2.2022, p. 25. (13) OJ C 395, 29.9.2021, p. 14. (14) OJ C 307, 30.8.2018, p. 109. (15) Joint communication of 16 September 2021 on the EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific (JOIN(2021)0024). (16) Observer Research Foundation, ‘Climate change and geostrategic ocean governance in the Indo-Pacific’, 14 January 2022. (17) See page 9 of the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper ‘Economic and Distributional Impacts of Free Trade Agreements. The Case of Indonesia’.

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 on EU-India future trade and investment cooperation (2021/2177(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0277 A9-0193/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to the joint statement adopted at the EU-India leaders’ meeting held in Porto on 8 May 2021,

–  having regard to the joint statement and the roadmap to 2025 for an EU-India strategic partnership adopted at the 15th EU-India summit on 15 July 2020, and to the other joint statements adopted in the fields of counter-terrorism, climate and energy, urbanisation, migration and mobility, and the water partnership,

–  having regard to the first ever High-Level Dialogues on Trade and Investment held in February and April 2021 between the Executive Vice-President of the Commission and the Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry,

–  having regard to the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 20 November 2018 entitled ‘Elements for an EU strategy on India’ (JOIN(2018)0028) and the corresponding Council conclusions of 10 December 2018,

–  having regard to the Council decisions of 19 April 2007 on a negotiating mandate concerning trade and investment negotiations with India and of 14 July 2011 on a mandate concerning trade and investment negotiations with India: negotiating directives for trade and investment negotiations,

–  having regard to the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 16 September 2021 entitled ‘The EU strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific’ (JOIN(2021)0024),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 18 February 2021 entitled ‘Trade Policy Review – An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy’ (COM(2021)0066),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/947 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 June 2021 establishing the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe(1),

–  having regard to its resolutions of 13 September 2017 on EU political relations with India(2) and of 21 January 2021 on connectivity and EU-Asia relations(3),

–  having regard to its recommendation of 29 April 2021 to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy concerning EU-India relations(4),

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2020 on the European Green Deal(5),

–  having regard to its resolution of 7 July 2021 on the trade-related aspects and implications of COVID-19(6),

–  having regard to the joint motion for a resolution of 29 January 2020 on India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019,

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on International Trade (A9-0193/2022),

A.  whereas the EU and India convened a leaders’ meeting in May 2021 following their commitment to convene regularly at the highest level and strengthen their strategic partnership with a view to enhancing economic and political cooperation;

B.  whereas the EU and India, as the world’s two largest democracies, share strong political, economic, social and cultural ties; whereas, however, bilateral trade relations have not yet reached their full potential;

C.  whereas EU and Indian leaders affirmed their determination to preserve and promote effective multilateralism and a rules-based multilateral order with the UN and the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core;

D.  whereas India abstained during the 11th emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on the resolution of 24 March 2022 entitled ‘Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine, while 140 countries voted in favour;

E.  whereas the EU is India’s third-largest trading partner and leading foreign investor, while India is the EU’s ninth-largest trading partner and only accounted for less than 2,1 % of its total trade in goods in 2021; whereas there is untapped potential for stronger, deeper and mutually beneficial economic cooperation, as long as European standards are protected, which could lead to the creation of new jobs and increased opportunities for both partners;

F.  whereas the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area (AIFTA), including the Trade in Goods Agreement, the Trade in Services Agreement and the Investment Agreement, has existed since 2003;

G.  whereas the EU’s strategic framework for India vested in the EU-India Strategic Partnership, its Global Strategy, its Strategy on India, its Strategy for EU-Asia Connectivity, its India-EU Connectivity Partnership, the India-EU Human Rights Dialogue and the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific have highlighted the vital importance of cooperating with India on the EU’s global agenda; whereas on 25 April 2022 the EU and India agreed to set up a Trade and Technology Council;

H.  whereas India still faces important challenges in relation to sustainable development, human rights and the environment, notably with respect to the situation of minorities and fundamental freedoms; whereas Parliament voiced its concern on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which excludes Muslims from citizenship protection;

I.  whereas India has not yet ratified all the fundamental International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, namely the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (No 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No 98); whereas the workforce of the informal economy of India still accounts for more than 90 % of the entire workforce; whereas this leaves millions of people without social insurance and leading a life in uncertainty(7);

1.  Calls on the Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European External Action Service to pursue all efforts to improve and deepen the relationship with India, a strategic partner of the EU; reiterates the need for a deeper partnership based on the shared values of freedom, democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, good governance, equality, respect for human rights, labour rights, women’s rights and gender equality, a commitment to promoting an inclusive, coherent and rules-based global order, effective multilateralism and sustainable development, fighting climate change, and promoting peace and stability in the world;

2.  Welcomes the EU-India agreement on launching a Trade and Technology Council, which will strengthen our strategic partnership, and pledges support for its implementation; considers this new mechanism a meaningful forum to address new challenges in the area of trade, technology and security, and underlines the importance of boosting trade in technology, paying special attention to technologies combating climate change;

3.  Recalls that EU-India trade increased by more than 70 % between 2009 and 2019 and that both parties share a common interest in fostering closer and deeper economic ties; recognises that India is an important partner for the EU to diversify its supply chains; further recognises that there are sensitivities on both sides, but believes that these could be addressed to create a win-win situation for both partners;

4.  Points out that the ‘farm to fork’ strategy includes the obligation to reduce the use of pesticides by 50 % by 2030 and to increase the proportion of agricultural land under organic farming to 25 %;

5.  Expects a swift follow-up to the EU-India leaders’ meeting of May 2021 in order to openly address values-based cooperation at the highest level in matters of trade and investment; welcomes both partners’ readiness to work towards the conclusion of an ambitious, values-based, balanced, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement, as well as a stand-alone investment protection agreement and an agreement on geographical indications;

6.   Stresses the economic and strategic importance of this agreement, which will only succeed if it manages to progressively align the EU and India towards a shared agenda and values in relation to sustainable development in order to generate shared prosperity, growth and employment, boost competitiveness, fight poverty, make progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), promote the fight against climate change and the implementation of the Paris Agreement, support workers’ rights and fundamental freedoms, and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, and if it explicitly takes into account the outcome of the ongoing trade and sustainable development (TSD) review process;

7.  Notes that the EU is India’s largest trading partner in the agri-food sector; recalls that the agricultural sector is a significant part of the Indian economy, and accounts for 41 % of Indian employment; highlights the sensitivity, but also the potential, of certain agricultural sectors in both the EU and India; stresses that any greater market access for agricultural products should not result in giving either party an unfair competitive advantage; draws attention to the need to ensure that agri-food imports from India meet EU health and safety standards; considers that the EU should support India in helping its farmers reduce the use of pesticides; stresses the need for the EU and India to cooperate closely to address the repercussions on food security of the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine;

8.  Points out that one of the objectives of the future EU-India trade and investment agreements is to strengthen the economic, trade and investment relationship between the EU and India in full compliance with internationally recognised human rights and environmental and labour standards and agreements, to create a sound, transparent, open, non-discriminatory and predictable regulatory and business environment for companies on both sides, and to unlock the untapped potential of two-way economic cooperation between the EU and India;

9.  Reaffirms its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine by the Russian Federation; acknowledges the neutral position of India since its independence; points out that the EU and India are willing to work together for a prosperous and peaceful world, yet regrets India’s hesitancy to condemn the Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine; underlines the importance of democracies working together and aligning on core areas, and especially on fundamental values and open, rules-based and sustainable trade;

10.  Considers that the existing negotiating mandate for a trade agreement, a separate investment protection agreement and an agreement on geographical indications is comprehensive and broad enough for negotiations to restart, and should be interpreted in line with modern standards; takes the view that it is necessary to ensure that the prospective comprehensive trade agreement has environmental and human rights standards as core elements and contains as integral parts thereof a dedicated chapter for SMEs, a dedicated digital trade chapter, a dedicated chapter on raw materials to increase market access, and an ambitious and enforceable TSD chapter aligned with the Paris Agreement; believes, furthermore, that the agreement should include provisions on sustainable food systems and on gender;

11.  Calls on the Indian Government to present a roadmap towards the ratification of the two remaining fundamental ILO conventions, Nos 87 and 98, and believes that their principles are to be duly and properly implemented in a timely manner; stresses that given the informal nature of the Indian labour market there are many challenges related to the implementation and enforcement of international labour standards; encourages the Commission to ensure that the fundamental ILO principles are applied in the prospective trade agreement; calls on the Commission to ensure that the prospective trade agreement between the EU and India is in line with the European Green Deal, the ‘farm to fork’ strategy and COP26;

12.  Agrees with EU and Indian leaders that in order to maintain the momentum for restarting the negotiations, it is imperative to find solutions to long-standing market access issues; encourages the negotiators, therefore, to find swift solutions to the long-standing market access issues across both governance levels and sectors (e.g. cars, car parts, agriculture, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) irritants, public procurement, non-tariff barriers such as quality control orders, certification, compliance with international standards and localisation requirements), while not compromising on content in favour of a speedy conclusion;

13.  Encourages the negotiators to make good progress in achieving a comprehensive, mutually beneficial, state-of-the-art, WTO-compatible and rules-based free trade agreement, giving priority to areas conducive to sustainable growth and addressing inequalities and the digital and green just transitions, as follows:

14.  Recalls that SMEs are the backbone of the socio-economic development of India and account for 45 % of the country’s total industrial production; believes that India and the EU should continue to work towards ensuring a conducive and stable business environment for SMEs, facilitating their access to international markets and allowing them to take full advantage of trade opportunities; welcomes, in this regard, the setting up of the India IP SME Helpdesk, which provides SMEs with first-line support on how to protect and enforce their IPR, and calls on the Commission to build on this initiative to create further digital platforms that would help to reduce trade costs and administrative burdens, while increasing SMEs’ participation in international trade;

15.  Asks both parties to consider providing interoperable data flows between the jurisdictions of India and the EU in total compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (8) on the basis of an assessment; invites India to align its new Data Protection Bill with the highest internationally recognised standards on data protection and privacy rules; invites India to join the EU initiative on international data protection standards;

16.  Invites the EU’s negotiating team, as well as the EU institutions and the Member States, to make best use of India’s commitment to multilateralism and an international rules-based trading order and calls on India to play a constructive role to secure meaningful results at the WTO’s 12th and 13th Ministerial Conferences; applauds the EU and India’s co-sponsored reform proposal for the WTO Dispute Settlement Body and calls on India to join the multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement; commends the commitment of EU and Indian leaders to enhancing coordination on global economic governance, notably in the WTO and G20; expects to be briefed about the results of the EU-India Senior Officials’ Dialogue, which aims to deepen bilateral cooperation on WTO issues under the auspices of the High-Level Dialogues on Trade and Investment;

17.  Regrets that uncertainties remain for EU investors, notably as a result of India’s decision to unilaterally terminate all its bilateral investment treaties in 2016;

18.  Takes note of both sides’ readiness to negotiate a stand-alone investment protection agreement, which would increase legal certainty for investors on both sides and further strengthen bilateral trade relations, attracting more EU investments in India, and upholds the possibility for parties to exhaust domestic remedies; recommends working towards the achievement of common and mutually beneficial objectives in these areas in order to foster sustainable economic growth and innovation; emphasises that such an agreement should, inter alia, contain protections against origin-based discrimination, unlawful expropriation, the denial of justice, fundamental breaches of due process, manifest arbitrariness, targeted discrimination on manifestly wrongful grounds and abusive treatment; proposes carrying out a comprehensive impact assessment before the end of the negotiations; welcomes Indian investments in Europe as a driver of economic dynamism, increased competitiveness and diversified production;

19.  Reaffirms that an investment protection agreement could be an adequate stepping stone for further strengthening bilateral trade relations; encourages the negotiators to agree on the founding of a multilateral investment court, and on a dedicated EU-India investment court system as a temporary solution with a view to the founding of a multilateral investment court, to which both the EU and India should adhere;

20.  Welcomes the leaders’ commitment to concluding a separate agreement on GIs, be it a stand-alone agreement or integrated within the comprehensive trade agreement; considers such an agreement a priority for the EU farming and agri-food sectors in order to protect EU GIs, calls on the Commission to work towards creating a comprehensive list of EU GIs;

21.  Stresses the need for the EU to champion human rights and the right to food as a central principle and priority of food systems and as a fundamental tool to transform food systems; calls for the EU to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas and ensure that the most marginalised have access to nutritious foods;

22.  Notes that while India’s legal order allows the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the purpose of processing them into food and feed, its GMO regime is similar to the EU’s in terms of rigorousness and strictness;

23.  Notes the importance of progressing decisively in banning all antibiotics and veterinary drugs that do not conform to the Codex Alimentarius food standards;

24.  Stresses that the EU must ensure that, under the cooperation agreement with India, the level of mutual cooperation be improved and that all EU economic, social, environmental, health, safety and quality standards be respected by both parties;

25.  Urges the Commission to carry out a study of the possible economic impact of this agreement, bearing in mind that agriculture and stockbreeding in India are not subject to the EU regulations that increase the costs of production in Europe, which may lead to unfair competition, as has already been the case with other agreements with non-EU countries;

26.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that the text of the agreement, as consistently done in previous EU free trade agreements, protects the EU’s common single market by preventing:

27.  Recalls that, on 14 December 2021, India incurred WTO disapproval on account of the enormous subsidies granted to its sugar production and export activities; calls therefore for the suspension of the 10 000 MT CXL quota for Indian sugar, as a review of subsidies that breach WTO rules is not being envisaged; requests that the upcoming EU-India trade negotiations make sure that WTO-incompatible sugar subsidies be removed;

28.  Welcomes the establishment of two joint working groups to ramp up regulatory cooperation on goods and services, including on green and digital technologies and on resilient supply chains, in consultation with representatives of different stakeholders on an equal footing; stresses the crucial role of the High-Level Dialogues on Trade and Investment for ensuring good progress overall, including on long-standing market access issues; expects to be briefed promptly and regularly about the results of these dialogues;

29.  Calls on the negotiators, as a matter of priority, to agree on the establishment of a bilateral ex ante and ex post consultation platform between the EU and India designed to facilitate discussions and consultations in advance of any new measures or subsidies that could negatively affect trade or investment; believes that such a platform should facilitate dialogue with representatives of a wide range of stakeholders, including social partners and civil society organisations; takes the view that business and industry associations should be able to bring any new trade or investment irritants to the attention of the secretariat of this platform; believes that the platform should eventually be made an integral part of the governance framework of the future trade agreement;

30.  Considers that the governance of a potential EU-India free trade agreement should entail a joint committee providing joint monitoring, structured dialogue and oversight by the European Parliament and both chambers of the Parliament of India; stresses that the involvement of civil society in monitoring the implementation of the agreement is crucial, and calls for the swift establishment of domestic advisory groups following the entry into force of the agreement and for the balanced representation of business organisations, trade unions and civil society, including independent organisations from the labour and environmental sectors;

31.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, and the Government and Parliament of India.

(1) OJ L 209, 14.6.2021, p. 1. (2) OJ C 337, 20.9.2018, p. 48. (3) OJ C 456, 10.11.2021, p. 117. (4) OJ C 506, 15.12.2021, p. 109. (5) OJ C 270, 7.7.2021, p. 2. (6) OJ C 99, 1.3.2022, p. 10. (7) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_734503.pdf (8) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 towards a common European action on care (2021/2253(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0278 A9-0189/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU),

–  having regard to the objectives established under Article 3 TEU, in particular combating social exclusion and discrimination, promoting social justice, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and the protection of the rights of the child, as well as economic, social and territorial cohesion,

–  having regard to the Article 8 on gender mainstreaming, enshrining the EU’s aim to eliminate inequalities and promote equality between women and men, and to the horizontal social clause in Article 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

–  having regard to the social policy objectives set out in Articles 151 and 153 TFEU,

–  having regard to the revised European Social Charter, in particular its articles 15,on the right of persons with disabilities to independence, social integration, and participation, and 23 on the right of older persons to social protection,

–  having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’), in particular its Article 25 on the right of older persons to lead a life of independence and dignity and Article 26 on the integration of persons with disabilities, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as referred to in Article 6 TEU,

–  having regard to the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), in particular principle 17 on inclusion of persons with disabilities and principle 18 on the right to long-term care,

–  having regard to the UN Decade on Healthy Ageing 2021-2030 and the WHO Framework for countries to achieve an integrated continuum of long-term care(1),

–  having regard to the EPSR Action Plan and its 2030 headline targets,

–  having regard to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular goals No 3 on “Good Health and Well-being”, No 5 on “Gender Equality”, No 8 on “Decent Work and Economic Growth” and No 10 on “Reduced Inequalities”,

–  having regard to the thematic report of the UN Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by older Persons of 22 July 2020 on the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons A/75/2020(2),and her statement on Autonomy and care of older persons to the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council(3),

–  having regard to the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and recommendations, and in particular C149 Nursing Personnel Convention of 1977 and its accompanying Recommendation No. 157, C183 Maternity Protection Convention of 2000 and its accompanying Recommendation No 191, C189 Domestic Workers Convention of 2011 and its accompanying Recommendation No 201, C190 Violence and Harassment Convention of 2019 and its accompanying Recommendation No 206, and Social Protection Floors Recommendation No 202,

–  having regard to the 19 December 2019 ILO report entitled ‘The Employment Generation Impact of Meeting SDG Targets in Early Childhood Care, Education, Health and Long-Term Care in 45 Countries’,

–  having regard to the ILO Resolution concerning a global call to action for a human-centred approach from the COVID-19 crisis that is inclusive, sustainable and resilient, adopted at the 109th Session of the International Labour Conference in June 2021,

–  having regard to the ILO report of 7 March 2022, entitled “Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work”,

–  having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD),

–  having regard to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),

–  having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),

–  having regard to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s political guidelines,

–  having regard to the Commission’s work programme for 2022,

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 establishing the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)(4),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility(5),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2020/2221 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 December 2020 amending Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 as regards additional resources and implementing arrangements to provide assistance for fostering crisis repair in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its social consequences and for preparing a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy (REACT-EU)(6),

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/522 establishing a Programme for the Union’s action in the field of health (‘EU4Health Programme’) for the period 2021-2027(7),

–  having regard to the OECD and European Commission joint “State of health” initiative,

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU(8),

–  having regard to Directive 2000/43/EC of the Council of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin(9),

–  having regard to Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation(10),

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2022/431 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2022 amending Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work(11),

–  having regard to Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee(12),

–  having regard to the Commission’s Communication of 5 March 2020 entitled ‘A Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ (COM(2020)0152),

–  having regard to the Commission’s communication of 26 April 2017 entitled ‘An initiative to support work-life balance for working parents and carers’ (COM(2017)0252),

–  having regard to the Commission Action Plan to boost the social economy and create jobs of 9 December 2021,

–  having regard to the Commission’s Green Paper on Ageing of 27 January 2021 (COM(2021)0050),

–  having regard to the Commission's communication entitled ‘A Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas’ of 2021,

–  having regard to the Ministerial Declaration adopted at the fourth UN Economic Commission for Europe Ministerial Conference on Ageing in Lisbon on 22 September 2017 entitled ‘A Sustainable Society for all Ages: Realizing the potential of living longer’,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal of 4 March 2021 for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms (COM(2021)0093),

–  having regard to the Commission proposal of 28 October 2020 for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on adequate minimum wages in the European Union (COM(2020)0682),

–  having regard to European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Opinion SOC/687-EESC-2021 of 19 January 2022 entitled ‘Towards a New Care Model for the Elderly: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic’,

–  having regard to European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Opinion SOC/535- EESC-2016 of 21 September 2012 entitled ‘The rights of live-in care workers’,

–  having regard to the 2021 Long-term care report prepared by the Social Protection Committee (SPC) and the European Commission (DG EMPL) on ‘Trends, challenges and opportunities in an ageing society’,

–  having regard to the opinion of the Expert Panel of 23 June 2021 on effective ways of investing in health on supporting mental health of health workforce and other essential workers,

–  having regard to the EPSCO Council conclusions of 14 June 2021 on the Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality (ST 8884/21),

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 November 2018 on care services in the EU for improved gender equality(13),

–  having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on the gender perspective in the COVID-19 crisis and post-crisis period(14),

–  having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on the EU Strategy for Gender Equality(15),

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 March 2022 on the EU Gender Action Plan III(16),

–  having regard to its resolution of 21 January 2021 on access to decent and affordable housing for all(17),

–  having regard to Council recommendation of 22 May 2019 on high-quality early childhood education and care systems(18),

–  having regard to its resolution of 11 March 2021 on children’s rights in view of the EU Strategy on the rights of the child(19),

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 July 2020 on the EU’s public health strategy post-COVID-19(20),

–  having regard to its resolution of 16 February 2022 on strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer - towards a comprehensive and coordinated strategy(21),

–  having regard to its resolution of 17 December 2020 on a strong social Europe for Just Transitions(22),

–  having regard to its resolution of 7 July 2021 on an old continent growing older –possibilities and challenges related to ageing policy post-2020(23),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 3 March 2021 entitled ‘Union of Equality: Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030’ (COM(2021)0101),

–  having regard to its resolution of 18 June 2020 on the European Disability Strategy post 2020(24),

–  having regard to its resolution of 29 November 2018 on the situation of women with disabilities(25),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 28 June 2021 entitled ‘EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027 – Occupational safety and health in a changing world of work’ (COM(2021)0323),

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 March 2022 on a new EU strategic framework on health and safety at work post 2020 (including better protection of workers from exposure to harmful substances, stress at work and repetitive motion injuries)(26),

–  having regard to the ETUI/EPSU report on Pay transparency and role of gender-neutral job evaluation and job classification in the public services,

