NOSWPAT - GUE

Il GUE/NGL Presenta una Mozione sugli obiettivi strategici e sul programma legislativo e di lavoro della Commissione per il 2005-2009

Bruxelles, 15 Febbraio 2005

Nella risoulzione presentata il 16/2/2005 il Gruppo GUE richiede come 4. punto che

4. richiede che la Commissione e il Consiglio ritirino la direttiva sulla brevettabilità del software, richiede che la Commissione dia priorità allo sviluppo del software libero e open-sourcee all'eliminazione della frattura digitale all'interno della strategia sulla società dell'informazione per il 2010

4. Calls on the Commission and the Council to withdraw the directive on software patents, requests that the Commission gives priority to the development of free and open-source software and to eliminating the 'digital divide' within the strategy on the Information Society up to 2010;

Il gruppo GUE partecipera' alla manifestazione del 17 con il suo striscione e con i suoi militanti.

Session document

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
on the Commission legislative and work programme 2005
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure

by Francis Wurtz
on _behalf of the GUE/NGL group

European Parliament resolution on
the Commission Strategic objectives 2005-2009 and
the Commission legislative and work programme 2005

A. whereas Commissions' strategic focus on 'competitiveness' and 'structural economic reforms' aimed at cost-cutting for European businesses is entirely unfounded against the background that the operating profits of the big firms in the EU have risen by 78 per cent in 2004 and that the shares of profit as a proportion of GDP in the euro-area currently are close to their highest for at least 25 years, while the wage share has declined further; and that both the trade balance and the current-account balance of the euro-area were again positive in the latest 12 months, in contrasts to the huge deficits of the United States;

B. whereas the new Social Policy Agenda is lacks as well the necessary instruments and adequate finance, as it lacks any strong commitment to legislative action targeting to improve social minimum standards, to extend legislation on health and safety at work concerning new and emerging risks or a strong commitment to encouraging Member States to promote social inclusion policies based on adequately funded programs;

C. whereas environmental policy can represent a major economic opportunity creating both direct and indirect jobs on a large scale, if innovation and industrial policies are focused on the promotion of sustainable development;

D. whereas the Commission's legislative and work programme has a one-sided emphasis on "security" measures such as enhanced cooperation between law enforcement services, at the expense of the elements of "freedom" and "justice" when there should be right balance between these elements;

E. whereas the international role of the European Union should be that of promoting peace and stability, the rule of law in the international relations and the civil prevention of conflicts as well as more just rules for the international trade.

Prosperity and solidarity

1. Points out that the weakness of internal demand lies at the root of the EU´s economic problems; stresses that Europe needs a macro-economic framework supportive of sustainable development, strengthening environmentally friendly internal demand, wages, employment and social cohesion; calls on the Commission and the Council to revoke the Stability Pact, and on the Member States to launch a coordinated investment programme for sustainable development and employment of 1% of EU GDP; considers that restrictive monetary and fiscal policies in the EU had negative consequences for economic recovery, employment and social cohesion and recalls the need for a relaxation of the monetary policy of the ECB;

2. Warns against the Commissions' efforts to 'reinvent' the Lisbon strategy to improve 'competitiveness' via worsening workers' rights and benefits by promoting longer working time, lower wages and a further dismantling of the welfare state (pensions, unemployment and social benefits, health care etc ); calls for a thorough revision of the Lisbon strategy, putting economic policy, environment, employment and social cohesion on an equal footing in order to promote a holistic European strategy for solidarity and sustainable development;

3. Calls for revamping the Growth Initiative along a more decentralized approach, promoting sustainable infrastructures, eco-innovation and job creation and to limit the environmental impact of energy and transport infrastructures;

5. Calls on the Commission to withdraw its draft directive on services in the internal market

6. Calls on the Commission to withdraw its proposal on the revision of the working time directive; expects the Commission to draft a new proposal which fully respects the ECJ ruling on on-call time as working time, abolishes the opt-outs, diminishes the number of derogations and focuses on reconciling employment and private life and on lowering the maximum weekly working hours;

7. Expresses its concern about the Commissions' intention to draft a Green Paper on labor law aiming at its 'simplification and modernization', considers it more appropriate that the Green Paper focuses on how to better protect the rights of workers and to remedy the de-standardization of employment contracts (e.g. project, contingent, precarious, fixed term employment);

8. Calls on the Commission to focus the European Employment Strategy more on direct measures to create employment via the strengthening of the public services, the third sector and social economy, on improving competencies, education, vocational training and life-long learning, on integrating older workers and youth into gainful employment, to support the quality of employment and the reconciliation of work and private life and promote equality between women and men;

9. Welcomes the Commissions' intention to put the promotion of high quality prevention services, health and safety training, of a better application of health and safety standards at the heart of the strategy on health and safety at work 2007 - 2012, but calls for legislative action in those respects where existing legislation has revealed failings;

10. Expresses its concern about the intended 'rationalisation and simplification' of the OMC´s on social inclusion, pensions and health care under the heading of 'modernization of social protection', as this could implicate an even weaker role of the fight to eradicate poverty and social