–  having regard to the Council recommendation of 8 November 2019 on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed(27),

–  having regard to the activities of the ELA and in particular its collaboration with Member States in tackling undeclared work,

–  having regard to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) Gender Equality Index 2021 and its thematic focus on health,

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (A9-0189/2022),

A.  whereas social rights are part of human rights and constitutional rights, women’s rights are fundamental human rights, and whereas the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, the ECtHR and the Charter underline that human rights are part of the rule of law; whereas the EPSR Action Plan sets out concrete initiatives for the implementation of principles that are essential for building a stronger social Europe for just transitions and recovery, such as gender equality, equal opportunities, work-life balance, childcare and support to children, inclusion of persons with disabilities and long-term care; whereas expanding and strengthening the value and the rights of the care workforce will be a prerequisite for the implementation of these initiatives, including those pertaining specifically to both principles 17 and 18; whereas the European Semester and the Social Scoreboard should be used to step up a fairer, equal, sustainable and resilient society; whereas the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right and a high level of health protection is to be ensured and implemented through all Union policies and activities; whereas access to quality public services is a decisive factor in quality of life as a part of care strategy and increased investments in the sector;

B.  whereas children represent 18,3% of the EU population(28); whereas in 2020, there were 47,5 % of households in the EU that had at least one child and 14% of the households consisted of children and a single parent(29), the majority of which were women;

C.  whereas the large majority of care givers and providers, both formal and informal, paid and unpaid, are women; whereas care responsibilities within the household shape the ability, duration and type of paid work women can undertake throughout their working life-cycle thus influencing their participation in the social, economic, cultural and political life; whereas stereotypes surrounding women being better care givers and the perception of unpaid care and domestic work being “women’s work” reinforce the “male breadwinner - female carer” model, which continues to shape access to social rights hence impacting women`s economic independence; and contributing to the undervaluation and economic invisibility of care, especially contribution of family carers, as well as undervaluation of care workers in private and public institutions;

D.  whereas 80 % of all long-term care in Europe is provided by informal carers(30), overwhelmingly women, deprived of fair working conditions, mostly unpaid and/or without adequate social support, which makes care an extremely gendered issue; whereas informal care provision is associated with lack of rights such as sick leave and annual leave, as well as maternity, paternity and parental leaves reduction of employment rates, increase of poverty and social exclusion rates, reduced mental health and increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness, which negatively impacts on their physical and mental health, well-being and social inclusion; whereas women’s contribution in unpaid care work adds an estimated USD 11 trillion(31) to the global economy each year, which is equivalent to 9 % of global GDP(32);

E.  whereas 15,4 % of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) are in this situation because they are caring for children or incapacitated adults or have other family responsibilities; whereas 88 % of those NEETs are women(33);

F.  whereas it is necessary to recognise that all human beings rely on care to different degrees depending on, among others, age, socioeconomic status, physical endowment and personal background from childhood to old age; whereas care should be differentiated from support for persons with disability or health condition; whereas the societal and economic value of care work, both paid and unpaid, is not valued and recognized and needs to be reassessed and put into the heart of economic policies; whereas social, gender equality and economic impacts of those with caring responsibilities should be urgently addressed, particularly in view of demographic changes;

G.  whereas all Member States and the EU are bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), including its Article 19 on adopting effective and appropriate measures guaranteeing equal right of all persons with disabilities to live independently, to participate and be included in the community; whereas equal and effective access to affordable quality care and support services is an essential prerequisite for the independent living of persons with disabilities, their participation in the community life and social inclusion;

H.  whereas care encompasses all services supporting autonomy and independence of persons in need of care, as well as the physical, psychological, emotional, social, personal and household needs of individuals and groups in vulnerable situations; whereas care should be recognised as a right that guarantees the equal exercise of the rights, dignity, autonomy, inclusion and well-being of people in need of care; whereas the European Union can complement and support Member State action in improving care services, for those who are cared for and those who provide care;

I.  whereas care work means a variety of services carried out by individuals, families, communities, paid service providers, public organisations and state institutions in different types of settings, ranging from institutions to private households;

J.  whereas the Commission defines personal and household services (PHS) as “a broad range of activities that contribute to well-being at home of families and individuals, including childcare, long term care and for persons with disabilities, household chores, remedial classes, home repairs, gardening, ICT support”; whereas PHS include care and non-care, direct and indirect services; whereas at global level, PHS are usually described under the term domestic work; whereas the inclusion of domestic workers in the care workforce therefore recognises that care provision includes not only personal care, but also non-relational indirect care, which provides the necessary preconditions for the provision of personal care; whereas in personal and household services, care and non-care activities are highly intertwined with a vast proportion of workers performing both and thus belonging to the care workforce;

K.  whereas access to quality care and creation of age-friendly environments are essential for a longer, healthy and active life; whereas the number of persons in the EU in need of the long-term care is projected to rise from 30,8 million in 2019 to 38,1 million in 2050(34); whereas several Member States already face labour shortages in the long-term care sector that only risk increasing as demand for long-term care increases, and whereas this requires investments in the labour force and their decent employment and working conditions;

L.  whereas the COVID-19 crisis highlighted the key role played by workers in personal and household services within our societies, demonstrating the urgent need to ensure full recognition for these workers in all Member States together with collective bargaining rights, social security and social protection; whereas due to the persisting lack of proper recognition of these workers in several Member States, many of them have lost their job during the COVID-19 pandemic without being able to benefit from state wage compensation and job retention schemes; whereas the pandemic resulted in the loss of accommodation for many workers in personal and household services, as well as exposed them to violence and harassment at work;

M.  whereas despite the fact that throughout the life course, each individual at least once assumes the roles of a carer and of a care recipient, there is stigma and stereotypes surrounding interdependence, physical or mental disability, disease and frailty and the need for care and support that intersect with other grounds of discrimination, above all gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, colour, ethnic or social origin , genetic features, as well as socio-economic or immigrant and other disadvantaged backgrounds, aggravating the risk of poverty or social exclusion;

N.  whereas the EU population is ageing with 19 % of EU citizens being 65 or older in 2018(35); whereas age discrimination and unmet, unseen and unrecognized care needs are still a persisting problem in care in Europe; whereas the number of people who are dependent on the assistance of others or have health and long-term care needs increases with age;

O.  whereas rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) are among the world’s most prevalent, disabling and burdensome non-communicable diseases, affecting over 100 million Europeans, and account for over 50 percent of Years Lived with Disabilities (YLDs) in Europe; whereas due to their prevalence, disabling consequences, and links to high incidence of co-morbidities, people with RMDs are a significant source of demand for long-term formal and informal care in Europe;

P.  whereas many care and domestic workers have an ethnic minority background or are migrants(36) facing a highly precarious situation and experiencing intersectional discrimination due to their race or ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and nationality and provide live-in care work with often unlimited hours, violating working time legislation in the formal and informal economy; whereas these workers are mostly women who do not have an official job contract, are thus more vulnerable to exploitation and often lack access to their rights in particular to decent work and social protection;

Q.  whereas there is a lack of high quality, accessible, available and affordable care services in all Member States, including in rural regions especially affected by ageing population; whereas the monitoring of formal and informal care and form and means of existing care services are hampered by the lack of data, including disaggregated data, the lack of quality indicators, such as the European Time Use Survey (ETUS) of evaluation and monitoring of services provided, implementation roadmaps, the lack of knowledge among healthcare providers about temporary disabling diseases;

R.  whereas one of the most fundamental rights regarding care and support is the right to choose the type and location of service; whereas the right to choose one’s type of care is often undermined by the insufficient availability of in-home support and personal assistance; whereas personal assistance is too rarely sufficiently supported by the Member States and remains unaffordable for too many; whereas as much as 75 % of older persons in need of long-term care report that they would find themselves below the risk-of-poverty threshold if they were forced to purchase homecare services at the full market cost(37); whereas even in the majority of the most economically developed countries, social protection systems cover less than 40 % of the total costs of long-term care for people with moderate needs(38); whereas Member States must ensure the provision of quality and adequately funded and functioning care services, social protection systems and better integration of quality long-term care in them which is of crucial importance for improving social fairness and will contribute to gender equality;

S.  whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and made more visible the existing inequalities and challenges showcasing the many structural problems, entrenched in Europe's social care system, i.e. such as under-resourced care facilities and health care systems or lack of investment; in terms of access to formal care and domestic services, including to timely, affordable and high-quality medical treatment, and has highlighted pre-existing crises in the care sector due to heavily increased workload in the sector, care workforce shortages, underfinanced, strained health-care systems, overreliance on informal unpaid care or undeclared work; whereas these lead to increases in psychosocial risks faced by the care workers that remain in the sector, who are predominantly women; whereas the challenges of the pandemic resulted in loneliness and social isolation and increased the risk of abuses, neglect, deteriorated physical and mental health of people in need of care, and the general well-being of all generations across the EU, particularly where pre-pandemic levels of investment in care were lower(39); whereas these long-term effects on individuals’ health and well-being as well as social and economic consequences are yet to be fully assessed and mainstreamed in the relevant policy areas;

T.  whereas the needs of informal carers are unmet in Europe and the COVID-19 pandemic shed light to the difficulties of informal carers and of people receiving informal care and revealed the disproportionate reliance on women and girls(40); whereas the lack of recognition of personal and household services workers and/or the misclassification of their employment status has meant that many who lost employment during the COVID-19 pandemic were unable to access social protection measures;

U.  whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated existing gender inequalities, especially in terms of an increase in unpaid care work and work-life imbalance and resulted in a double burden for many women, who had longer shifts at work and additional informal care at home; whereas before the COVID-19 pandemic(41), 37,5% of women in the EU cared for children, older persons, or people with disabilities every day, compared with 24,7% of men; whereas the pandemic added up to an average of some additional 13 hours of unpaid work per week for women(42); whereas women who are working from home, part-time or are unemployed have faced vaster pressure, as they have continued to perform the majority of family caring responsibilities and domestic work(43); whereas all effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet fully known and its socio-economic impact on women will continue;

V.  whereas according to the World Health Organization up to half of the COVID-19 deaths in Europe were of residents in long-term care facilities(44); whereas more than 70 % of the social and health workers fighting COVID-19 on the front line were women, many of whom have faced the effects and also long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 infection, were isolated, and experienced unprecedented levels of stress, anxiety, depression, suicides and even post-traumatic stress disorder; whereas, in 2021, 30 % of nurses were leaving the profession in the EU(45); whereas high incidence and mortality rates due to COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, including by lack of access to protective equipment, testing and medical treatment, highlighted the systemic weaknesses related to the too slow transition from institutional care to family- and community-based care services, staff shortages arising from difficulties in attracting and retaining the workers, poor employment and working conditions, lack of career development opportunities for workers in the care sector, difficulties for the cross-border carers, as well as the lack of support and access to social security for informal carers;

W.  whereas in addition to the unmet medical needs, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatically negative impact on the access to education, decent housing and services that are essential for the well-being and development of children, generating an additional burden in care and education duties for all parents, above all women and single parents(46); whereas the empirical evidence confirms that the reduction of care services and increase in unpaid care work carried out by women during the COVID-19 pandemic has re-established and reinforced gender inequalities;

X.  whereas the provision of quality care depends on the existence of a sufficiently large, well-trained, motivated and specialised workforce, the creation of attractive and decent working conditions through social dialogue and collective bargaining, adequate and fair wages, as well as integrated services and adequate public funding; whereas the care sector has long been facing workforce shortages and in the years 2019 to 2020, 421 000 workers left the residential care sector(47); whereas quality care work is a skilled occupation, requiring training and experience and demand for skilled care workers will only increase in the coming years; whereas employment and ongoing training in the workplace through professionalization of the sector can contribute to an increased quality of provision of care services; whereas in a context of longer care pathways and evolution of practices and technologies, caregivers are accumulating expertise which has to be recognised; whereas the Acquired Rights Directive (2001/23/EC) must be applied whenever employee contracts are transferred to an acquiring care provider;

Y.  whereas in the European Union at least 3,1 million personal and household service workers are employed undeclared, lacking recognition and fundamental workers’ rights such as collective bargaining, social security and social protection(48); whereas undeclared work leads to lower protection for workers, facilitating labour exploitation and abuse, while representing as well a loss of income for Member States; whereas the conditions of undocumented third country nationals working in the care sector, are particularly challenging, in terms of their social rights and access to decent work conditions;

Z.  whereas the European Platform tackling undeclared work has become a permanent working group of the European Labour Authority (ELA), with the aim of increasing cooperation with Member State authorities in tackling undeclared work;

AA.  whereas studies show that more than 90 % of older people would like to live in their own homes at an advanced age; however only 20 % spends the last years of their life in their private accommodation and many of them live in institutional care facilities(49); whereas there is a lack of care services that are tailored to individual’s needs and preferences; whereas this requires(50) structures of care to be changed from centralised institutions to patient-centred, family and community-based care to better support the autonomy of persons in need of care and support, bringing tangible economic and social benefits and increasing the level of well-being of care recipients; whereas residential care often fails to meet the standards on supporting the independence of persons using these services, and is often associated with the end of one’s life, rather than as a place to live with dignity, flourish, and further participate in social and cultural life; whereas that shift has been non-existent or too slow and lacking resources and needs to take into consideration different needs and vulnerabilities of communities, such as in terms of income and others inequalities; whereas Member States should invest towards this direction;

AB.  whereas it is important to conduct further research on abuse in all care settings, to inform about the factors leading to these practices, promote awareness, training, detection, and fight against abuse for all professions involved in care, and create public platforms for reporting such practices;

AC.  whereas the labour-market tends to be gender segregated and undervalues sectors in which women represent the majority of the workforce; whereas in 2020, women's gross hourly earnings in the EU were on average 13,0 % below those of men(51);

AD.  whereas care often remains undervalued, receives little recognition, insufficient and often no financial compensation for informal carers; whereas the undervaluation in terms of pay and working conditions as well as the lack of visibility of care and domestic work are closely linked with prevailing gender roles and norms of women as caregiver and men as breadwinners and with a vicious circle of “double devaluation”, where care is often relegated to the most disempowered groups of society because of its lack of value and, in turn, the activity of care becomes devalued because it is carried out by the most disempowered groups and due to the fact that homecare and other personal and household care services are provided behind closed doors;

AE.  whereas feminisation of the care sector contributes to the gender employment, pay and pension gaps due to the proportion of women working in formal and informal care and can lead to an increased risk of poverty as well as reduced taxes paid to Member States, with a EUR 370 billion annual loss of GDP for Europe(52);

AF.  whereas women and migrants, in particular EU and non-EU mobile workers, dominate in the care sector, women representing 76 % of 49 million documented care workers in the EU(53) and more than 85 % in unpaid care in all Member States when considering both daily and weekly engagement(54);

AG.  whereas 6,3 million professionals work in long-term care, among whom women (81 %) are overrepresented and there are increasing numbers of workers aged 50+, part-time, precarious and platform workers, as well as migrant, informal and mobile workers, including live-in carers, (8 % of workers in the care sector are non-natives); whereas in 2020 migrant and mobile workers represented 28 % of personal care workers(55); whereas the care deficits in some regions of the EU are aggravated by this ”care drain” and the phenomenon of global care chains; whereas this makes it impossible to think of care along national borders only; whereas there are still obstacles that hamper the free provision of care services in the EU; whereas these workers are essential to our societies in terms of both public health and social inclusion for care recipients, who are sometimes isolated;

AH.  whereas in all the Member States, pay in the care and domestic work sectors is well below the average pay and lower than the pay that workers get for the same job in other sectors, especially in healthcare(56); whereas this is due to informal work, lower collective bargaining coverage in those sectors as well as the undervaluation of female-dominated sectors, such as care; whereas those employees working in the for-profit and non-profit sectors often do not have access to a workers representation and collective bargaining; whereas the difference in relation to the average pay is smallest in the Member States with collective agreements for parts of the sector(57); whereas workers representation, including trade unions, and collective bargaining are critical in representing and defending workers’ rights and interests in all care settings, as well as raising and maintaining standards across the care sector;

AI.  whereas the COVID-19 crisis has emphasised several challenges regarding the terms and conditions of employment of long-term care workers; whereas long-term care workers were at even greater risk of contracting COVID-19 than healthcare workers in hospitals due to lack of personal protective equipment and appropriate training to implement infection protocols and other prevention activities;

AJ.  whereas despite being emotionally gratifying for a large majority of carers, care often generates negative effects on carers’ physical and mental health and difficulties in reconciling care with paid work, which is particularly significant in the case of female carers(58); whereas formal and informal carers’ mental health have been disproportionately affected during the COVID-19 pandemics; whereas mental problems have increased during the pandemic increasing the care burden; whereas care work is often associated with working in shifts, at short notice and with long working hours; whereas health risks and poor working time quality are the main causes of relatively high absenteeism in the long-term care sector; whereas 38 % of care professionals believe that due to the adverse effects of their work they will not be able to continue working until they are 60(59);

AK.  whereas in Europe, 33 % of long-term care workers have been exposed to some type of adverse social behaviour (including verbal abuse, threats and humiliating behaviour) and only 22 % of long-term care workers feel very satisfied with their working conditions(60);

AL.  whereas there are various forms of employment of formal live-in carers such as via care companies or temporary employment agencies and intermediaries;

AM.  whereas women represent the majority of the people receiving care and 44 million people in the EU provide informal long-term care to family members, neighbours or friends(61),most of them being women, and 12 % of women and 7 % of men providing informal long-term care do so for more than 40 hours per week(62); whereas almost 30 % of people over 65 are living with two or more non-communicable diseases (NCDs); whereas NCDs have a substantial and growing burden on patients, carers, societies and health systems;

AN.  whereas the high numbers of care recipients who are in need of informal care are directly linked to the unavailability, inaccessibility and unaffordability of quality professional services adjusted to their needs as well as the default choice of many Member States of unpaid informal care as the major source of care provision(63); whereas provision of informal care should be a choice and not a necessity due to lack the of available care services;

AO.  whereas a significant share of the formal live-in care sector operates in grey zone which affects badly quality of home care; whereas there is lack of data that allows to identify precisely number of carers in grey zone;

AP.  whereas women in the EU carry out 13 hours more of unpaid care and domestic work per week than men(64); whereas access to affordable and quality formal long-term care services for the dependent family members and unequal distribution of unpaid care and household work between men and women present crucial factors in determining whether women enter into and stay in employment and the quality of the jobs they have; whereas 7,7 million women in the EU remain out of the labour market owing to their informal care responsibilities, compared to just 450 000 men, and 29 % of women employed part-time refer to care duties as the main reason for taking up part-time work(65); whereas only 6 % of men say that the main reason for working part-time is because of caring responsibilities, compared to 29 % of women and only 64 % of fathers in EU provide care on a daily basis(66);

AQ.  whereas women also experience more career interruptions, tend to work shorter hours and are more likely to be in part-time, precarious or temporary employment; whereas sectoral segregation, unequal distribution of unpaid care and housework represent the key causes of the persisting employment, wage and pension gap, as well as greater risk of poverty and social exclusion of women; whereas the gender pension gap averages at 27 % in 2020(67); whereas an equal distribution of unpaid care and household work, meaning an equal involvement of men, has a clear positive impact on the proportion of women in paid employment and reduction of the gender pay gap; whereas childcare responsibilities are a cause of change in employment for 60 % of women compared to 17 % of employed men and lead to reduction of working hours for 18 % of employed women and as little as 3 % of men(68); whereas the availability, accessibility and affordability of high-quality childcare facilities are crucial for enabling people, especially women with caring responsibilities to participate in the labour market; whereas public health challenges such as migraine are more common among women(69) and a large share of affected women are still in the front line for childcare and household chores;

AR.  whereas these discrepancies are confirmed at the global level with women dedicating on average 3,2 times more (201 working days per year) time than men (63 working days) to unpaid care work and are most pronounced in the case of girls and women living in middle-income countries, with lower educational achievements, living in rural areas and with children under school age(70);

AS.  whereas women are overwhelmingly represented among the essential workers (4 out of the 16 other professional categories deemed essential have more than 50 % of women in their workforce in the EU)(71), such as care professionals, whose tasks largely cannot be performed in telework modalities, and in the sectors that have been most severely hit by the pandemic, and have thus been exposed to high risks of contagion, heavy workloads, disrupted work-life balance and loss of employment; whereas working and living conditions have been particularly undermined for women with young children in paid employment(72);

AT.  whereas care remains one of the main fields of reproduction of gender archetypes, which are further reinforced by the lack of investment in quality services and gender bias in other policies that disproportionally affect women’s self-determination in social and professional life, such as tax benefit system;

AU.  whereas social economy enterprises can have a significant potential and contribution in facilitating the re-integration of caregivers in the labour market;

AV.  whereas several Member States and regions in the EU are still failing to meet the goal of providing childcare for 90 % of children between the age of three and mandatory school age and for 33 % of children aged three and under; whereas a lack of sufficient infrastructure offering quality and accessible childcare for all, especially early childhood services, particularly affects children from disadvantaged families, reflecting in enrolment rates below the average of children with disabilities, children from the Roma and other minority communities, migrant children, children living in poverty and children rom other disadvantaged groups, who would have benefitted the most from early childcare(73);

AW.  whereas in 2020, 24,2 % of children in the EU – almost 18 million were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; whereas children from low-income families, homeless children, children with a disability, children with a migrant background, children with a minority ethnic background, particularly Roma children, children in institutional care, children in precarious family situations, single-parent families, LGBTIQ+ families, and families where parents are away to work abroad face serious difficulties, such as severe housing deprivation or overcrowding, barriers in accessing fundamental and basic services; whereas children with disabilities in the EU are disproportionately more likely to be placed in institutional care than children without disabilities, and appear far less likely to benefit from efforts to enable a transition from institutional to community and family-based care(74); whereas the European Child Guarantee is an EU instrument whose objective is to prevent and combat poverty and social exclusion by guaranteeing free and effective access for children in need to essential care services, such as early childhood education and care, educational and school-based activities, healthcare and at least one healthy meal per school day, and effective access for all children in need to healthy nutrition and adequate housing(75);whereas accessibility of affordable quality childcare and education is crucial for children’s personal development and well-being; whereas there is a unambiguous positive correlation between the access to childcare services on one hand and employment and income of men and particularly of women on the other(76);

AX.  whereas access to quality care services, especially long-term care, is increasingly preconditioned on individual and family income, their place of residence, availability of services and delivery capacity and geographical availability as well as free capacities of the providers; whereas two in three persons in need of care are estimated to not have access to care services, mainly due to their unavailability and unaffordability(77); whereas households with low incomes, lower educational levels, and migrant households experience the greatest difficulties in accessing formal home-based long-term care services; whereas across the EU, one third, and in five Member States even more than half of the households, report that they are in need of professional long-term care services but cannot access them due to financial reasons(78); whereas access to healthcare and care should be universal, effective, irrespective of economic conditions or their different residence or administrative situations and status; whereas persons with lower incomes are also a group in which care needs are more prevalent(79);

AY.  whereas digital technologies have the potential to support both formal and informal carers and reduce the burden they face, for example, in transporting patients to consultations that could be held online; whereas a 2021 Eurocarers survey suggests that 78% of informal carers never used care-related technologies(80); whereas digitalisation and the Internet of Things in the care sector need to be taken into account but should not substitute completely the irreplaceable human interaction related to care; whereas research and pilot projects should be encouraged, to test practicability and effectivity of digital services; whereas older people, including those receiving care, have difficulties in accessing digital services; whereas access to digital services, including access to digital literacy, should be seen as a right of care recipients; whereas the drastic shift to telework revealed the need to better enforce, review and update the legislation related to working conditions in the digital environment and the use of artificial intelligence in professional life;

AZ.  whereas women facing intersectional discrimination face additional barriers in accessing healthcare and care services and special attention must be put to address the effects of implicit biases in accessing private and public services generated due to persisting stereotypes and the underrepresentation of certain groups in these institutions;

BA.  whereas particular attention should be paid to the very old in order, where necessary, to help people who have lost their independence and prevent them from becoming isolated;

BB.  whereas the importance of prevention and geriatric rehabilitation for healthy and dignified aging should be taken duly in account;

BC.  whereas there is a need to reshape nursing care by providing, where possible free, or affordable in-home nursing support;

BD.  whereas the increased investment in the care economy in line with Sustainable Development Goals would result in almost 300 million additional jobs globally by 2035(81); this would be made up of 96 million direct jobs in childcare, 136 million direct jobs in long-term care, and 67 million indirect jobs in non-care sectors; whereas this level of job creation would require an investment of 3,2 % of global GDP, taking into account total costs minus tax revenue(82); whereas the European Commission estimates that 8 million new jobs are expected to be created in the EU in the care sector by 2030(83);

BE.  whereas demographic change and accompanying ageing of the population will increase the demand for care services; whereas care jobs are not likely to be replaced or reduced by automation; whereas this should motivate the EU and Member States to invest into the care economy as a promising job creating sector, in the framework of the digital transition, in order to increase the number of qualified staff and attract more people to this sector;

BF.  whereas quality standards for care, especially for social care services, remain absent or inadequate;

BG.  whereas the care sector needs significant investment, resources and reform; whereas in 2018, the estimated annual investment gap in social infrastructure in Europe stood at EUR 100-150 billion(84); whereas the 2021 Ageing Report projects the increase of public expenditure needed to cover the costs of long-term care and support at up to 2,9 % of GDP annually in 2070, compared to 1,7 % in 2016, while a ‘healthy ageing’ scenario can significantly lower this cost and full coverage of long-term care needs significantly increases it;

BH.  whereas it is crucial to understand the interaction between formal and informal care; whereas formal care services can provide support to informal carers, for example, by making it possible for them to take time off as well as by giving them training; whereas the lack of official recognition of informal carers and related lack of data about them and their needs is a barrier to this interaction;

BI.  whereas the delivery of care depends on well financed and properly functioning public services and social protection systems;

BJ.  whereas there is significant diversity in the population of informal carers; whereas their needs vary based on their socio-economic context, their labour market participation, the needs of their care receivers and the amount of time they spend caring for dependants;

BK.  whereas neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory disabling diseases, remain underdiagnosed in most European countries; whereas there is a clear indication that the current number of 9 million confirmed cases of people with dementia is going to double by 2050; whereas women continue to be disproportionately affected by dementia(85);

BL.  whereas in February 2021, the European Ombudsman opened an own-initiative inquiry into the role of the Commission in the process of deinstitutionalisation in the EU, focusing on the fulfilment of Commission’s obligation to ensure that the Member States use the EU funds in a manner that promotes transitioning away from residential care institutions and towards independent living and participation in community life;

BM.  whereas the mechanism provided for by the 2001 directive on temporary protection has been activated for the first time as a response to the mass influx of refugees, above all women with children and other dependant persons, who are fleeing the war in Ukraine, guaranteeing the displaced persons equal access to the labour market and housing, medical assistance, and access to education for children; whereas activation of the aforementioned mechanism will have significant direct impact on the care sector, increasing the number of persons in the EU in need of comprehensive and personalised care services but also the numbers of both informal and formal carers;

BN.  whereas the data on quality of care services is almost exclusively based on non-standard client satisfaction surveys;

BO.  whereas difficulties associated with the provision of adequate, decent and affordable housing, especially for older people, single persons, persons with disability, persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion, families with young children and single parents, significantly hinder access to quality care services;

BP.  whereas across 11 OECD countries, long-term care workers’ median wages are just 9 euro per hour, while wages of hospital workers—a majority of whom are men—average 14 euro per hour(86);

BQ.  whereas more than half of care workers say they do not earn enough to cover basic needs such as housing and food, and 31 % do not have adequate access to personal protective equipment(87);

BR.  whereas the majority of care workers do not earn enough to afford a decent standard of living for themselves and their families(88);

A Europe that cares

1.  Notes that it is vital to ensure dignity, independence, autonomy, well-being and participation in social life through quality care across the life course from early childhood care and education, to care services for older people and support to persons with disabilities, bearing in mind that human beings are interdependent and that anyone may need care at some point in their lives;

2.  Underlines the importance of accessibility and availability of public care and the quality, accessibility, availability, affordability and adequacy of care, and that all people in need of care and their carers should have the right to a genuine choice when it comes to care services suitable for them and their families and their form (family care, community-based care, patient-centred care, personalized care or other forms), the place of its provision and its intensity, with a special attention to the provision and access for those living in remote areas (433) such as rural areas or outermost regions; considers that investment in the provision of quality public and social services are essential levers for preventing the transfer of disadvantage from one generation to the next;

3.  Notes that care and its differing policy approaches need to be developed and redesigned according to individuals’ needs, recognises that models and patterns of organising care are diverse in the Member States and emphasizes every person’s right to choose best suitable quality care services for their individual situation and the need to guarantee it by Member States and the EU throughout its policies; highlights that according to the principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) ‘Everyone has the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular family- and community-based care services’, and stresses that in order to fulfil this principle, care provision should be expanded;

4.  Notes that women represent the majority of the workforce (76 %) in the formal care sector and perform the main part of informal care work while also representing the majority of care recipients, that care remains undervalued, unrecognized and guarantees insufficient or often no financial compensation for carers and that this undervaluation in terms of pay, working conditions and lack of visibility is closely linked with the feminisation of the sector due to the high proportion of women working in formal and informal care; highlights that this gender aspect has to be taken into account when designing care strategies and policies;

5.  Expresses its concern on the impact of structural limitations and financial constraints in the type of care services available to individuals and recognises that integration of care across Europe is limited due to lack of appropriate incentives and structures;

6.  Stresses the importance of an integrated and rights-based approach to common European action on care that pays equal attention to people’s physical, mental, psychological and social, personal and household needs; highlights the importance of paving the way for a more coherent approach between health and social systems as well as between formal and informal care and coordination between local, regional and national care policies within the EU Member States, alongside horizontal and sectoral integration;

7.  Underlines the necessity of developing an ambitious and inclusive European Care Strategy that ensures equal access to care for all with special attention to individuals in vulnerable situations,contributes to social justice;

8.  Considers that prevention is key; calls for primary secondary and tertiary prevention(89) including adequate use of relevant education and information, screening, early detection, prevention and adequate follow-up for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to be among the components of a holistic European Care Strategy; urges the Commission to adopt a comprehensive and holistic approach to care;

9.  Urges the Commission to strengthen the EU's resilience and capacity-building in health crises; Urges the Commission to promote research and innovation, by establishing priority areas for future R&D based on current and future diseases as well as the further development of care sector related opportunities, including for private actors;

10.  Stresses that promoting an equal-earner/equal carer model, where men and women engage equally in paid work in the labour market and unpaid work in domestic and care responsibilities, should be a goal of all EU actions in the field of care, labour markets and social services; reminds of the importance of applying gender mainstreaming to all policies;

11.  Calls on the Commission and Member States to invest into the care sector, strengthen and ensure sustainable, increased and adequate investment and funding to guarantee equal access for persons in need of care to affordable and adequately staffed quality care and household services, as well as an active and fulfilling professional life for carers with adequate wages providing a decent living and career opportunities in the sector through skills certification and validation;

12.  Calls on the Commission and Member States to improve the availability of funding for all types of care services and make the best use of the European structural and investment funds for investment in childcare and care for older people and others in need of care, through the ESF+, InvestEU and other financial instruments encouraging social investment as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, EU4Health Programme and the European Structural and Investment Funds for investing in publicly guaranteed care and facilitating accessible and affordable services for all; calls on the Commission to measure up to and create synergies with gender equality, inclusion of persons from vulnerable groups and the standards set for investment in digital and green transition, for example to support greening of care and of care projects and start an initiative on environmentally sustainable care, seeing that care infrastructures have significant negative environmental impacts that need to solved and mitigated, within the guiding principles; calls on the Commission to develop guidelines and a roadmap for common standards for Member States in this sense; calls on the European Investment Bank to consider including in its annual budget the development of the care sector and care economy as part of the implementation of its own Strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment;

13.  Calls for a dedicated investment package to promote the EU care sector and care economy as well as to ensure coordination among the different programmes and initiatives towards an effective implementation of the Strategy; calls once again for the development of gender budgeting tools in the MMF and related programmes that allow to track down the specific funding allocated to promoting gender equality;

14.  Recalls the obligations and commitments of the EU and the Member States for transition from segregated institutional settings to community and family based care and the promotion of different models of independent living and support; calls on the Member States to use the available European and national funds to accelerate this transition and to support individual autonomy and independent living by supporting ways to enhance independence, such as home adaptation or installation of digital detection systems and assistive technologies at home, with full adherence to the provisions and objectives of the UNCRPD; urges the Commission to take effective measures to make sure that EU funds are used to transition from institutionalized care to community and family-based care, while ensuring the family care in all its diversity;

15.  Underlines that in order to reduce undeclared work in the formal care it is important to provide public funding for genuine care service providers within social security systems or through tax expenditure which will make legal and fair care service provision affordable;

16.  Calls on Member States to ensure universal health coverage, increase investments in healthcare, and prioritise funding towards community and primary care; Calls on member states to urgently remove existing barriers to healthcare for all, including for undocumented migrant and with special attention to women facing intersectional discrimination; Calls to ensure higher and fair pay and decent working conditions for care workers, healthcare assistants and other support staff;

17.  Emphasises that a substantial proportion of care models, services and facilities are based on an institutionalized, outdated model below modern quality criteria and do not meet the physical, social and psychological needs and wishes of care recipients; highlights that people in need of care should be placed at the centre of care plans throughout all stages of the design, implementation and evaluation of care policies and services, through exploring innovative solutions, new models and tools for care delivery, promoting social inclusion and multi-generation understanding for individual needs of people in need of care, having as an objective the transition from institutional to family and community-based care and promotion of different models of independent living and support;

18.  Believes that person-centred and individualised care is necessary to ensure the dignity of care recipients and their carers, as well as their full participation and inclusion in the community; stresses that this move towards a person-centred approach requires increased integration of care to more holistic care pathways, to improve benefits to care recipients as well as quality of care;

19.  Stresses the need to fully utilise digital solutions to support people in need of care to live independent and autonomous lives, the need to improve the respect of their right to self-determination, to develop autonomy both for care professional sand care recipients, through a personalised approach to the design and budgeting of care, including tailored health and person-centred care through suitable tools, while ensuring that there is quality human contact for persons in need of care and support;

20.  Believes that the development of care should take into account all categories of users and their differences; states that those planning, programming and providing care services have the responsibility to be aware of those needs, of the empowerment of service users and of the importance of a user-based approach in developing services and that care services for older people and persons with disabilities must be planned and developed with the participation of users;

21.  Calls on the Member States to exchange information and best practices with a view to developing a common European quality framework for formal and informal care, based on the rights to independence, autonomy and well-being, and inspired, amongst else, by the WHO framework to support countries achieving an integrated continuum of long-term care encompassing all care settings, encouraging upward social convergence, guaranteeing equal rights for all citizens and strengthening quality of life;

22.  Calls for the Commission to support Member States in improving their data collection infrastructures in line with this quality framework;

23.  Calls additionally to exchange best practices on the best way to support groups with particular care needs (such as single parents who are mainly women, parents with children with serious illnesses and older people);

24.  Emphasises that the increase of care needs demands a joint EU approach and calls for a concrete European strategy on preventive healthcare as part of the solution to the growing pressure on the healthcare system; notes that care services should be developed so as to enhance the continuity of care,preventive healthcare, rehabilitation and independent living and underlines the importance of programmes for lifelong health promotion and education, disease prevention and regular examination, together with more effective health care programmes to stimulate the process of healthy ageing; calls on the Commission and the Member States to actively engage in the WHO Decade of Healthy Ageing by drawing up healthy ageing plans in the EU that cover access to health and care services, as well as strategies for health promotion and prevention;

25.  Calls on the Commission to take leadership in the realm of care by setting ambitious targets at EU level for funding, access, quality, efficiency and sustainability of care services in consultation with the Member States as well as with relevant stakeholders including social partners, and to develop harmonized definitions and indicators to assess those targets for children, older people or persons with disabilities;

26.  Underlines the need for a scoreboard to monitor the implementation of right to quality care in public, private, formal and informal contexts;

27.  Recalls that the EU should make use of the ILO’s 5R framework for decent care work (recognise, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work, reward paid care work) together with guaranteeing care workers’ representation, social dialogue and collective bargaining;

28.  Recalls that progress should be made towards a care economy that takes an integrated, holistic, gender-sensitive and life-long approach to care; stresses that this should include legislative measures and investment at EU level in order to promote as well decent working conditions and attractiveness of work in the care sector;

29.  Stresses the importance of highlighting the need for a European approach to care in the follow-up conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, as care is a key sector for Europe’s future;

30.  Calls on the Commission to present an ambitious, robust and future-proof European care strategy that builds on everyone’s right to affordable, accessible and high-quality care, as well as on other principles set out in the EPSR and EU strategic documents, and the individual rights and needs of both care recipients and carers, and that encompasses the entire life course, targeting and responding to the needs of people at critical periods throughout their lifetime, laying the ground for continuity of care services throughout the lifespan and fostering solidarity between generations;

31.  Stresses that this strategy should be based on reliable, comprehensive and comparable data, publicly accessible, on the situation and the categories of both carers and care recipients, disaggregated by gender, age, nationality,ethnic origin(90), disability, socio-economic status, availability and affordability, type of care provided or received and different care settings (private or public, institutional, family or community-based) and include concrete and progressive goals with a timetable and indicators to evaluate progress and tackle inequalities taking into account the care needs in European societies; Repeats the call on the Commission and the Member States to update the statistical framework for collection of reliable, comparable and disaggregated data, while ensuring full respect of privacy and fundamental rights standards; Calls on the Commission to develop centrally managed detailed time use surveys, disaggregated by aforementioned parameters, to assess the value of unpaid work across the Member States;

32.  Emphasises the need to consult all relevant stakeholders at EU, national and local levels, including informal carers representatives and patients organisations, in the preparation of the European Care Strategy to take into account the diversity of their situations and needs and stresses that the strategy should identify its target groups;

33.  Calls on the Commission to include comprehensive measures against violence and harassment, in particular the fight against all forms of abuse of older persons and abusive acts against carers in the European Care Strategy in order to combat worrying phenomena, such as non-assistance, neglect and the undue use of physical or chemical restraints, particularly in the field of long-term care and support; calls on the Member States to develop training for informal and formal carers to prevent, prohibit, and combat care related violence and harassment as well as to establish independent and effective mechanisms for reporting and redressing it;

34.  Calls on the Member States to ensure that earmarked investments for the care economy are included in (revised) national Recovery and Resilience Plans, Cohesion Funds and all other relevant EU financial instruments;

35.  Underlines that the emerging silver economy could turn into one of the main economic drivers, particularly in rural areas, and could provide opportunities for the health and long-term care sectors to offer high-quality care in a more efficient way;

36.  Calls the EU Commission to establish an EU Equal Care Day, every leap day of 29 of February, in order to raise awareness about the undervaluation and invisibility of caring and carers in our societies;

37.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to, alongside responding to the immediate care needs, adopt the policies and measures to tackle their causes, such as poverty, social exclusion and other structural barriers that stand in the way of universal and equal access to quality care, above all the challenges related to employment, education and training, as well as decent and affordable housing;

Quality care for every child

38.  Welcomes the Commission’s plans for the revision of the Barcelona objectives as part of the European care strategy package; calls for upward convergence to be encouraged and for more investment in high-quality public care for every child in the EU, inter alia by revising targets and significantly raising the level of ambition for accessibility of quality childcare for all children, including under 3 years of age and for those facing poverty, social exclusion and intersecting forms of discriminations, and setting specific refined indicators to monitor access to childcare for children aged below 1 year; calls on the Commission to integrate in the objectives a new target for provision of childcare after school hours; calls on the Member States that are lagging behind the 2002 Barcelona objectives to adopt all the necessary measures to reach the target of providing childcare to at least 90 % of children between 3 years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33 % of children under 3 years of age as soon as possible;

39.  Reminds that EU funds (ESIF and notably the European Social Fund +, as well as the RRF) should be used to complement Member States’ investments in childcare; calls on the Commission to promote investments in child care services in Member States’ use of the EU’s financial instruments; underlines public investments and the quality employment and working conditions of the workers in the childcare sector are essential for the provision of quality childcare;

40.  Calls on the Member States to design childcare, education, including after-school activities, and other policies and measures in support of all children and their families in an inclusive and integrated manner, using a child-centred approach with a particular attention to children in vulnerable situations, such as in or at the risk of poverty and social deprivation, as well as children with disabilities, migrant children and children from minorities, and one that upholds the swift and efficient implementation of the European Child Guarantee, including the commitment to guarantee effective and free high quality early childhood education and care for children in need(91);calls on the Member States to develop personal assistance services for children with disabilities and ensure decent and quality working conditions to those professionals working with children with disabilities;

41.  Highlights that the COVID-19 crisis and the arrival of refugees following the war in Ukraine may further exacerbate the situation of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion or children who need access to quality care; therefore reiterates its calls(92) on the Member States and the Commission to increase the funding of the Child Guarantee with a dedicated budget of at least EUR 20 billion, to combat poverty affecting children and their families and to contribute to the goal of reducing poverty by at least 15 million by 2030 - including at least 5 million children in all Member States;

42.  Recalls that social protection and support to individuals and families, with the special focus on groups in vulnerable situations, such as big families, single parent families or families with a child with disabilities, are essential and calls on the competent national authorities to ensure universal, adequate and accessible social protection systems for all and integrated child protection systems to leave no one behind, including effective prevention, early intervention and family support, in order to ensure safety and security for children without or at risk of losing parental care, as well as measures to support the transition from institutional to quality family and community-based care; calls on the Member States to scale up investment in child protection systems and social welfare services as an important part of implementing the Child Guarantee;

43.  Calls on the Member States to provide continuous holistic and integrated support to parents, including maternity, paternity and parental paid entitlements and measures, also reflected in pension schemes, low-threshold social services, such as day care, counselling, mediation or psychosocial support, that encourage a more substantial role and thus ensure equal participation of men in unpaid care and domestic responsibilities, including care for very young children, as well as children with disabilities; underlines the importance of adequate, accessible and affordable care structures and services particularly for single parents, the vast majority of whom are women, and to families with low and unsteady incomes, at risk of poverty and social exclusion; calls on the Commission and Member States to collect standardized equality data, disaggregated by the grounds protected under Directives 2000/43/EC, 2000/78/EC and 2006/54/EC, based on voluntary participation, confidentiality, self-identification and informed consent, while respecting the key principles and standards of EU data protection and fundamental rights;

44.  Underlines the importance of ensuring accessible, available, affordable and inclusive quality childcare, using a rights- and child-centred approach, that meets the demands during the parents’ working hours and school holidays, and facilitates equal opportunities for parents to return to work, strikes work-life balance, as it is one of the major factors of women’s full participation in the labour market; underlines that it should at the same time respond to the specific needs of children and their parents, related to e. g. disability, illness and work in a specific sector; reminds that gender imbalances in care and employment have life-time negative consequences on many women’s labour market participation and career progressions, resulting in an important gender gap in pensions and high differences in poverty rates in older age;

Equal access to quality care services

45.  Calls on the Member States to recognise the right to care and to reform and integrate their social services and protection systems in such a way as to provide effective, comprehensive equal and timely access to care services and treatments throughout the life course, incorporating in their social protection systems solutions ensuring a personalised approach and greater autonomy of users in choosing the services and the type of employment models that suit the needs and protect the rights of both care recipients and carers best, including personal household services, personal assistantship and other employment models for home care services, in order to enhance the continuity of care, preventive healthcare, rehabilitation, better prevention, diagnosis and treatment of occupational diseases, autonomy, independent living and inclusion in the community; draws attention to the necessity of access to care entitlements independent of eligibility for other social transfers and eliminating structural barriers, which lead to non-take-up or postponement of care and other support services; points furthermore to the needs of all carers, particularly the migrant workers with various statuses, who may face particular barriers in accessing care, intersectional discrimination, marginalisation and in-work poverty;

46.  Notes that accessibility of care derives from a combination of factors, such as availability of customised services of a diversified spectrum, cost and flexibility but also adequate care staffing, decent working conditions, waiting time, geographical distances to the closest care facility, adequate public infrastructure and transport; believes that in this respect different forms of care service provision should be available, promoted, valued and recognised, in particular that provision of in-family and community-based care settings should be upscaled and prioritized towards transition from institutional to family and community-based care; points to the demographic change as an important factor of increased care needs, which will require significant investments from the EU and Member States as well as identification and elimination of the administrative barriers that stand in the way of a timely and effective access of care recipients and their families to the adequate care and support solutions;

47.  Stresses the impact of green environments, daily access to different forms of nature and outdoors in good quality living conditions of people needing care, notes that studies show that access to nature has substantial benefits for both physical and mental health of all people, especially those needing care, and highlights the need to facilitate access to nature and outdoors for people dependent on care as well as to support nature-based solutions in the care sector;

48.  Notes that digital technologies are a promising development in supporting care provision but only if they are developed from a user-based starting point and are modular(93) and tailor-made; highlights in this respect the need for the Commission and Member States to address the digital skills gap amongst formal and informal carers as well as amongst care recipients by having specific programmes that target these groups; stresses that this should be complemented with improvement of internet access and especially user-friendly, customisable digital solutions accessible to all care recipients and carers, in order to support the development of digital health and online care services, as well as support the potential of technological developments in reducing the inequalities in access to health and care services and the barriers for their cross-border provision; calls on the Member States to make use of the EU4Health and Digital Europe funding to support and increase digital literacy of both care recipients and carers;

49.  Stresses the need to ensure that care is not commodified;

50.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop the tools required for the regular assessment of the accessibility, availability and affordability of care services and treatments; underlines that the principle of accessibility equally applies and should be vigorously enforced in all care and support services, which ensure dignity and autonomy, both in physical and digital environment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to prioritize outcome-based indicators for access to care, such as reported unmet needs for care;

51.  Stresses the importance of timely investment in care facilities, identification of skills gaps, evaluation of future staffing and training needs at the level of individual professions, sectors as well as regions, with special attention to the density and care needs of the population, as a means of ensuring adequate and sustainable staffing levels and tackling inequalities in access to services and care; calls on the Commission and the Member States to put forward comprehensive quality standards and indicators for both formal and informal care services, home-based, private and public settings, including carers’ competences and training requirements, as well as the tools for effective monitoring of their implementation;

52.  Emphasises that cross-border care services, including live-in care, provided by both intra-EU mobile workers and non-EU migrant workers, are often crucial for meeting the growing care needs; recalls that most of these migrant workers are women and that they are affected by global care chains; stresses that the free movement of persons and workers is one of the key pillars of the EU, but that challenges to cross-border care remain; calls for the protection of the social security rights of all care workers and care receivers as part of the right to free movement of persons in this sector as well as ensuring both decent working conditions and eradicating undeclared work; encourages the Member States to develop cross-border training, notably in cross-border regions, to facilitate cross-border care and to share best practices in the care sector, amongst else as a means of tackling the care drain and the lack of access to quality care in regions or countries where the care providers come from;

53.  Repeats its call for a common definition of disability, as well as mutual recognition of disability status in the Member States in line with the concluding observations of the UNCPRD Committee on the initial report of the European Union adopted in 2015 with the aim of removing the fundamental obstacle for intra-EU mobility of persons with disabilities and enabling their access to health, care and other services that facilitate independent living, as well as equal education and employment opportunities; calls for the implementation and expansion of the European Disability Card to all Member States, paving the way to a European definition of disabilities and allowing the persons with disabilities to exercise their right to free movement in a barrier-free Europe;

54.  Calls for the prioritisation and mainstreaming of mental health within public health and care policies at EU and Member States' level; calls on the Commission to put forward a European mental health strategy, with the aim of ensuring good mental health for all, identifying the challenges pertaining to mental health of all generations in all the relevant settings, as well as combating stereotypes and associated stigma in relation to mental health; stresses that this should be done in a gender-sensitive manner, with special attention to those invulnerable situations and the most deprived groups; underlines the importance of quality mental health and care across the life course, encompassing early age, education, the world of work, as well as strategies for prevention, detection and prompt access to effectively available, affordable and adequate quality treatment that contributes to quality of life of all adults, including persons in need of long-term care;

55.  Emphasises the importance of emotional, psychological, social and spiritual care and support as well as mental health services beyond medication in improving the quality of life of persons receiving palliative care; calls therefore on the Commission and Member States to advance access to integrated palliative care services to ease the pain and discomfort as well as maintain dignity and quality of life of persons suffering from terminal illness once all means of active care have been properly considered and found ineffective, and to ensure adequate support to their carers;

56.  Calls for nurses to have easier access to services offering support for mental and physical health;

57.  Calls on the Member States to guarantee immediate and full access of persons enjoying temporary protection to quality care services, without discrimination on any ground and with special attention to their physical and psychological needs generated by the circumstances of war and their displacement, and to secure, at the same time, equal and decent working and employment conditions and fair pay for the persons enjoying temporary protection who will seek employment in the care sector; underlines that additional capacities and investment in the care sector are essential to this end;

Quality long-term care for a long and quality life

58.  Calls on the Commission to establish a comprehensive, ambitious, and rights-based set of targets and corresponding indicators for long-term care, reporting mechanism and tools for disaggregated data on and monitoring the accessibility, availability, affordability and quality of care treatments and services, as well as staffing levels, applicable to all types of facilities and providers, similar to the Barcelona objectives for childcare; highlights the need for targets and indicators on decent working conditions as well as women’s continued participation in the labour market that would guide investment, funding and training to ensure better access to quality services for those in need as well as ensuring women’s continued participation in the labour market facilitated by equal caring responsibilities;

59.  Is convinced that the Commission should set as the main target equal and universal access for all to quality long-term care services based on the individual needs of people receiving care and support, paying special attention to the elimination of inequalities and to people in vulnerable situations, such as older persons, persons with disabilities and women undertaking informal and undeclared care work; notes that long-term care needs are not limited to older persons and that they instead extend to different groups in need of care throughout the lifecycle, such as people with rare diseases, majority of which have their onset during childhood; stresses that equal, effective and timely access to care services and support can be best achieved by involving care recipients and by integrating long-term care into national social protection systems, as recommended by the Social Protection Committee, which are for equity and efficiency reasons best placed to deliver(94);

60.  Stresses the need for quality indicators for all social and health services that are based on the rights of the persons in need for care, the maintenance and enhancement of their independence and autonomy as well as social inclusion, and focusing on the aspirations of long-term care, such as the improvement of well-being and quality of life of people in need of long-term care and support services, the evolution of healthy life years and other indicators putting entire care experience in the centre of attention; calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise the benefits of integrated care approaches in prevention of physical and cognitive decline and prolongation of autonomy of the care recipients; stresses that older age, disability, severe illness or any other circumstances leading to long-term care needs shall not present an obstacle for active participation of individuals in the society and community life; reminds that social exclusion of persons in need of care and support is above all a product of widely spread negative perceptions, socially constructed self-images and the persisting structural discrimination;

61.  Calls on the Commission to organise a Care Summit to feed into the work of the High-Level Group on the future of social protection and of the welfare state in the EU after the summit for a thorough and inclusive discussion with all relevant stakeholders, such as, social partners, interest groups, patient organisations, carers organisations, care recipients and their representatives, public authorities, civil society, non-profit organisations, service providers and other experts on the community-based care fit for 2030 with a view of creating a long-standing platform, to create innovative care solutions,ensure future-proof care systems, phase out institutionalized care and replace it with community-based or family-based care and/or use of personalized budgets and personalised design of care; calls on the Commission to guide public investments in long term care services in the use of the EU’s financial instruments and to present a framework directive on long-term, formal and informal, care that would lay down fundamental principles and provide evidence-based criteria for accessible and integrated quality long-term care and support services across the EU;

62.  Calls on the Member States to establish national, mutually recognised registers of care service providers, in order to monitor minimum compliance with the standards and legal requirements for care services provision; takes note of certification systems or mechanisms in some MS recognizing long-term care givers’ qualifications and competences in specific fields of care provision; insists on the pivotal role of training for formal and informal carers as well as stronger quality controls and whistle-blower systems for non-profit and for-profit care chains for the delivery of quality long-term care;

63.  Points out that the risk of having their long-term care needs unmet is particularly high for older women, who represent a majority of the population in need of long-term care; highlights that also women experience the greatest difficulties in covering the long-term care expenses due to persisting gender pay and pension gaps, female poverty, horizontal and vertical segregation of the labour market, having more career breaks and interruptions due to persistent traditional gender roles where women continue to take up most of the care obligations, labour market structures and stereotypes, as well as their overrepresentation in precarious or part-time work; is concerned about the fact that particularly the choice of the initial care provider by care recipients and their close ones tends to be made in a context of stress, financial constraints and limited availability of services(95);

Informal care

64.  Notes that throughout the EU, between 40 and 50 million people are providing informal care on a regular basis and 44 million long-term care at least once a week(96), the majority of whom are women including women with disabilities who make up around 60 % of informal carers and provide informal care for more hours than men(97), notes that this acts as a brake on gender equality and may limit the possibility to work formally especially for younger carers;

65.  Notes that informal care is often a consequence of the lack of availability and accessibility of professional services, among others, tends to continue for a long time and can have repercussions on the enjoyment of the informal carers’ political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights, including fewer career opportunities or acceptance of jobs below their level of skills and hindering or ruling out formal labour market participation; is particularly concerned about the negative impact of care responsibilities on women’s financial independence as well as the increased risk of poverty, social exclusion, mental and physical health issues;

66.  Notes that performing informal care can lead to a loss of income, aggravation of gender-based discrimination, such as the gender pay and pension gaps, old-age poverty and the feminisation of poverty; stresses that these detrimental effects are closely associated with the intensity of care provided and highlights the need to better share unpaid domestic and care work mainly performed by women and strengthen the fight against gender stereotypes, as well as to introduce working arrangements respecting work-life balance;

67.  Notes that in the EU, out of older persons aged 65 and above, more than 7 million people, 8 %, receive informal care in the EU and for people aged 75 and above, the number of people relying on informal care amounts to 11 %(98); notes that the majority of older people in need of care are women;

68.  Notes that to enable people to continue to be cared for in their own homes, mobile care and support need to be expanded and further developed to relieve the care tasks of family caregivers, especially women, not only through awareness-raising activities but also through adequate support including financial compensation, thus allowing relatives who provide care to carry on their employments and to work towards the compatibility of care and paid work; emphasizes the pivotal role of informal carers and the need of informal carers to be closely involved and supported by care professionals, and stresses that informal carers must have their needs assessed and addressed in their own right, without being conditional on the services or supports of the cared-for person;

69.  Notes that at least 8 % of all children in Europe are involved in the provision of informal long-term care, which has a negative impact on their mental and physical health, educational attainment, social inclusion and their future participation to labour market(99);

70.  Highlights the need to develop a common European minimum definition for informal care, commitment by Member States, and Council Recommendations on informal care including national recommendations; stresses that this definition should emphasise that providing informal care must be a choice and not born out of the necessity and lack of available care services, and include the respect for the right to self-determination of persons receiving care in their choice of the form of care they want to receive;

71.  Calls on the Commission to come up with common European guidelines and status of and support to informal carers as informal care is currently not adequately recognized and acknowledged in all its diversity; urges the Member States to promote active labour and employment policies aimed for unpaid informal carers to support their reintegration and progress in the labour market and to recognise the skills acquired in informal settings;

72.  Urges the Commission to present to the Parliament and the Council a European Carers Programme and as a part of it a European Informal Carers programme with a package of actions at EU level on informal care, and, where the competences are at the national level, calls on the Member States to support this European strategy by ambitious and coordinated actions and national programmes to identify, recognise and acknowledge the different types of informal care provided in Europe, and identify different needs of different groups of carers including young carers and mobile carers to facilitate employment to be declared and ensure insurance and social protection coverage, regardless of their different residence or administrative situations and status;

73.  Calls on the Member States to consider the formalisation of informal care and different financial support options based on their different needs and realities, with a view of guaranteeing carers good standards of rights, financial support and social protection;

74.  Recalls that the above could be achieved through for example care or pension credits to protect those taking a break from employment to provide care to a family member or someone else in need of care, and through recognising the value of the work that these carers do for society as a whole by other additional support services (counselling or peer exchange), clearly stipulated time off for carers, a healthy work-life balance, leave, replacement services in case of illness, day-care services, job-reintegration services, psychological and rehabilitation services for carers and care recipients, and access to education, training and life-long learning and underlines the importance of non-transferrable parental leave; in this regard, calls on the Member States to consider and exchange as well on the best practices on how to reflect periods spent on care responsibilities in pension schemes and to swiftly and fully transpose Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers, which introduces leave for carers and the possibility to request flexible working time arrangements, minimum amount of days of carers’ leave in order to provide personal care or support to a relative or to a person who lives in the same household as the worker;

75.  Calls on Member States to examine how best to formalise provision of informal care and therefore revenue collection in this area(100), including tax deduction systems and the use of service vouchers;

76.  Underlines that this package of actions on informal care needs to include both legislative and non-legislative proposals and adequate investment to acknowledge informal carers’ rights and obligations as part of their role, while respecting the right to self-determination of the persons receiving care and set a certain criteria for carers’ access to social and other additional support services (including time-off and sick leave); reiterates the mental and physical health stress, associated with caregiving, and stresses the importance of ensuring carers' access to information and advice about care and care-life balance; underlines that the package of actions additionally needs to set out reporting responsibilities for Member States, create single points of contact where informal carers can access the support they need in all Member States and promote interoperability between health and social security systems in order to make use of existing data and reduce the administrative burden faced by informal carers;

77.  Urges the Commission and the Member States to support civil society organisations and social partners to assure the representation of informal carers in order to take their contributions into account in the design, implementation and evaluation of policies concerning informal care, including in drafting the European Care Strategy;

78.  Stresses the importance of addressing the over-reliance on informal care through formalisation and recognition of carers' skills via a certification process and promoting training and skills validation schemes, allowing for the advancement, of mutual recognition of skills, as well as implement targeted upskilling and reskilling activities; highlights that these efforts should make use of, among others, the European Skills Agenda, the Pact for Skills, ESF+, the Youth Employment Initiative, the Just Transition Fund, and EU4Health; Calls on the Member States to facilitate the labour market reintegration of workers who took a long career break to provide care to relatives;

79.  Calls on the Commission to recognize challenges limiting access to appropriate care for persons with specific diseases that require increased level of care like rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs); Highlights that for persons with RMDs, the biggest obstacle in accessing appropriate care is the lack of rheumatologists and medical training in rheumatology in the Member States; Calls therefore on the Member States to make Rheumatology a standard element of the medical training curriculum and to increase the number of practicing rheumatologists;

Decent working conditions for all workers in the care sector

80.  Urges the Member States to place adequate staffing levels and investment in care staff at the centre of their care policies; calls on Member States to increase the attractiveness of the care occupations by ensuring social recognition, decent working conditions and fair remuneration, including adequate working hours, which would as a consequence help to tackle the existing labour shortages and diminish the need for short-notice work, rapid and severe workforce outflows, especially in the regions and Member States facing significant challenges due to the care drain, and increase resilience of the care systems for the future while creating jobs in the sector;

81.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to support the creation of such quality jobs in the sector with among others clear, sustainable and attractive career paths and opportunities for training and the improvement of skills, that allow for permanent professional and personal development; calls on Commission and Member States to take concrete initiatives and provide incentives that make work in the care sector more appealing also to young people and encourage a gender balanced distribution of care professions;

82.  Takes note of additional challenges related to the increasing share of platform work in the care sector; stresses that the European directive on platform work and national legislation regulating platform economy should duly take account of the specific nature of care work, which would provide minimum standards for the quality of services and decent working conditions for workers;

83.  Recognises that care is often being provided undeclared or under-declared, in exploitative conditions, impacting the rights and well-being of workers and their families, and care recipients; is also concerned about the working conditions of live-in carers who are mainly women, including migrant women, many of whom face unclear remuneration conditions, risk of social isolation and the lack of mechanisms for proper enforcement of their rights; calls on the Commission and Member States to tackle the issue of undeclared work in the care sector and to create a clear legal framework to promote quality jobs with social protection coverage for all care workers;

84.  Stresses that decent work should be an integral part when defining priorities around sustainable and quality care systems; highlights that recipients of public EU and national funding, loans and contracts should respect applicable labour law and strong standards;

85.  Calls on those Member States, as members of the ILO, that have not yet done so to ratify and implement the relevant ILO conventions, particularly no. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers, no. 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work and no. 149 on nursing personnel;

86.  Is concerned about the high share of minimum wage and sub-minimum earners among the care professionals, majority of whom are women, and the subsequently persistent gender pay gap and discrepancies in the pay levels of specific care professions(101); welcomes therefore the Commission proposals for a directive on adequate minimum wages, that would improve living and working conditions in the EU, including for the lowest paid workers in the care sector, and for a directive on pay transparency, tackling persistently inadequate enforcement of the fundamental right to equal pay for equal work or for work of equal value in the EU; stresses that in order to adjust the low pay in the highly female dominated care sector, the socio-economic value of care work must be re-assessed in comparison to the value of work in other often more male dominated sectors based on objective criteria through gender-neutral job evaluation or classification tools such as educational, professional and training requirements, skills, effort, responsibility ,work undertaken and the nature of the tasks involved; highlights that a valid comparator is an important parameter in determining whether work can be considered of equal value; in the case where no real life comparator exists (as often the case in the highly female dominated sectors), a hypothetical comparator may be used; encourages both public and private care service providers to guarantee decent and adequate remuneration, beyond minimum wages; stresses that wage increases are associated with greater recruitment of long-term care workers, longer tenure and lower turnover according to OECD(102); urges Members States to promote reforms to recognize the rights of caregivers and care receivers and implement actions to protect fundamental labour rights and improving working conditions of care workers addressing the often precarious situations they face such as informality, long working hours, inadequate pay, alack of training and poor occupational health and safety policies and instances of abuse, harassment and violence among others;

87.  Highlights the central role of education and training as well as of programmes for inclusive reskilling and upskilling of workers for provision of quality care services and professionalization of care with regard to the continuous evolution of care professions and services; underlines the central role of paid educational and in-work training also in the process of transition from residential to community- and family-based care; strongly encourages the Member States, with the support of EU funds (ESIF and notably the European Social Fund +, as well as the RRF), to provide training to care staff on the rights of persons in need of care and support, particularly the rights enshrined in the UNCRPD and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; regrets that the EU Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications does not set out harmonised minimum training requirements for long-term care workers, hampering the automatic recognition of these workers throughout the Union;

88.  Emphasises that care work is an essentially interpersonal service that requires a range of complex skills, some of which are not recognised and remunerated; stresses that the role of caregivers should be, above all, to provide care and support to the care recipients, and therefore considers necessary to cut unnecessary red tape and avoid assigning unnecessary administrative tasks to carers; stresses that certain medical tasks can be shared between health professionals and underlines the benefits of closer cooperation between care and health professionals, such as better distribution of workloads, more time for care recipients and continuity of care, as well as multidisciplinary practices and harmonization of career pathways;

89.  Calls on the Commission to set up an EU Skills for Care Initiative to support Member States to improve up- and reskilling opportunities for professionals in the care sector, identifying skill gaps and needs, promising practices and successful initiatives, as well to provide a framework for the recognition and certification of expertise, skills and qualification acquired through experience such as through informal care work, to facilitate access to formal employment in the sector; calls on the Member States to draw on the EU Skills Agenda to ensure further skilling and upskilling of care workers, and support and provide public opportunities for all carers – including migrant informal carers and care workers – to participate in vocational education and training and gain qualifications, paying special attention to women after care leave;

90.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure and to enforce decent working conditions and the right for all workers to establish and join a representative trade union, and to engage in collective bargaining in the care sector, both formal and informal, and to adopt high standards of occupational health and safety, inline with and beyond the ambition of the recently adopted EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027; highlights the need to pay special attention to the specific challenges of work in the care sector, which includes exposure of workers to hazardous substances or medicinal products, work in potentially infectious environments, as well as mental and psychosocial risks related to emotionally demanding work and encountering adverse social behaviour, in order to prevent work-place accidents and illness, and with that absenteeism, turnover and poor workers health;

91.  Calls on Member States to recognize COVID-19 as an occupational disease in the care sector; calls on the Member States to ensure that every care service provider prepares an Infection Prevention and Control programme and to guarantee annual infectious disease trainings for care workers, as well as providing workers with up-to-date information on infectious diseases;

92.  Recalls that certain medicinal products that are regularly used by care workers contain one or several carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic substances falling under the scope of Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens, mutagens or reprotoxics at work; recalls, in this context, the fourth revision of this Directive and the inclusion of work involving exposure to hazardous medicinal products; looks forward to the foreseen publication in 2022 of the guidelines for handling those substances as well as for the development of a definition and an indicative list of such Hazardous Medicinal Products;

93.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and support age-friendly working environments; repeats its call on the Commission to raise the level of ambition and to propose a broader and more comprehensive directive on prevention and management of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and rheumatic diseases, as well as mitigate psychosocial risks and negative effects of care work on well-being of workers that have been particularly pronounced during the pandemic;

94.  Stresses that the European care strategy should, among others comprehensively address the impact of digitalisation on working conditions of workers and the effects of remote work and telework on mental health, as well as on the amount and unequal gender division of unpaid care and housework; repeats its call on the Commission to propose, in consultation with the social partners, a directive on psychosocial risks and well-being at work;

95.  Calls on the Member States to establish minimum standards for live-in care work in the areas such as: working time, remuneration and accommodation of carers, in order to take into account specificity of their work; especially the fact of living and working in a common household with a person in need of care; an average working time should be calculated as carers work in shifts; remuneration level shall depend on the care needs as well as skills of the carers; in-house carers who live together with dependants shall have access to separate room, access to toilet, kitchen and, if possible, internet;

96.  Calls on the Member States to strengthen social dialogue and promote collective bargaining and collective agreements in the care sector, public and private, and profit and non-profit, institutional as well as family- and community-based settings as crucial mechanisms for the improvement of employment and working conditions and for tackling the gender pay gap, and as the most effective tools for securing an increase in the minimum wage and in wages in general;

97.  Calls on the Member States to promote broader collective bargaining coverage and ensure the right and freedom of association in the care sector by providing greater access and information to workers representatives and trade unions seeking to represent and build membership amongst the care workforce, and by removing all obstacles to the creation of trade unions as well as unnecessary barriers in public sector workplaces, including private contractors working on public contracts, that impede unions’ ability to organize public sector workers and increase their membership; stresses that especially mobile workers, who often work as live-in carers and have to be available 24 hours a day, are not sufficiently aware or informed of the terms and conditions of employment applicable to them; highlights that the collective agreements should amongst else secure the pension rights of workers who need to decrease paid employment or leave employment in order to care for others;

98.  Recalls that mobile and migrant workers, including undocumented workers, play a significant role in the provision of residential, community- and family-based care in the EU; believes that this fact should be reflected and accordingly addressed in the forthcoming European Care Strategy; calls on the Commission and Member States to commit to and set concrete actions to address the issue of undeclared work and illegal forms of employment as well as to promote decent work for all care workers, regardless of their status; stresses that migrant workers face specific vulnerability and challenges, such as access to work permit or to formal employment, social protection coverage and the risk of undeclared work; calls for their protection through the application, enforcement and monitoring of the relevant legislation;

99.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure fair mobility and recruitment of workers from the EU and from third countries by improving the reciprocal recognition of their qualifications and by closing the gaps in transnational social protection; repeats its call for proper monitoring and enforcement of rules pertaining to mobility and better informing workers of their rights; stresses the role of the ELA in assisting Member States and the Commission in the effective application and enforcement of EU law related to labour mobility and the coordination of social security systems within the EU; stresses the need to consider revising the ELA’s mandate in the context of the evaluation due in 2024, to include occupational health and safety provisions; calls on EU-OSHA and the ELA to work together to support the Commission and the Member States in improving the occupational health and safety of mobile and migrant workers; stresses that live-in care workers are predominantly organised through a complex chain of agencies posting workers, who are thus covered by the Posting of Workers Directive(103);

100.  Recognises the role of personal and household services workers in guaranteeing that the EU citizens have a genuine choice of their preferred care model; calls on the Commission to address in the European care strategy the challenging working and employment conditions of all personal and domestic workers, including care and other personal and household services workers, and to lay foundation for recognition, regulation and professionalization of personal and household services; calls on the Commission and Member States to effectively tackle undeclared work in the care sector by guaranteeing social protection, safe and decent working conditions and creating new job opportunities in the domestic care sectors; calls for a targeted revision of Directive 89/391/EEC to ensure the inclusion of domestic workers within its scope; calls on the Member States to present an adequate framework for declaration of personal and household services, such as service voucher schemes, to develop mechanisms and tools for better monitoring of domestic care work and to invest in tailor-made quality professional services to halt precarisation of care and discourage use of care services that involve undeclared work;

101.  Calls on the Member States to swiftly and fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive and encourages them to go beyond the minimum standards laid down in the directive; stresses that only an equal share of unpaid care responsibilities between men and women by means of equal non-transferable and adequately paid leave periods would enable women to increasingly engage in full-time employment, achieve a work-life balance, as well as personal and societal development; highlights further the importance of promoting additional flexibility of work arrangements for groups of workers, such as parents with young children, single parents, parents with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities; calls on the Member States to respect a minimum duration for maternity and paternity leave, regardless of the status of the person concerned; recalls that policies on work-life balance should encourage men to take up care responsibilities on an equal basis with women and stresses the need to progressively advance towards fully paid and equal length maternity and paternity leaves; strongly urges all Member States to encourage and ensure that fathers are able to take up their paternity leave without fear of adverse or discriminatory conduct by their employers, which is an effective way of encouraging them to accept responsibility for looking after their children and their families and a useful mean to achieving genuine gender equality; highlights that this not only requires but also will cause changes in stereotypes and gender norms, leading to a fairer and more gender equal society; calls on the Commission and Members states to promote transformative actions such as awareness campaigns on the co-responsibility of care, eradicating the stereotyped idea of women as responsible for this work;

102.  Calls on the Member States to develop a set of comprehensive measures and incentives to encourage and facilitate the labour market reintegration of workers, especially women, whose career and income are more often affected by unequal gender roles and care leaves, including their take up or longer career breaks and to ensure the right of workers to return to the same or equivalent position;

103.  Calls on the Member States, in close cooperation with social partners, to support career pathways to facilitate work situations adaptations in particular via lifelong learning and vocational training, adequate unemployment benefits, transferability of social rights, and active, effective labour market policies; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote and guarantee effective protection and equal pay for men and women, through a gender transformative legislation and policy responses that aims to tackle precarious employment, the undervaluation of work of certain feminised sectors such as care and guarantee career paths and proper social security coverage; reiterates that people in all employment relationships and the self-employed should be able to accumulate entitlements providing income security in circumstances such as unemployment, sickness, old age, career breaks for child-raising or other caring situations, or for reasons of training in line with the Council Recommendation on access to social protection of workers and self-employed;

104.  Calls on the Commission to build on the European Care Strategy, namely the two Council recommendations, on childcare (revision of the Barcelona targets) and on long-term care and to present a Care Deal for Europe after the Care Strategy, which should include a set of policies, programmes, recommendations and investment at EU level, aiming at fostering a transition towards a gender-transformative care economy that recognizes care as a right and values it as the backbone of our society; highlights that it should take an integrated, holistic and life-long approach to care and promote decent working conditions and fair wages, increase the attractiveness of work in the care sector as well as tackle discrimination, gender inequalities and poverty in the sector;

Recognising and valuing the role of care in our societies and economies

105.  Stresses the utmost importance of mainstreaming care and measures for the empowerment and professional development of women as carers, persons in need of care and support and vulnerable individuals in all relevant national and EU policies, together with encouraging increased investment in accessible, affordable and high quality care services;

106.  Calls for these priorities to be reflected also in the external dimensions of the EU policies, including in pre-accession and official development assistance; emphasises that a rights-based approach to care, based on the principle of non-discrimination, would enable such a mainstreaming across all relevant policy fields; underlines the necessity of ensuring the systematic implementation of gender and equality mainstreaming in all the relevant stages of the budgeting process, both within Commission’s central budgets as well as policies and programmes supported by the EU; calls on the Members States and the European Commission to reverse the highly stigmatised image of formal and informal care occupations and Member States to adopt effective policies and programmes for tackling ableism, ageism, gender-based and other forms of discrimination that intersect with prejudice and stereotypes associated with care, paternalism and concept of dependency; notes that women are a valuable and untapped source of entrepreneurial potential in Europe also in the care sector, who can contribute to new innovations such as new technologies;

107.  Notes that tackling entrenched gender norms and stereotypes is a first step in redistributing responsibilities for unpaid care and domestic work between men and women and calls on the Commission and the Member States to foster a positive public image and attractiveness of work in the care sector for both men and women by planning educational and public information campaigns and supporting pilot projects advancing this goal and aiming to bring more men into care and to promote equal participation and opportunities for women and men in the labour market in care services;

108.  Calls on the Commission to monitor the implementation of the principles of the EPSR and the SDGs in the context of the European Semester; calls in particular for a regular reporting on the implementation of the EU Care Strategy as well as care-related indicators taken into account in the European Semester and in the Country-Specific Recommendations; considers that the care economy ought to be a pillar of the post-pandemic economies and calls on the Commission and the Member States to put care at the centre of post-pandemic recovery; firmly believes that the implementation of national recovery and resilience plans must include targeted actions for the improvement of gender equality in all spheres of life and of care, including measures for reduction and redistribution of unpaid care and household work;

109.  Notes that there is a need to recognize and value care in European economies, budgeting and statistics; calls on the Commission and Member States to adopt approaches to measuring and valuing the social and economic contribution and outputs of care in particular unpaid care, housework and domestic work through adding informal care in the value chain, including by considering the introduction of specific indicators to the next revision of the Social Scoreboard; calls on Eurostat and EIGE to estimate the economic contribution of informal carers to Member States’ economies and calls on the Commission and the Member States to include related alternative measures of economic and social well-being in the policy-making process;

110.  Points to the clear benefits of minimum income and minimum pension schemes for timely and effective access to care and support services in the view of the upcoming Commission recommendation on adequate minimum income, as well as for ensuring decent living standard to carers, who are mainly women, especially those providing informal unpaid care, and calls on the Commission to stress the importance of considering and exchanging best practices on how to reflect caring responsibilities throughout the life-cycle on pension schemes;

111.  Calls on the Commission to link the upcoming care strategy to the European action plan for the social economy, raising the awareness of the potential of social economy in improving the working conditions in the care sector as well as creating opportunities for better access of women to quality jobs, calls on the Member States for investments to develop the care economy taking due account of the human factor aspects of the sector;

112.  Recognises and values care provided by civil society and non-profit organisations such as NGOs, patient organizations, charitable and religious or other institutions;

113.  Calls on the Member States to formulate and revise their care policies in permanent social and civil dialogue with social partners, experts, civil society NGOs, public authorities at national and EU level, representative organisations of care recipients and formal and informal carers to support the creation of effective social care policy solutions which fit the needs of the people on the ground; stresses the importance of actively consulting carers and care recipients and their representative organisations in the development, implementation and monitoring of the upcoming European Care Strategy; invites the Commission and the Member States to launch a discussion on the link between technology and quality of care;

114.  Calls on the European Commission to undertake research to better understand the economic and societal impact of the inadequate provision of care to persons in need for care and support and to secure funding, namely in the framework of the future platform, for research projects on the social impact of rare diseases, from a patient-perspective, and to EU-wide networks and innovative projects that allow Member States to co-create and transfer good practices and innovative care models, also with a special focus on the most prevalent diseases and diseases causing disability, including rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs);

115.  Calls on the Commission to ensure that the EIGE, Eurofound and other relevant agencies have adequate resources to monitor and analyse if and how policies are making the intended improvements in the care sector, including in terms of access, quality, gender equality, infrastructure and work-life balance;

116.  Calls for an external scientific and ethical evaluation on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the care sector, on the actions of the European Union as a whole as well as on the actions of the Member States, and for an evaluation on the level of preparedness that the EU now has for pandemics, and calls on the Member States and the Commission to investigate the causes of the large proportion of COVID-19 infections and deaths that have occurred in residential services for older people, persons with disabilities and other social service facilities, and whether human rights and patient rights have been neglected or violated, in order to draw the necessary lessons and prevent reoccurrence of such tragedies in the future crises;

o
o   o

117.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

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(36) The social construction of migrant care work. At the intersection of care, migration and gender / Amelita King-Dejardin; International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO, 2019. (37) Social Protection Committee and the European Commission (2021) Long-term care report. (38) OECD (2020) The effectiveness of social protection for long-term care in old age: Is social protection reducing the risk of poverty associated with care needs. (39) European Parliament study (2021) Ageing policies - access to services in different Member States. (40) World Economic Forum: COVID-19 highlights how caregiving fuels gender inequality - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/covid-19-highlights-how-caregiving-fuels-gender-inequality/ (41) 2019. (42) https://eige.europa.eu/about-eige/director-speeches/beyond-beijing-declaration-assessment-and-main-challenges (43) https://data.unwomen.org/features/covid-19-pandemic-has-increased-care-burden-how-much-0 https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/04/policy-brief-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-women (44) Preventing and managing COVID-19 across long-term care services: Policy brief, WHO, 24 July 2020 ; Surveillance data from public online national reports on COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, ECDC, 2022 (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/all-topics-z/coronavirus/threats-and-outbreaks/covid-19/prevention-and-control/LTCF-data) (45) http://www.efnweb.be/wp-content/uploads/EFN-MHE-Joint-Statement-October-2021.pdf (46) Eurofound brief (2021) Education, healthcare and housing: How access changed for children and families in 2020. 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(56) Eurofound report (2020) Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions. (57) Eurofound report (2020) Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions. (58) European Commission & Social Protection Committee (2021) 2021 Long-term care report. (59) European Parliament study (2021) Policies for long-term carers. (60) Eurofound, Long-term Care Workforce: Employment and working conditions, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020b (61) Eurofound report (2020) Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions. (62) European Commission Long-term care report https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=24079&langId=en (63) European Commission Long-term care report https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=24079&langId=en (64) EIGE report 2020: Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market: https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-inequalities-care-and-consequences-labour-market (65) EIGE report (20210) Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market. (66) European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), European Quality of Life Survey 2016 – Quality of life, quality of public services, and quality of society, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018. (67) https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_pnp13〈=en (68) EIGE report (2021) Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market. (69) The Global Burden of Disease Study 2019: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/vol396no10258/PIIS0140-6736(20)X0042-0# (70) ILO (2018) Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. (71) European Parliament study (2021) Policies for long-term carers. (72) European Parliament study (2021) Gender equality: Economic value of care from the perspective of the applicable EU funds. (73) European Social Partners joint statement on childcare provisions in the EU. https://www.etuc.org/en/document/european-social-partners-joint-statement-childcare-provisions-eu (74) European parliament Resolution of 29 April 2021 on European Child Guarantee. (75) Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 establishing a European Child Guarantee. (76) EIGE report (2021) Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market. (77) European Commission Long-term care report https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=24079&langId=en (78) Social Protection Committee and the European Commission (2021) Long-term care report. (79) European Commission Long-term care report https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=24079&langId=en (80) Eurocarers 2021 Report on Impact of COVID-19 on outbreak on informal carers across Europe. (81) ILO, 2022, ‘Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work’, (82) ILO, 2022, ‘Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work’, (83) European Commission, 2021, Green Paper on Ageing. (84) https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/economy-finance/dp074_en.pdf (85) Alzheimer Europe, Dementia in Europe Yearbook 2019 (2020) Estimating the prevalence of dementia in Europe. (86) https://www.oecd.org/fr/publications/who-cares-attracting-and-retaining-elderly-care-workers-92c0ef68-en.htm (87) https://www.finanzwende-recherche.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Finanzwende_BourgeronMetzWolf_2021_Private-Equity-Investoren-in-der-Pflege_20211013.pdf (88) https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/article/2021/wages-in-long-term-care-and-other-social-services-21-below-average (89) "Primary prevention is directed towards preventing the initial occurrence of a disorder. Secondary and tertiary prevention seeks to arrest or retard existing disease and its effects through early detection and appropriate treatment; or to reduce the occurrence of relapses and the establishment of chronic conditions through, for example, effective rehabilitation." Reference: WHO, Health promotion glossary, 1998. (90) The data on ethnic origin should be collected on voluntary and anonymous basis solely for the purposes of identifying and combatting discriminatory acts. (91) As stipulated in the Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/1004 of 14 June 2021 establishing a European Child Guarantee. (92) European Parliament resolution of 17 December 2020 on a strong social Europe for Just Transitions (2020/2084(INI)); European Parliament resolution of 7 April 2022 on the EU’s protection of children and young people fleeing the war in Ukraine (2022/2618(RSP)). (93) Digital solutions, for example applications, which are composed of different modules and functions that can be combined with the application’s basic form to have as a result an application fit for individual users’ needs and wishes. (94) https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=7724 (95) Social Protection Committee and European Commission (2021), Long-term care report: Trends, challenges and opportunities in an ageing society, vol. 1. (96) Eurofound (2020): Long-term care workforce: Employment and working conditions. (97) Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies (2021), EP Study requested by EMPL: Policies for long-term carers. (98) Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies (2021), EP Study requested by EMPL: Policies for long-term carers. (99) Santini, Socci et al. (2020): Positive and Negative Impacts of Caring among Adolescents Caring for Grandparents. Results from an Online Survey in Six European Countries and Implications for Future Research, Policy and Practice (https://me-we.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Positive-and-Negative-Impacts-of-Caring.pdf). (100) For public revenue purposes, Member States should examine the best way to formalise employment, and in that way the revenue collection deriving from this employment. In doing that, they should take into account in the calculations tax deduction systems and the use of service vouchers. (101) Eurofound (2021), Understanding the gender pay gap: What difference do sector and occupation make? Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. Eurofound (2021), Minimum wages in 2021: Annual review, Minimum wages in the EU series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. (102) https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/92c0ef68-en.pdf?expires=1647941287&id=id∾cname=ocid194994✓sum=D863115B583D2A82CECF11D7D54A37B1 (103) https://www.eesc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/report_on_the_eesc_country_visits_to_uk_germany_italy_poland_0.pdf

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 on mental health in the digital world of work (2021/2098(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0279 A9-0184/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union,

–  having regard to Articles 4, 6, 9, 114, 153, 169 and 191 and, in particular, to Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to Articles 2, 3, 14, 15, 21, 31, 32 and 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’),

–  having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights, in particular principle 10 thereof,

–  having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,

–  having regard to the UN mental health and well-being strategy of 2018,

–  having regard to the World Health Organization (WHO) manifesto for a healthy recovery from COVID-19 of 18 May 2020,

–  having regard to WHO World Mental Health Day 2021 – ‘Mental healthcare for all: let’s make it a reality’,

–  having regard to the WHO European framework for action on mental health for 2021‑2025,

–  having regard to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) health policy study of 8 June 2021 entitled ‘A New Benchmark for Mental Health Systems: Tackling the Social and Economic Costs of Mental Ill Health’ and mental health and work review of 4 November 2021 entitled ‘Fitter Minds, Fitter Jobs: from Awareness to Change in Integrated Mental Health, Skills and Work Policies’,

–  having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility(1),

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers(2),

–  having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services(3),

–  having regard to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation(4),

–  having regard to Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time(5),

–  having regard to Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work(6),

–  having regard to Council Directive 89/654/EEC of 30 November 1989 concerning the minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace(7),

–  having regard to Council Directive 90/270/EEC of 29 May 1990 on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment(8),

–  having regard to its resolution of 17 April 2020 on EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences(9),

–  having regard to its resolution of 10 July 2020 on the EU’s public health strategy post‑COVID-19(10),

–  having regard to its resolution on 21 January 2021 with recommendations to the Commission on the right to disconnect(11),

–  having regard to its resolution of 17 February 2022 on empowering European youth: post-pandemic employment and social recovery(12),

–  having regard to its resolution of 16 September 2021 on fair working conditions, rights and social protection for platform workers – new forms of employment linked to digital development(13),

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 24 October 2019 on the economy of well‑being(14), which call for a comprehensive EU mental health strategy,

–  having regard to the Council conclusions of 8 June 2020 on enhancing well-being at work,

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 28 June 2021 entitled ‘EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027 – Occupational safety and health in a changing world of work’ (COM(2021)0323),

–  having regard to the Commission Green Paper of 14 October 2005 entitled ‘Improving the mental health of the population – Towards a strategy on mental health for the European Union’ (COM(2005)0484),

–  having regard to the Commission report of 14 July 2021 entitled ‘Employment and Social Developments in Europe – towards a strong social Europe in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis: reducing disparities and addressing distributional impacts’,

–  having regard to the 2008 European Pact for Mental Health and Well-Being,

–  having regard to the report from the European Youth Forum of 17 June 2021 entitled ‘Beyond Lockdown: the “pandemic scar” on young people’,

–  having regard to the Eurofound reports of 9 November 2021 entitled ‘Impact of COVID-19 on young people in the EU’ and 10 May 2021 entitled ‘Living, working and COVID-19: Mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year’,

–  having regard to the report of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU‑OSHA) of 7 December 2020 entitled ‘Preventing musculoskeletal disorders in a diverse workforce: risk factors for women, migrants and LGBTI workers’,

–  having regard to the EU-OSHA report of 7 October 2011 entitled ‘Mental health promotion in the workplace – a good practice report’,

–  having regard to the EU-OSHA report of 22 October 2021 entitled ‘Telework and health risks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from the field and policy implications’,

–  having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 12 December 2012 entitled ‘The European Year of Mental Health – Better work, better quality of life’(15),

–  having regard to the opinion of the Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health of 23 June 2021 on supporting the mental health of the health workforce and other essential workers’,

–  having regard to the joint EU-OSHA and Eurofound report of 13 October 2014 entitled ‘Psychosocial risks in Europe: prevalence and strategies for prevention’,

–  having regard to the Willis Towers Watson 2021 Employee Experience Survey,

–  having regard to the petitions submitted to the Committee on Petitions, for instance Nos 0956/2018 and 1186/2018,

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A9-0184/2022),

A.  whereas the right to physical and mental health is a fundamental human right and whereas every human being is entitled to the highest attainable standard of health; whereas the WHO defines mental health as ‘a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realise their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community’(16); whereas mental health is also linked to other fundamental rights such as the right to human dignity, as enshrined in Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, and the right to the integrity of the person, including mental integrity, as enshrined in Article 3 of the Charter;

B.  whereas research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped organisational and managerial practices and changed working conditions for many workers in Europe, with consequences for working time, well-being and the physical environment of the workplace; whereas extraordinary demands have been placed on healthcare and essential workers; whereas these workers have had to cope with a demanding work environment, a lack of protection and fears for their safety, which has had a negative psychological impact; whereas understanding mental health issues in the workplace not only means being cognisant of mental disorders in line with the diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics (e.g. depression)(17), but also seeking to promote well-being, avoiding misunderstanding and stigmatisation and devising and implementing the right measures and treatment to manage those disorders(18);

C.  whereas the pandemic unleashed a sharp increase in care responsibilities in combination with work, which disproportionately affected women and widened the gender disparity in unpaid care; whereas this had a negative impact on the mental health of people with care responsibilities, as many workers had to cope with much more stress by taking on the increased care responsibilities of home-schooling and childcare during lockdown or by providing informal care or performing any other kind of work for dependent relatives;

D.  whereas research shows that the pandemic gave rise to teleworking on a large scale, which has had positive consequences such as more flexibility and autonomy and, in some cases, a better work-life balance; whereas, however, these gains do not always outweigh the negative consequences such as being overly connected, a blurring of the lines between one’s work and private life, a greater intensity of work and technology-related stress; whereas according to Eurofound’s COVID-19 surveys, the pandemic posed many challenges for workers working remotely; whereas while the considerable increase in teleworking may benefit workers and businesses, the right to physical and mental health must also be safeguarded and promoted in this context;

E.  whereas psychosocial risks are the most prevalent health risks associated with teleworking; whereas a higher prevalence of teleworking is linked to long working hours and work-related stress; whereas according to the EU-OSHA, psychosocial risks may result in negative psychological, physical and social outcomes such as work-related anxiety, burnout or depression; whereas the working conditions that lead to psychosocial risks may include an excessive workload, conflicting demands, a lack of clarity about one’s role, a lack of involvement in decisions affecting workers themselves, a lack of influence over the way one’s job is done, poorly managed organisational change, a lack of job security, ineffective communication, a lack of support from management or one’s colleagues, psychological and sexual harassment, and third-party violence; whereas Member States do not have the same legally binding common standards and principles for psychosocial risks, which leads to de facto unequal legal protections for workers;

F.  whereas an increasing number of employers are using digital tools such as apps, software and artificial intelligence (AI) to manage their workers; whereas as such, algorithmic management presents new challenges for the future of work such as technology-enabled control and surveillance through prediction and flagging tools, remote real-time monitoring of progress and performance and time-tracking, and entail significant risks for workers’ health and safety, notably their mental health and right to privacy and human dignity; whereas digitalisation and advanced new technologies such as AI and AI-based machinery are transforming the nature of work; whereas about 40 % of human resources departments in international companies now use AI applications and 70 % consider this a high priority for their organisation; whereas the new digital economy must be regulated to foster shared prosperity and ensure the well-being of society at large;

G.  whereas this new situation requires us to adopt a fresh and broader definition of health and safety at the workplace, which can no longer be separated from mental health;

H.  whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the mental well-being of healthcare and long-term care workers – the majority of whom are women – as well as vulnerable populations including ethnic minorities, the LGBTIQ+ community, older people, single parents, persons with disabilities and pre-existing mental health issues, people of a lower socio-economic status, the unemployed, and people living in the outermost regions and remote, poorly connected areas; whereas the mental health of young people has worsened significantly during the pandemic, with problems related to mental health having doubled in several Member States and a severe impact on the employment of young people and reduction in their incomes, including job losses; whereas 9 million adolescents in Europe (persons aged 10 to 19) are living with mental health disorders, with anxiety and depression accounting for more than half of those cases;

I.  whereas too many people in the EU do not have access to public mental and occupational health services; whereas mental well-being has reached its lowest level across all age groups since the onset of the pandemic, with the deterioration in mental health being attributed to disruptions in access to mental health services, an increased workload and a labour market crisis that disproportionately affected young people; whereas public mental and occupational health services are notoriously underfunded; whereas work-related stress can be a consequence of several factors such as time-constraint pressures, long or irregular working hours and poor communication and cooperation within the organisation; whereas there is a strong correlation between migraines or severe headaches and depression and anxiety, among other comorbid psychiatric disorders, which has a knock-on effect on working performance and employee absences; whereas clinical and applied research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions is also considerably underfunded; whereas mental health issues are currently the leading cause of global morbidity, with suicide the second-largest cause of death of young people in Europe; whereas prevention, awareness-raising, well-being activities and the promotion of mental health and a healthy culture at work can provide positive outcomes to improve the health of employees(19);

J.  whereas workplace issues that affect mental health include job burnout, bore-out syndrome, stress, harassment, violence, stigma, discrimination and limited possibilities for growth or promotion, aspects which may be further exacerbated online; whereas last year the WHO revealed that more than 300 million people worldwide were suffering from work-related mental disorders such as burnout, anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress, which correlates to the fact that one in four European workers feel that work has a negative impact on their health(20); whereas a negative working environment may lead to physical and mental health problems, the harmful use of substances or alcohol, absenteeism and lost productivity;

K.  whereas the costs of mental ill health were estimated at more than 4 % of GDP across all EU Member States in 2015; whereas the cost of work-related depression is one of the leading causes of disability and depression and has been estimated at EUR 620 billion a year, resulting in EUR 240 billion in lost economic output(21); whereas the estimated cost of all headaches in the EU is over EUR 110 billion every year, around EUR 50 billion of which is attributed to migraines; whereas the prevention-related budgets across all EU Member States remain low at 3 % of total health expenditure;

L.  whereas under EU occupational health and safety regulations(22), employers have a duty to protect workers’ health and safety in all aspects of their work; whereas employers continue to have a responsibility for occupational health and safety in the context of teleworking; whereas trade unions and occupational health and safety bodies in the workplace play a critical role in defending workers’ fundamental human right to a safe and secure workplace, including when teleworking;

M.  whereas stable employment, health (including mental health), conditions for full development, and a sense of influence and involvement for young people are the basic preconditions for exiting the crisis, strengthening societies and rebuilding economies;

Mental health and digital work: lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

1.  Regrets the fact that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health of employees and the self-employed was affected by disruptions to many services such as education, health, social support and increased stress factors such as financial insecurity, a fear of being unemployed, limited access to healthcare, isolation, technology-related stress, changes to working hours, the inadequate organisation of work and teleworking; calls for mental health to urgently be tackled by cross-sectional and integrated policies as part of a comprehensive EU mental health strategy and European care strategy supplemented by national action plans; reminds the Commission, in particular, that the protection of workers’ health should be an integral part of the EU-OSHA’s preparedness plans to prevent future health crises;

2.  Stresses that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis have placed a huge strain on the mental health and well-being of all citizens, but above all employees, the self-employed, young people, students transitioning to the workforce and older people, with an increasing prevalence of work-related psychosocial risks and higher rates of stress, anxiety and depression;

3.  Stresses that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the transition from education to work and can therefore cause high levels of stress, anxiety and uncertainty for young people at the beginning of their careers, which is also likely to exacerbate their employment prospects and feed into a vicious cycle of issues with their mental health and well-being; calls for greater support for mental health, including for public employment services, in order to address the well-being of unemployed people;

4.  Regrets the fact that mental health has not been treated as a priority in the same way as physical health, has been deprived of funding and has been short of qualified staff across the Member States, despite the intrinsic benefits associated with improved health and well-being and the substantial economic productivity gains and higher levels of participation in work deriving from public investment in mental health; believes that swift action is needed to improve the current situation;

5.  Calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to recognise the high levels of work-related mental health problems across the EU and to strongly commit to actions regulating and implementing a world of digital work which helps to prevent mental health problems, protect mental health and a healthy work-life balance, and reinforce social protection rights in the workplace; calls for dialogue to be undertaken and efforts to be made to that end in concert with employers and workers’ representatives, including trade unions; stresses, in this regard, the essential need to adopt prevention plans for mental health risks in all workplaces; calls for a follow-up on the implementation of the WHO European framework for action on mental health for 2021‑2025;

6.  Regrets the disparity between the amount of EU action actually taken on health and the scope afforded by the Treaty on European Union and calls for more EU action to be taken within the scope of those competences; considers mental health to be the next health crisis and that the Commission should take action and tackle all potential risks through binding and non-binding measures, where relevant, and create a comprehensive EU mental health strategy in line with the Council conclusions of 24 October 2019 on the economy of well-being;

7.  Notes that an EU mental health strategy should aim to require Member States to integrate mental healthcare with physical care in view of the close correlation between the two, to deliver effective care on the basis of evidence and human rights, to expand the number of services on offer to enable more people to access treatment and to support people to help them find or stay in work, among other endeavours; insists that poor mental health affects workers’ well-being and entails costs for welfare systems, with added expenditure for healthcare and social security; highlights the responsibility of the employer and the essential role of both the employer and social partners in devising and implementing such initiatives;

8.  Recalls that the pandemic has shed light on the widespread mental health crisis across Europe and the various responses to it by the Member States and has demonstrated the importance of sharing best practices to respond to health emergencies, revealing gaps in foresight, including preparedness, response tools and adequate funding; calls on the Commission and the Member States to include mental health impacts in their health crisis and pandemic emergency response and preparedness plans; believes that the current mental health crisis should be considered a health emergency;

9.  Welcomes the ongoing negotiations for a regulation repealing Decision No 1082/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 on serious cross-border threats to health(23) and the ongoing negotiations on reforming the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and strengthening the mandate of the European Medicines Agency;

10.  Applauds the essential and frontline workers who sacrificed their own well-being to perform life-saving work during the pandemic; is concerned about the greater work-related mental health risks for health and long-term care workers; calls on the Commission to devote particular attention to essential and frontline workers in upcoming proposals on mental health at work; calls for Member States to improve their working conditions, address staff shortages and commit the necessary resources in order to ensure that such sacrifices are not required again, ensuring that workers have immediate access to adequate mental health resources and protection and psychosocial interventions, which should be extended beyond the acute crisis period; stresses that the vast majority of essential and frontline workers are women and are often on lower incomes, bearing greater work-related mental health risks;

The digital transition and mental health

11.  Recognises that quality employment can help provide individuals with a purpose as well as financial security and independence; emphasises the positive relationship between good mental health, good working conditions, adequate salaries, work productivity, well-being and quality of life; notes that a sense of purpose and identity for workers can be challenged in a context of increasing digitalisation, which can lead to physical and mental health problems; affirms that prevention is therefore key; believes that adequate working conditions and active labour market programmes could help to combat psychosocial risks by providing opportunities for quality jobs and social protection; notes that depression and mental health disorders can be a barrier to staying in and obtaining employment and that additional support is necessary for jobseekers;

12.  Recognises the opportunities that the digital transformation can create for the employment of persons with disabilities on the open labour market; stresses, in this context, that the digital transformation should not lead to isolation and social exclusion; highlights, moreover, the difficulties faced by older people, who are at particular risk of digital exclusion due to changing working conditions and new digital tools; stresses the importance for all workers, and above all older people, to be able to access lifelong learning and professional development adapted to their individual needs; calls on the Member States to expand the provision of digital education aimed at older people; stresses the importance of intergenerational exchanges in the working environment;

13.  Recalls that proactive approaches to digitalisation, such as improving digital skills in the workplace or allowing for flexible working hours, can help to mitigate work-related stress; points out that AI has the potential to improve working conditions and quality of life, including a better work-life balance and better accessibility for persons with disabilities, to predict labour market development and to support human resources management in preventing human bias; cautions, however, that AI also gives rise to concerns over privacy and occupational health and safety such as the right to disconnect, and can lead to the disproportionate and illegal surveillance and monitoring of workers, infringing on their dignity and privacy, as well as discriminatory treatment in recruitment processes and other areas due to biased algorithms, including on the grounds of gender, race and ethnicity; is concerned, furthermore, that AI can undermine the freedom and autonomy of people, such as through prediction and flagging tools, real-time monitoring and tracking and automated behavioural nudges, and contribute to workers’ mental health problems such as burnout, technology-related stress, psychological overload and fatigue; stresses that AI solutions in the workplace must be transparent, fair and avoid any negative implications for workers and must be negotiated between employers and workers’ representatives including trade unions; calls on the Commission and the Member States, in this regard, to devise a legislative proposal on AI in the workplace to ensure appropriate protection for workers’ rights and well-being, including their mental health and fundamental rights such as non-discrimination, privacy and human dignity in an increasingly digitalised workplace; notes that online harassment tends to have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable groups including younger, female and LGBTQI+ workers; stresses that only 60 % of Member States have specific legislation in place to address bullying and violence at work, and calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to propose targeted mandatory measures to reverse and tackle this increasing problem at work and protect the victims with all the necessary resources;

14.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that the preventive and protective measures aimed at eradicating violence, discrimination and harassment in the world of work, including third-party violence and harassment (i.e. by customers, clients, visitors or patients), where applicable, apply regardless of the reason or cause of harassment and are not limited to cases based on discriminatory grounds; calls on the Member States to ratify the International Labour Organization Convention (No 190) on Eliminating Violence and Harassment in the World of Work and Recommendation (No 206) on Violence and Harassment and to put in place the necessary laws and policy measures to prohibit, prevent and address violence and harassment in the world of work; calls on the Commission to ensure that the scope of the proposed directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence(24) fully covers violence and harassment at work as a criminal offence and that workers receive appropriate protection with the involvement of trade unions;

15.  Stresses the need to protect workers from exploitation by their employers in the use of AI and algorithmic management, including prediction and flagging tools to predict employee behaviour and identify or deter rule-breaking or fraud by workers, real-time monitoring of progress and performance, time-tracking software and automated behavioural nudges; calls for a ban on the surveillance of workers;

16.  Considers it necessary to develop a new paradigm to factor in the complexity of the modern workplace in relation to mental health, as the regulatory instruments currently in force are not sufficient to guarantee the health and safety of workers and need to be updated and improved;

17.  Emphasises that the use of technology and AI in the workplace should never be used to the detriment of workers’ mental health and well-being; notes that the deployment of AI at work must not lead to excessive monitoring in the name of productivity or the surveillance of workers;

18.  Notes that there is a wide digital gender gap in specialist skills and employment in the ICT sector, where only 18 % of workers are women and 82 % are men(25); considers it vital that technological systems be designed in an inclusive manner in order to prevent discrimination, mental health issues or other harmful effects of non-inclusive design; urges the Commission and the Member States to work together to close the digital gender gap for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and to look into providing incentives for ICT organisations to hire a diverse workforce;

19.  Welcomes Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers, as it provides flexibility and serves to alleviate work-related issues; stresses, however, that women continue to be disproportionately affected, as the pandemic has shown; believes that while teleworking offers many opportunities, it are also presents challenges in terms of the social, professional and digital divide; stresses that women continue to take on the bulk of family-related leave, which continues to have a negative impact on their career progression, personal development, pay and pension entitlements; invites the Member States to go beyond the requirements of the directive and to increase the number of days granted for carers’ leave and provide remuneration for informal carers when taking leave; calls on the Member States to strongly commit to protecting workers’ family time and work-life balance; calls on the Member States to encourage an equal share of caring responsibilities between women and men through non-transferable paid leave periods between parents, which would allow women to engage in full-time employment to a greater extent; highlights that women are at greater risk of stress, exhaustion, burnout and psychological violence due to new teleworking arrangements and the lack of regulation to control abusive labour practices;

20.  Notes the shift to teleworking during the pandemic and the flexibility it provided for many employees and the self-employed; recognises, however, that teleworking has also proved especially challenging for the most disadvantaged individuals and single-parent households; acknowledges that the combination of teleworking and childcare, especially for children with special needs, could pose a threat to family life and the well-being of both parents and children; encourages employers to provide clear and transparent rules on teleworking arrangements to ensure that working hours are respected and prevent social and professional isolation and the blurring of working time with other time spent at home; notes that teleworking has been proven to have a major impact on the organisation of working time by increasing flexibility and making workers constantly available, which has frequently resulted in work-life conflict; recalls, nevertheless, that if it is properly regulated and implemented, teleworking could provide workers with the flexibility to adapt their working hours and schedules to meet their own personal and family needs; emphasises, in this connection, that a full or partial shift to teleworking should be the result of an agreement between the employer and employee representatives;

21.  Notes with concern that teleworking is not yet available to all workers; stresses the impact of the shift to teleworking on the mental health of those in danger of digital exclusion; stresses the importance of fighting the digital divide in Europe and the necessity of retraining younger and older people in order to ensure a sufficient level of digital skills for all workers; calls for more targeted investments in the provision of digital skills, especially groups that are more digitally excluded such as people of a low socio-economic status and a limited educational background, older people and people in rural and remote areas; calls on the Commission to propose a legislative framework to establish minimum requirements for teleworking across the EU, without undermining the working conditions of teleworkers; stresses that such a legislative framework should clarify working conditions, ensure that such work is carried out on a voluntary basis and that the rights, work-life balance, workload and performance standards of teleworkers are equivalent to those of comparable on-site workers; calls on the Commission and the Member States to provide measures on accessibility and inclusive technology for persons with disabilities; notes that this framework should be developed in consultation with the Member States and European social partners, should fully respect national labour market models and should take into consideration the European Social Partners Framework Agreements on Telework and on Digitalisation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to pay particular attention to persons with mental or physical disabilities; stresses that the working conditions of teleworkers are equivalent to those working on-site and that specific measures need to be taken to follow up and support the well-being of remote workers;

22.  Considers that the right to disconnect is essential to ensuring the mental well-being of employees and the self-employed, not least for female workers and workers in non-standard forms of work, and should be complemented by a preventive and collective approach to work-related psychosocial risks; calls on the Commission to propose, in consultation with the social partners, a directive on minimum standards and conditions to ensure that all workers are able to effectively exercise their right to disconnect, and to regulate the use of existing and new digital tools for work purposes in line with Parliament’s resolution of 21 January 2021 with recommendations to the Commission on the right to disconnect, while taking into consideration the European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitalisation; calls on the Member States, furthermore, to better coordinate the exchange of best practices, as some of them are putting in place some very innovative policies and projects;

23.  Notes that if they are revised and updated, Council Directives 89/654/EEC and 90/270/EEC laying down minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace and for work with display screen equipment can contribute to the protection of all workers, including platform workers and the self-employed, alongside the different projects developed by EU agencies and Member States;

24.  Stresses that the provision of accessibility and reasonable accommodation is applicable to work-related digital environments and that, as such, employers should put in place measures to adapt and ensure fair and equal working conditions for persons with disabilities, including those with mental health issues, including compliance with relevant digital accessibility standards deriving from Directive (EU) 2019/882;

25.  Welcomes the Commission’s commitment to modernising the legislative framework for occupational health and safety by reviewing Council Directives 89/654/EEC and 90/270/EEC laying down minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace and for work with display screen equipment;

Workplace health and safety

26.  Is concerned about the disconnect between current policy on mental health and attitudes in the workplace, which do not properly reflect the fact that protecting the employee is a key asset for EU leaders for the remainder of the decade; emphasises that due to stigma and discrimination, employees often feel unable to discuss issues; calls on the Member States to ensure that employers fulfil their obligations to provide support and clear information to all workers, and to ensure that the workers affected are reintegrated fairly into the workplace; calls for workplaces to facilitate access to services for mental health support and external services and to prevention, early recognition and treatment for employees who may have mental health disorders and to support their reintegration and help to prevent relapses, as well as putting in place company mental health prevention plans, including on the prevention of suicide; calls, in addition, for the adoption of clear and effective prevention strategies as well as support strategies for workers returning to work after a long absence;

27.  Recalls that harassment and discrimination on multiple grounds exist in and are a frequent source of stress and disconnection from the workplace; recalls, in particular, that discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, educational or socio-economic status and belonging to vulnerable groups is widespread and should be addressed by employers; stresses the importance of including an anti-harassment policy in health and safety measures in the digital world of work and of providing support for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to help them put in place policies to combat harassment and bullying; calls for an EU-wide information campaign on mental health awareness in order to address the stigma, misperceptions and social exclusion that are often associated with poor mental health;

28.  Believes that the current measures to encourage improvements in the health and safety of workers are insufficient, especially as far as the assessment and management of psychosocial risks is concerned; calls on the Commission to establish mechanisms for the prevention of anxiety, depression and burnout and the reintegration into the workplace of those affected by psychosocial problems; recalls that an individual and organisational approach to work(26) is crucial to this end; notes, however, that these health conditions may depend on a number of factors; calls on the Commission, in consultation with the social partners, to revise its recommendation of 19 September 2003 concerning the European schedule of occupational diseases(27) with additions such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders, work-related mental health disorders, in particular depression, burnout, anxiety and stress, all asbestos-related diseases and skin cancers and rheumatic and chronic inflammation; calls on the Commission, once it has consulted the social partners, to transform this recommendation into a directive establishing a minimum list of occupational diseases and setting out the minimum requirements for their recognition and adequate compensation for the individuals concerned;

29.  Acknowledges that as part of efforts to tackle psychosocial risks, national labour inspectorates can have an important role to play by enforcing preventive and/or corrective interventions in the context of work; calls on the European Labour Authority to work on a common strategy for national labour inspectorates to tackle psychosocial risks, including devising a common framework covering the evaluation and management of psychosocial risks and catering for the different training needs of labour inspectors;

30.  Points out that while the new EU strategic framework on health and safety at work for 2021-2027 rightly notes the need for changes to the working environment in order to tackle hazards to psychosocial well-being, it only focuses on individual interventions, which are a limited part of psychosocial risk mitigation; stresses the urgent need for a common basis to safeguard the mental health of all workers across the EU, as they are not uniformly protected across all Member States – not even under current EU legislation; calls on the Commission, in this regard, to propose a legislative initiative, in consultation with social partners, on the management of psychosocial risks and well-being at work in order to effectively prevent psychosocial risks in the workplace, including online, provide training for management and workers, periodically assess progress and improve the working environment; considers that preventive occupational health and safety policies should also involve social partners in the identification and prevention of psychosocial risks; notes that anonymous employee surveys such as questionnaires and other data collection exercises can provide useful information on the extent to which and reasons why employees are stressed, making it easier for management to identify issues and make adjustments where needed;

31.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take into account the latest scientific evidence and research in mental health, especially regarding the potential of innovative approaches in mental health treatment; encourages the Commission to closely follow and monitor best practices that have been already successfully implemented in this area and to facilitate the exchange of those best practices among the Member States; calls on the Member States, in particular, to ensure that they have effective committees in place on health and safety at work in order to provide more frequent and accurate risk assessments and to strengthen the prerogatives of existing health and safety committees by giving them the right to avail themselves of external expertise, including independent, third-party evaluations of exposure to work-related psychosocial risks;

32.  Considers it essential that managers be given the psychosocial training required to adapt to work organisation practices and to foster a deep understanding of poor mental health in the workplace; deems it equally essential that workers also be provided with the relevant training on the prevention of work-related psychosocial risks; encourages employers to foster positive approaches, policies and practices to good occupational mental health and well-being; highlights, to this end, that companies could consider designating and training a reference employee for mental health or putting a dedicated section on the internal communication platform for their workplace with information to point employees in the direction of mental health services; believes that social partners could play a central role in devising and implementing such training and highlights the particular need to provide labour inspectorates with training to ensure they can adequately protect workers;

33.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States to acknowledge and raise awareness of the impact on the mental health of workers of highly prevalent and debilitating neurological disorders such as migraines; notes the importance of raising awareness in the workplace on the importance of identifying and preventing migraines by avoiding their triggers;

34.  Calls on labour inspectorates in the EU to target the psychosocial working environment in their inspections; invites the Commission’s Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee to put forward a new campaign on psychosocial risks, building on the findings of the 2012 campaign and more recent developments;

A modern world of work for the well-being of workers

35.  Underlines that given the lack of sufficient mental health support and preventive policies in the workplace, employees often have to rely on private services that are difficult to afford and the services of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national hospital facilities, which may have long waiting lists and lack support and resources themselves; calls for workplaces to ensure that employees have accessible, professional and impartial mental health support and remedies, with due respect for workers’ privacy and confidentiality, and calls on the Member States to ensure that public healthcare includes easy access to remote counselling;

36.  Encourages the Commission to launch education and awareness initiatives on mental health in the workplace and in educational curricula and calls on the Commission and the Member States to leverage EU funds to establish digital platforms and applications for mental health; calls on the Commission to examine the feasibility of establishing a common EU helpline for mental health support; calls on the Commission, in this connection, to provide an adequate budget for the relevant EU programmes; urges the Commission to designate 2023 as the EU Year of Good Mental Health in order to realise the aforementioned mental health education and awareness initiatives;

37.  Calls on the Member States to ensure that local and other relevant public authorities have sufficient staff and public resources to provide mental health support and services to everyone who needs them;

38.  Recognises that the lack of statistics on the prevalence of mental health issues in the workplace, especially for SMEs and their owners and for the self-employed, undermines the need for urgent intervention; calls on the Member States, Eurostat, public institutions, experts, social partners and the research community to collaborate and gather up-to-date data on work-related risks for mental ill health and the negative impacts thereof, disaggregated by gender and other relevant aspects, as well as data on the effectiveness of the different types of interventions in order to promote better mental health in the workplace in a harmonised manner;

39.  Calls on the Member States to assess the possibility of creating local or regional mediation services for psychosocial risks, which should provide advice and technical support for the self-employed and employers, managers and workers in micro-enterprises and SMEs on psychosocial risk prevention and psychosocial conflicts in the workplace, as well as disseminate information on psychosocial risks and their prevention; is concerned that entrepreneurs and SMEs require particular support to manage the impact of everyday pressure and stress factors and promote mental health awareness in the workplace, and calls for EU initiatives to assist them with risk assessment, prevention and awareness-raising campaigns and putting good practices in place; highlights the role of the EU-OSHA in providing micro-enterprises and SMEs with the tools and standards they need to assess the risks to their workforce and implement adequate prevention measures; considers that the EU-OSHA should be strengthened in this regard in order to better promote healthy and safe workplaces across the EU and further develop initiatives to improve workplace prevention in all sectors of activity;

40.  Points out that the mental health of young people has got considerably worse during the pandemic, with young women and young people in marginalised situations more severely affected; regrets the fact that young people are not the target of investment in mental health research despite the manifest long-term benefits of early intervention; points out that 64 % of young people between 18 and 34 were at risk of depression in 2021 due to a lack of employment and financial and educational prospects as well as loneliness and social isolation; stresses that one of the best tools to tackle mental health issues(28) among young people is to provide them with meaningful prospects for good-quality education and employment; calls on the Commission to address the disruption in access to the labour market, which has put young people at greater risk of mental health disorders, and to take action to support young people in accessing and retaining adequate employment;

41.  Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in collaboration with Parliament and respecting the principle of subsidiarity, to propose a common legal framework to ensure fair remuneration for traineeships and apprenticeships in order to avoid exploitative practices; calls on the Commission to develop a recommendation to ensure that traineeships, apprenticeships and job placements count as work experience and consequently grant access to social benefits;

o
o   o

42.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 57, 18.2.2021, p. 17. (2) OJ L 188, 12.7.2019, p. 79. (3) OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, p. 70. (4) OJ L 303, 2.12.2000, p. 16. (5) OJ L 299, 18.11.2003, p. 9. (6) OJ L 183, 29.6.1989, p. 1. (7) OJ L 393, 30.12.1989, p. 1. (8) OJ L 156, 21.6.1990, p. 14. (9) OJ C 316, 6.8.2021, p. 2. (10) OJ C 371, 15.9.2021, p. 102. (11) OJ C 456, 10.11.2021, p. 161. (12) Texts adopted, P9_TA(2022)0045. (13) OJ C 117, 11.3.2022, p. 53. (14) OJ C 400, 26.11.2019, p. 9. (15) OJ C 44, 15.2.2013, p. 36. (16) WHO fact sheet, Mental Health: strengthening our response, 17 June 2022. (17) International Classification of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics, ‘Problems associated with employment or unemployment’. (18) List of mental disorders as per WHO fact sheet on mental disorders, 8 June 2022. (19) Before the pandemic it was estimated that 25 % of EU citizens would experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. Source: European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, A guide for employers to promote mental health in the workplace, March 2011. (20) Eurofound, Sixth European Working Conditions Survey, 2017. (21) Opinion of the Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, Supporting the mental health of the health workforce and other essential workers, 23 June 2021. (22) EU-OSHA summary on Council Directive 89/391/EEC, last updated on 3 May 2021. (23) OJ L 293, 5.11.2013, p. 1. (24) Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 March 2022 on combating violence against women and domestic violence (COM(2022)0105). (25) European Commission, Women in Digital Scoreboard 2020. (26) EU-OSHA, Telework and health risks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from the field and policy implications, 22 October 2021. (27) OJ L 238, 25.9.2003, p. 28. (28) OECD, Supporting young people’s mental health through the COVID-19 crisis, 12 May 2021, and European Youth Forum, Beyond Lockdown: the ‘pandemic scar’ on young people, 17 June 2021.

European Parliament resolution of 5 July 2022 on Banking Union – annual report 2021 (2021/2184(INI))

P9_TA(2022)0280 A9-0186/2022

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Articles 114, 127(6) and 140(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to its resolution of 7 October 2021 entitled ‘Banking Union – annual report 2020’(1),

–  having regard to the Commission’s follow-up to Parliament’s resolution of 7 October 2021 entitled ‘Banking Union – annual report 2020’,

–  having regard to the document by the European Central Bank (ECB) entitled ‘Feedback on the input provided by the European Parliament as part of its ‘Resolution on Banking Union – Annual Report 2020’(2),

–  having regard to the ECB’s 2020 Annual Report on Supervisory Activities, presented on 23 March 2021(3),

–  having regard to the ECB supervisory priorities for the period 2022-2024, published on 7 December 2021(4),

–  having regard to the response of the Single Resolution Board (SRB) to Parliament’s resolution of 7 October 2021 entitled ‘Banking Union – annual report 2020’,

–  having regard to its resolution of 8 October 2020 entitled ‘Digital Finance: emerging risks in crypto-assets-regulatory and supervisory challenges in the area of financial services, institutions and markets’(5),

–  having regard to its resolution of 8 October 2020 entitled ‘Further development of the Capital Markets Union (CMU): improving access to capital market finance, in particular by SMEs, and further enabling retail investor participation’(6),

–  having regard to the Five Presidents’ Report of 22 June 2015 entitled ‘Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union’,

–  having regard to the Commission’s banking package of 27 October 2021(7),

–  having regard to the Commission’s targeted consultation on improving the EU’s macroprudential framework for the banking sector, beginning on 30 November 2021(8),

–  having regard to the Commission’s legislative package of 20 July 2021 on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism(9),

–  having regard to the ECB Financial Stability Review of November 2021(10),

–  having regard to the study entitled ‘The digital euro: policy implications and perspectives’, requested by its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and published by its Directorate-General for Internal Policies in January 2022(11),

–  having regard to the ECB report of 2 October 2020 on the digital euro(12),

–  having regard to the ECB report entitled ‘Digital euro experimentation scope and key learnings’(13),

–  having regard to the Memorandum of Understanding between the ECB and the UK authorities, which entered into force on 1 January 2021(14),

–  having regard to the document of the ECB / European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) Climate Risk Monitoring Team of July 2021 entitled ‘Climate-related risk and financial stability’(15),

–  having regard to the ECB economy-wide climate stress test of September 2021(16),

–  having regard to the ECB’s targeted review of internal models, published in April 2021,

–  having regard to the ECB report of November 2021 entitled ‘The state of climate and environmental risk management in the banking sector: Report on the supervisory review of banks’ approaches to manage climate and environmental risks’(17),

–  having regard to the Paris Agreement and to the Glasgow Climate Pact adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,

–  having regard to the SRB 2020 Annual Report of 30 June 2021(18),

–  having regard to the SRB’s multi-annual work programme for 2021-2023 and its work programme for 2021(19),

–  having regard to the SRB’s work programme for 2022(20),

–  having regard to the European Banking Authority (EBA) report of 24 November 2021 entitled ‘IFRS 9 implementation by EU institutions – monitoring report’(21),

–  having regard to the ECB recommendation of 15 December 2020 on dividend distributions during the COVID-19 pandemic(22),

–  having regard to the Commission communication of 16 December 2020 on tackling non-performing loans in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic (COM(2020)0822),

–  having regard to its resolution of 14 March 2019 on gender balance in EU economic and monetary affairs nominations(23),

–  having regard to its resolution of 25 March 2021 on strengthening the international role of the euro(24),

–  having regard to the SRB monitoring report of November 2021 on risk reduction indicators,

–  having regard to the ECB’s feedback letter on the input provided by Parliament as part of its resolution of 7 October 2021 entitled ‘Banking Union – Annual Report 2020’,

–  having regard to the Commission proposal of 24 November 2015 for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 806/2014 in order to establish a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (COM(2015)0586),

–  having regard to the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) second joint risk assessment report of September 2021,

–  having regard to the EBA’s annual report entitled ‘Risk Assessment of the European Banking System – December 2021’(25),

–  having regard to the EBA study of 16 December 2021 entitled ‘Guidelines on cooperation and information exchange between prudential supervisors, AML / CFT supervisors and financial intelligence units under Directive 2013/36/EU’(26),

–  having regard to the ESRB document entitled ‘Monitoring the financial stability implications of COVID-19 support measures’, based on notes prepared at the ESRB General Board meetings of 25 March and 24 June 2021(27),

–  having regard to the ESRB’s ‘Report of the Expert Group on Macroprudential Stance – Phase II (implementation)’ of December 2021(28),

–  having regard to the Final Report of the Financial Stability Board of 1 April 2021 entitled ‘Evaluation of the Effects of Too-Big-To-Fail Reforms’(29),

–  having regard to the in-depth analysis of October 2021 commissioned by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs entitled ‘Don’t let up. The EU needs to maintain high standards for its banking sector as the European economy emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic’(30),

–  having regard to the analysis by the Economic Management Support Unit (EGOV) of Parliament’s Directorate-General for Internal Policies of October 2021 entitled ‘Preventing money laundering in the banking sector – reinforcing the supervisory and regulatory framework’(31),

–  having regard to the in-depth analysis of October 2021 commissioned by the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs entitled ‘Did the pandemic lead to structural changes in the banking sector?’(32),

–  having regard to the analysis of the Economic Management Support Unit (EGOV) of Parliament’s Directorate-General for Internal Policies of October 2021 entitled ‘Impediments to resolvability – what is the status quo?’(33),

–  having regard to the EGOV study of October 2021 entitled ‘Review of the crisis management and deposit insurance framework – Summary of some related issues’(34),

–  having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A9-0186/2022),

A.  whereas the Banking Union currently consists of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), with the single rulebook as its foundation, ensuring full alignment between Banking Union members in respect of the supervision of banking activities and the management of banking crises and failures, while being an integral part of the Union’s financial stability; whereas although the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive(35) (DGSD) sets out high minimum standards in the area of deposit protection, the Banking Union remains unfinished because the third pillar, the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), has not yet been established;

B.  whereas a more stable, competitive and convergent Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) requires a solid Banking Union and a more developed and safe Capital Markets Union (CMU); whereas both projects are interconnected, and developing one should lead to progress and advances with the other; whereas both the Banking Union and the CMU are essential to bolstering the EU economy in the post-COVID-19 era;

C.  whereas the backstop for the Single Resolution Fund (SRF) will have been introduced by 2022, two years earlier than previously envisaged;

D.  whereas the banking union is open to all EU Member States; whereas Bulgaria and Croatia have joined the European exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) and have thus entered the Banking Union;

E.  whereas the Russian aggression against Ukraine and its economic consequences will have a direct and indirect impact on the EU banking sector; whereas it is currently difficult to measure the extent and magnitude of this impact; whereas EU banks play a pivotal role in ensuring the implementation of and compliance with the sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia in response to the invasion;

F.  whereas the response of the EU’s banking sector to the crisis triggered by the pandemic has proven the sector’s resilience, founded on the regulatory overhaul enacted since the global financial crisis and facilitated by the single rulebook and coordinated supervision in the Banking Union; whereas extraordinary and needed public policy relief measures and capital conservation practices have also provided significant support to the banking sector; whereas the aggregate non-performing loan (NPL) ratio decreased further, to 2.17 % in the third quarter of 2021, although in some Member States the absolute NPL volume remains high;

G.  whereas the timely and targeted support during the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled banks to continue lending to the economy, protecting jobs and businesses, and contributing to economic growth; whereas these measures were a good initial tool for tackling the crisis; whereas there is a prospect of gradually phasing out supportive measures, giving way to recovery tools for the economy as a whole; whereas there is a need to reduce the still existing systemic risks posed by the interconnections and complexity of the EU banking system, which underpin the ‘too big to fail’ problem;

H.  whereas ECB Banking Supervision has communicated that it will allow banks to operate below the level of their Pillar 2 Guidance (P2G) and the combined buffer requirement until at least the end of 2022 without automatically triggering supervisory action; whereas the purpose of that decision is to ensure that banks can continue to lend to the real economy;

I.  whereas as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Union must maintain high standards, particularly when it comes to capital requirements and risk management practices, to ensure the resilience of the sector in the future;

J.  whereas despite the high resilience of the banking sector during the COVID-19 crisis, there is a risk that the sector may be exposed to vulnerabilities, particularly in relation to asset quality, e.g. NPLs when the temporary support measures are phased out, which will require close monitoring and management;

K.  whereas the Banking Union should help to address the bank-sovereign nexus, which continues to exist; whereas the level of sovereign exposure has been growing in a number of banks; whereas the prudential treatment of sovereign debt should be consistent with international standards;

L.  whereas the role of the banking and financial markets sector is crucial to the recovery and to the transition to a carbon-neutral and digitalised economy, particularly through the channelling of key financing to foster investment (especially to SMEs); whereas such a challenge will require a strong, stable, resilient and well-capitalised banking sector, combined with integrated capital markets;

M.  whereas the transition to a carbon-neutral economy should be taken into account when assessing the sustainability of banks’ balance sheets, as a source of risk potentially impacting investments across regions and sectors; whereas there is a need for the further assessment of these potential risks and to deploy forward-looking risk management tools that can capture longer-term climate-related and environmental risks;

N.  whereas great potential lies in the digitalisation of finance, which has brought about important technological advances in the EU banking sector through increased efficiency in the provision of banking services and a greater appetite for innovation; whereas the digitalisation of finance also presents challenges to the EU banking sector due to cybersecurity risks, data privacy, AML risks and consumer protection concerns; whereas the EU banking sector must increase its cyber resilience to ensure that ICT systems can withstand various types of cybersecurity threats; whereas the digitalisation of finance will have a significant impact on face-to-face banking, as well as on the availability of banking services in rural areas;

O.  whereas challenges arise from crypto-assets and crypto-currencies, which are complex phenomena that call for sound political responses balancing incentives to innovate and protection for investors and consumers; whereas banks have a growing responsibility in this area; whereas the environmental impact of crypto-mining needs to be considered, as well as the security threat posed when crypto wallets are anonymous;

P.  whereas given the remaining loopholes in the EU AML framework, there is a need for strengthened, harmonised and effective anti-money laundering supervision and enforcement, which is necessary to protect the integrity of the EU’s financial system and to protect against threats from high-risk third countries; whereas major differences still exist in the approaches taken to AML/combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) supervision by EU national authorities and in the application of EU AML legislation;

Q.  whereas the EU and the UK are currently committed to maintaining regulatory and supervisory cooperation in the field of financial services, and this cooperative approach should underpin long-term EU-UK relations; whereas the Commission will extend its temporary permit allowing EU banks and fund managers to use UK clearing houses;

R.  whereas consumers, investors and all depositors should be properly protected in the Banking Union and should be kept well informed of any decisions that impact them; whereas consumer and investor protection is also of paramount importance in the deepening of the CMU; whereas EU law provides a common, basic level of protection for all consumers residing in the EU; whereas national rules implementing EU consumer protection requirements vary across the Banking Union and there is therefore a need for more harmonised and improved consumer protection across the EU; whereas the Banking Union still lacks effective tools to tackle the problems consumers are facing, such as artificial complexity, unfair commercial practices and the exclusion of vulnerable groups from the use of basic services;

S.  whereas one of the key objectives of the Banking Union is that taxpayers should not bear the cost of remedial action when a bank fails;

T.  whereas the crisis management and deposit insurance (CMDI) framework should ensure a consistent and efficient approach for all banks, regardless of size or business model, as well as contributing to preserving financial stability, minimising the use of taxpayers’ money and ensuring a level playing field across the EU, while duly taking into account the principle of subsidiarity;

General considerations

1.  Recalls that the Banking Union, which aligns responsibility for both the supervision and the resolution of banks in the euro area, and requires banks across the entire EU banking system to conduct activities in accordance with the same rule book, is an essential element for completing the EMU and the internal market; notes that the first two pillars of the Banking Union – the SSM and the SRM – are now in place and fully operational; notes, however, that a common system for deposit protection (EDIS) has not yet been established;

2.  Recalls that the key goal of the Banking Union is the security and stability of the banking system in the euro area and the wider EU, and the prevention of bank bailouts by taxpayers; recalls that significant progress has been made since the financial crisis of 2008 through the establishment of the SSM and the SRM: Europe’s banks are now in a stronger position to withstand financial shocks, and resolution mechanisms are in place to ensure that failing banks can be wound up without the use of taxpayers’ money; supports efforts to strengthen and complete the Banking Union, and underlines that progress in its different areas should be made in parallel; stresses that the significant work undertaken to create a Banking Union has contributed to increased confidence in the EU banking sector and has increased its resilience and competitiveness, and that, consequently, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, EU banks were robust, better capitalised and able to play an essential role in ensuring access to finance;

3.  Recalls that all euro area Member States are part of the Banking Union, and that non-euro area Member States are also able to join; considers that the Banking Union should be built in a transparent, coherent and robust way, including for Member States outside the euro area; points out that Member States not belonging to the Banking Union are also bound by the rules of the single rulebook, which arose as a result of the process of harmonisation and integration of the EU banking system, and that their banking systems are de facto strongly linked to the Banking Union; welcomes the entry of Bulgaria and Croatia into the Banking Union and the inclusion of the Bulgarian lev and the Croatian kuna in ERM II; recognises that participation in the Banking Union requires compliance with EU standards and legislation;

4.  Expresses deep concern about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its economic consequences for the European economy; points out that the direct and indirect effects of this war will have an impact on the EU economy that is currently difficult to quantify and could pose potential risks to the stability of the EU banking sector; calls, therefore, on the ECB, the ESAs and the national competent authorities to closely monitor the impact of the war on the EU banking sector;

5.  Notes that the banking sector has shown a relatively high degree of resilience to the COVID-19 crisis and has played an important role in minimising the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy; points out that this resilience is a result of the regulatory reforms adopted in the wake of the previous global financial crisis; underlines also the role of temporary measures, including those under Regulation (EU) No 575/2013(36) (CRR quick fix) which enabled banks to continue lending to households and businesses, and the role of additional capital space provided by the ECB; stresses that regulatory reforms following the 2008 financial crisis should be protected and that regulatory gaps should be closed;

6.  Notes that the emergency measures to support banks’ lending capacity to households and businesses should remain in place as long as is necessary; points out the importance of securing a well-coordinated, prudent, gradual and targeted shift from pandemic relief to recovery support tools, including reforms in the Member States through the national recovery and resilience reform plans; stresses that there is a prospect of gradually phasing out emergency measures; underlines, in this context, that the great instability created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine must be taken into account when deciding on the possible phasing-out of these measures; notes the decision of the Governing Council of the ECB of 16 December 2021 to cease net asset purchases under the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP);

7.  Underlines the key role of the EU banking sector and capital markets in financing the resilience, recovery, and green and digital transformation of the European economy including ensuring access to credit for SMEs; recalls that, in order to cope with these tasks, the EU banking sector needs to be strong, resilient, well regulated and well capitalised;

8.  Points out that a strong and well-structured CMU, alongside the development of the Banking Union, will help to deliver better conditions for the financing of the European economy, for both households and companies that are still largely reliant on bank credit, to foster investments and job creation, while also contributing to the resilience of the European economy and catalysing the green transition; stresses that in order to complete the CMU it is necessary to ensure the proportionality of the adopted rules and the protection of retail clients; welcomes the legislative proposals presented on 25 November 2021 to advance the CMU; calls on the Commission and the ESAs to assess the need to better regulate the shadow banking sector, to put forward legislative proposals, where appropriate, and to continuously monitor the resilience of capital markets;

9.  Welcomes the 2022-2024 supervisory priorities of the ECB, which are to: (1) emerge from the pandemic healthy, (2) seize the opportunity to address structural weaknesses via effective digitalisation strategies and enhanced governance, and (3) tackle emerging risks, including climate-related, environmental, IT and cyber risks; acknowledges the substantive efforts made to tackle these challenges by the banking sector in recent years and the results obtained; welcomes, in this context, the reduction of aggregate NPL ratios; stresses that EU and national supervisors must monitor risks closely as emergency public support measures are phased out; highlights the importance of prudent risk management and appropriate provisioning; recalls that risk reduction, together with risk sharing in the banking sector, would contribute to a more stable, strong and economic growth-oriented Banking Union;

10.  Supports the ongoing work on the implementation of the Basel III rules and welcomes the Commission’s legislative banking package of 27 October 2021 in this context; considers that in the implementation process, the EU must ensure full alignment with Basel standards, while also taking into account the principle of proportionality, and should respect, where appropriate, the specificities and diversity of the EU banking sector, ensuring that EU banks remain able to compete with their global competitors;

11.  Welcomes the fact that the banking sector is adapting to the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation, which will enable banks to better serve clients remotely, offer new products and provide opportunities for increased cost efficiency; underlines that the banking sector is particularly vulnerable to the threat of cyberattacks; welcomes, in this regard, the progress made on the proposals for a regulation and a directive on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) and for a directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union, repealing Directive (EU) 2016/1148 (NIS 2.0), which are the foundations of the regulatory framework to facilitate the banking sector’s fight against cybercrime; calls on the ESAs and ENISA to step up their efforts to monitor and mitigate the risks related to non-EU ICT third parties; stresses the need for further investments and research to develop innovative ways to bolster the cybersecurity of the banking sector; considers that the priorities should be customer safety, financial stability and integrity, and technological neutrality; calls for the promotion of financial inclusion, especially for vulnerable groups with low digital or financial literacy levels; welcomes the progress made on the digital finance package; stresses the need for banks to preserve extensive face-to-face banking services, particularly in rural areas; welcomes with interest the work on the digital euro, which will function alongside cash; invites the ECB to consider in future work the potential impact of the digital euro on payments, banks’ lending capacity and financial stability;

12.  Recalls that the basis for the cooperation between the SSM and the UK Financial Conduct Authority is the Memorandum of Understanding between the ECB and the UK authorities, which entered into force on 1 January 2021; notes that the Commission has recently announced the extension of its temporary permit, allowing EU banks and fund managers to use UK clearing houses, thereby avoiding any short-term cliff-edge effects; calls on the Commission to take measures to facilitate more clearing in the EU in the medium term;

13.  Regrets the failure to ensure full gender balance in EU financial institutions and bodies, and in particular the fact that women continue to be underrepresented in executive positions in the field of banking and financial services; considers that the selection of applicants to EU financial institutions and bodies should be based on criteria of merit, diversity and ability, so that the institution or body involved operates as effectively as possible; calls on governments and all institutions and bodies to provide gender-balanced shortlists of candidates for all future appointments to EU bodies and reiterates its commitment not to take into account lists of candidates where the gender balance principle has not been respected; deeply regrets that the shortlist considered by the Eurogroup for the next Board of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism does not include a single female candidate; stresses that gender balance on boards and in the workforce brings both societal and economic returns; calls on financial institutions to regularly update their diversity and inclusion policies and to help foster healthy working cultures which prioritise inclusivity;

Supervision

14.  Calls on the ECB, the EBA and the ESRB to carefully monitor the risks to the banking sector posed by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and its economic consequences; points to the need to consider different scenarios and to prepare for different possible options;

15.  Considers that credit risk management, monitoring and the reduction of NPLs should remain one of the key priorities; welcomes the fact that the aggregate NPL ratio in the euro area decreased further to 2.17 % in the third quarter of 2021; notes that, although the situation is stable for the time being, it should be monitored carefully given the phasing out of emergency measures; draws attention to the importance of prudential compliance, early identification and the proactive management of NPLs, as well as adequate provisioning; stresses the need for cooperation with vulnerable debtors, while acknowledging the solutions put in place by the banking sector in this regard during the pandemic (such as the moratorium on loan repayments); welcomes the adoption of Directive (EU) 2021/2167 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2021 on credit servicers and credit purchasers(37), which will help to reduce the level of NPLs on the balance sheets of EU banks and foster a secondary market for NPLs;

16.  Acknowledges the significant level of sovereign debt on the balance sheets of a number of banks in the Banking Union; takes note of the work on sovereign risk carried out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in this regard and emphasises that the issue of regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures requires an in-depth examination within international forums, taking into account the consequences of different approaches, and that the implementation of the solution in the EU should be consistent with international standards; believes that any potential solution should be balanced and treat all EU Member States fairly, while also ensuring sufficient liquidity in the markets for sovereign debt; stresses that the creation of an EU safe asset could help to mitigate the negative feedback loops between sovereigns and the domestic banking sectors; welcomes the creation of Next Generation EU in this context, providing low-risk European assets;

17.  Considers that the transition to a carbon-neutral economy presents great potential for economic growth in a range of different sectors; notes that such a transition requires massive investments from the public and private sector, but, as also acknowledged by the ECB, its cost will be lower than the cost of inaction; emphasises the importance of the banking sector in helping to fund the transition to a carbon-neutral economy and ensuring that the EU is able to fulfil its environmental commitments; asks banks to incorporate these matters into their transition plans; underlines the importance of the Taxonomy Regulation(38) in such an endeavour and that its implementation should be consistent with the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal; is concerned that climate-related risks on banks’ balance sheets may over time put banks in financial difficulty; considers that these risks should be brought down to prevent bank failures; calls for banks to be provided with clear guidelines in this regard, based on hard economic data; welcomes the efforts of the SSM to provide guidance and clarity to banks on self-assessment of climate-related and environmental (C&E) risks; recalls that the ECB has concluded its first-ever large-scale assessment of the C&E risk management of EU banks in 2021, and welcomes the ECB’s commitment to carrying out climate stress tests in 2022 as an important element in tackling climate-related risk; calls for such tests to be based on realistic data and assumptions; worries about an increase in NPLs due to stranded investments in fossil fuels; calls for the early identification and proactive management of such at-risk assets; encourages the SSM to continue and strengthen work in this direction; calls for the adequate integration of environmental and transition risks into credit rating models; stresses the need for further improvements in the disclosure of C&E risks by banks, as well as improvements in the disclosure of transition strategies by entities to facilitate banks’ and supervisors’ assessment of risk; calls for banks to take a double materiality perspective when assessing their climate-related risks; underlines the importance of clear legislation to prevent greenwashing; notes the new challenges, risks and opportunities for the banking sector related to the green transition;

18.  Recalls that the impact of special measures implemented during the pandemic by the governments of individual Member States should be taken into account in the assessment of the current condition of banks; notes the ECB’s Financial Stability Review of 17 November 2021 which states that the full effects of the pandemic on bank asset quality could take another two years to be felt;

19.  Highlights that the interest rates offered to households and SMEs across the Member States are highly disparate; urges the Commission and banking supervisors to consider measures to ease the burden on mortgage holders and SMEs in Member States with higher lending rates so as to ensure that all citizens and businesses can access much-needed capital at fair and competitive rates;

20.  Notes the trend towards increased consolidation in the banking sector in Europe in recent years and that EU banking merger and acquisition activity in 2021 is on track to exceed both 2020 and 2019 levels owing to a range of factors, including cost pressures, low interest rates and digitalisation(39); notes the possible benefits of banking consolidation, including addressing the low profitability, overcapacity and fragmentation of the banking sector, but also recognises the possible negative effects of consolidation and the challenges posed to banking supervision by large systemically important institutions, whose possible problems may affect financial stability in many jurisdictions; welcomes the ECB’s guide on the supervisory approach to consolidation in the banking sector, which outlines supervisory expectations regarding consolidation projects(40); stresses the benefits of a diversified and competitive banking sector in Europe, composed of banks with different business models and legal structures and of different sizes;

21.  Notes the problems and challenges related to home/host issues; notes that strengthening cross-border integration and allowing more flexibility in capital flow across banking groups, while respecting the risk profiles of subsidiaries, requires credible and efficient safeguards for host Member States, notably to ensure that significant subsidiaries are supported in difficult situations; underlines that the completion of the Banking Union is of the utmost importance in solving home/host concerns; stresses the need for improvements in the cross-border provision of services in order to create a truly EU-wide banking sector and improve its competitiveness;

22.  Stress the need for a well-functioning single market for retail financial services; calls on the Commission to assess the obstacles and barriers that arise for consumers when availing of retail banking products such as mortgage loans on a cross-border basis and to propose solutions to ensure that consumers can benefit from retail financial services across borders;

23.  Stresses the need for effective anti-money laundering supervision, since the existing framework still suffers from several shortcomings; regrets that not all Member States have yet fully transposed Anti-Money Laundering Directive V(41) and recalls the need for better coordination of financial intelligence units (FIUs) across Europe; underlines that banks act as gatekeepers in the fight against money laundering and therefore must have in place robust risk management frameworks and be supervised effectively, and points to the need for cooperation and coordination between prudential supervisors, anti-money laundering supervisors and FIUs; notes the ECB’s efforts over the past two years to enhance the exchange of information between the SSM and AML/CFT supervisors; welcomes the Commission’s adoption of the AML package, and calls for a swift agreement on all proposals; welcomes, in particular, the proposal for a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) which will directly supervise certain banks and coordinate the enforcement of AML/CFT rules by Member States’ authorities; stresses that for the AMLA to be truly effective, it must be resourced sufficiently; stresses the importance of a strong AML framework in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and to ensure the effectiveness of sanctions;

24.  Welcomes increased transparency standards in banking supervision, for instance in the outcomes of the supervisory review and evaluation process, which can reinforce trust in capital and financial markets and ensure consistent treatment across Member States; deplores the fact that the requirements for the fit and proper assessment of members of the management body of credit institutions are not implemented uniformly across Member States;

25.  Underlines that the ultimate beneficiaries of the Banking Union should be consumers and businesses in the real economy; stress the importance of strengthening consumer and investor protection from abuse, harmful practices and harmful products; calls for consumer access to cross-border retail financial services to be ensured; notes that despite strong EU consumer protection rules, national rules implementing EU consumer protection requirements vary across the Banking Union, and further harmonisation is therefore required;

Resolution

26.  Welcomes the activities of the SRB in 2021; welcomes the fact that banks within the SRB’s remit have overall delivered good progress towards resolvability and in building up loss-absorbing capacity; takes note of the SRB’s work programme for the coming years, which includes making the effective resolution of all banks under the SRB possible by 2023;

27.  Recalls the important role of the SRM in providing stability and clarity for the banking sector, investors and consumers and protecting taxpayers; welcomes the introduction of a backstop to the SRF in 2022, two years earlier than originally envisaged, in the form of a revolving credit line from the ESM, thereby providing a safety net for bank resolution in the Banking Union; stresses the importance of the SRF in strengthening the crisis management framework and as an important step towards completing the Banking Union;

28.  Welcomes the actions taken by the SRB with respect to Sberbank; underlines the need for a swift and adequate response in the event of a significant risk to the EU banking sector and financial stability caused by the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine;

29.  Supports the review and clarification of the public interest assessment criteria so that the SRM is applied in a more consistent and predictable manner and relies on objective thresholds; calls for a study on the need for the alignment of specific aspects of insolvency law, also with a view to the determination of the insolvency counterfactual in resolution, for the purpose of aligning incentives and ensuring a level playing field; notes the importance of the SRB taking a proportionate approach for banks to build their minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL); points out that for resolution plans to be fully compliant with the legal requirements, the SRB needs to provide a comprehensive assessment of each bank’s resolvability;

30.  Supports the idea of considering the role of group recovery and resolution plans in the crisis management framework, such that the calibration of MREL and banks’ contributions to the various safety nets would be truly risk-based, reflecting the likelihood and magnitude of the use of these safety nets under the preferred crisis management strategy;

31.  Acknowledges that alternative measures under deposit guarantee schemes (DGSs) to fund deposit book transfers may have an important role to play in insolvency cases, in particular for small and medium-sized banks, as long as they are subject to the same conditionalities as for deposit book transfers in resolution and not detrimental to depositor protection, and as long as the DGS is sufficiently funded, as a way to minimise taxpayer contributions and the destruction of value and ensure financial stability, and may also, in other cases, bridge the gap between the 8 % bail-in prerequisite for access to the resolution fund and the bank’s actual loss-absorbing capacity, excluding deposits that are meant to be transferred; stresses that such interventions should be subject to the stringent application of a least-cost test; calls on the Commission, therefore, to bring more clarity to the least-cost principle and to the conditions for the use of DGS funds; stresses, however, that in these cases, the State aid rules may need to be revised to preserve a coherent framework;

32.  Supports the revisiting of State aid rules, including a review of the Commission’s Banking Communication of 30 July 2013(42), in order to ensure their consistency with the SRM framework and to reduce discrepancies between the rules on State aid in the area of liquidation aid and the resolution regime under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive(43) (BRRD); emphasises that one of the goals of such an update should be to enable quick and effective interventions under the SRM or under the alternative liquidation regime and to reduce incentives to avoid either resolution or liquidation, while maintaining competition and the integrity of the Banking Union;

33.  Welcomes the provisional agreement reached by the Council and Parliament on the ‘Daisy Chain’ proposal as a means to improve the resolution framework and create a supervisory level playing field for the different resolution strategies;

Deposit insurance

34.  Recalls that the SSM and the SRM operate in the Banking Union, while DGSs are currently run and financed at national level; points out that the implementation of the DGSD, guaranteeing up to EUR 100 000 in banking deposits, provides a minimum baseline of protection for depositors; stresses the importance of depositors across the Banking Union enjoying the same level of effective protection for their savings irrespective of their bank’s location; stresses that an EDIS would improve protection for depositors in the EU and their trust in the banking sector and help to strengthen the Banking Union by reducing the link between sovereigns and banks; welcomes the inclusion of the proposal for a regulation establishing an EDIS in the EU institutions’ Joint Declaration identifying key legislative priorities for 2022;

35.  Recalls that Parliament is a co-legislator for the EDIS legislation and that Parliament’s position on this matter should be taken into account; welcomes the renewed efforts of the Eurogroup in making progress on the Banking Union in order to reach an agreement on the different work streams and files, including the EDIS; reiterates Parliament's commitment to working towards an agreement on the EDIS, and to continuing to support the necessary risk-reduction efforts;

36.  Takes note of the statement agreed by the Eurogroup at its meeting of 16 December 2021, which recalls its full political commitment to the Banking Union, and calls for a time-bound work plan for the completion of the Banking Union; asks to be kept informed of the ongoing discussions at the level of the Eurogroup and of the High-Level Working Group on the EDIS; regrets that the Member States continue to act outside the EU framework, undermining Parliament’s role as a co-legislator for the EDIS legislation;

37.  Stresses the importance of the risk proportionality of contributions to DGSs; warns that the absence of a risk-based approach may create risks of moral hazard and free-riding, leading to the subsidisation of speculative business models by conservative ones; emphasises that contributions to a future EDIS must also be proportional to risk; points out that idiosyncratic risks in different institutions still differ within the Banking Union; reiterates the need for all members of the Banking Union to transpose the BRRD and the DGSD to ensure homogenous risk reduction across the Banking Union;

38.  Points out that any further harmonisation of deposit insurance schemes should strengthen the financial stability of the EU banking system and take into account clear rules for the participation or non-participation of non-euro area Member States;

39.  Supports updating the crisis management framework; highlights that the envisaged targeted adjustments to the crisis management regime should make it more coherent, credible and effective;

o
o   o

40.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the European Central Bank, all member banks of the European System of Central Banks, the European Banking Authority and the Single Resolution Board.

(1) OJ C 132, 24.3.2022, p. 151. (2) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm~59811d5fb7.feedback_ar2020.pdf (3) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/press/publications/annual-report/html/ssm.ar2020~1a59f5757c.en.html (4) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/banking/priorities/html/ssm.supervisory_priorities2022~0f890c6b70.en.html (5) OJ C 395, 29.9.2021, p. 72. (6) OJ C 395, 29.9.2021, p. 89. (7) https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/211027-banking-package_en (8) https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/finance-2021-banking-macroprudential-framework_en (9) https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/210720-anti-money-laundering-countering-financing-terrorism_en (10) https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2021/html/ecb.pr211117~43fea9f9ce.en.html (11) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2022/703337/IPOL_STU(2022)703337_EN.pdf (12) https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/Report_on_a_digital_euro~4d7268b458.en.pdf (13) https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ecb.digitaleuroscopekeylearnings202107~564d89045e.en.pdf (14) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/legalframework/mous/html/ssm.mou_2019_pra~fbad08a4bc.en.pdf?57221907ef3ce290b35bd2ab650868bb (15) https://www.esrb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/recommendations/2021/esrb.climateriskfinancialstability202107_annex~35e1822ff7.en.pdf (16) https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpops/ecb.op281~05a7735b1c.en.pdf (17) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm.202111guideonclimate-relatedandenvironmentalrisks~4b25454055.en.pdf (18) https://www.srb.europa.eu/system/files/media/document/Annual%20Report%202020_Final_web.pdf (19) https://www.srb.europa.eu/system/files/media/document/2020-11-30%20SRB%20Multi-Annual%20Work%20Programme%202021-2023.pdf (20) https://www.srb.europa.eu/system/files/media/document/2021-11-26_Work-Programme-2022.pdf (21) https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Publications/Reports/2021/1024609/IFRS9%20monitoring%20report.pdf (22) OJ C 437, 18.12.2020, p. 1. (23) OJ C 23, 21.1.2021, p. 105. (24) OJ C 494, 8.12.2021, p. 118. (25) https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Risk%20Analysis%20and%20Data/EU%20Wide%20Transparency%20Exercise/2021/1025102/Risk_Assessment_Report_December_2021.pdf (26) https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Publications/Guidelines/2021/EBA-GL-2021-15%20GL%20on%20CFT%20cooperation/1025384/Final%20AML-CFT%20Cooperation%20Guidelines.pdf (27) https://www.esrb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/reports/esrb.20210908.monitoring_the_financial_stability_implications_of_COVID-19_support_measures~3b86797376.en.pdf (28) https://www.esrb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/reports/esrb.report_of_the_Expert_Group_on_Macroprudential_Stance_Phase_II202112~e280322d28.en.pdf (29) https://www.fsb.org/wp-content/uploads/P010421-1.pdf (30) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2021/689461/IPOL_IDA(2021)689461_EN.pdf (31) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2021/659654/IPOL_IDA(2021)659654_EN.pdf (32) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2021/689460/IPOL_IDA(2021)689460_EN.pdf (33) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2021/689468/IPOL_IDA(2021)689468_EN.pdf (34) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2021/659632/IPOL_BRI(2021)659632_EN.pdf (35) Directive 2014/49/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on deposit guarantee schemes (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 149). (36) Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (OJ L 176, 27.6.2013, p. 1). (37) OJ L 438, 8.12.2021, p. 1. (38) Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (OJ L 198, 22.6.2020, p. 13). (39) https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/a-new-dawn-for-european-bank-ma-top-5-trends (40) https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2021/html/ssm.pr210112~920b511a1c.en.html (41) Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU (OJ L 156, 19.6.2018, p. 43). (42) OJ C 216, 30.7.2013, p. 1. (43) Directive 2014/59/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms (OJ L 173, 12.6.2014, p. 190).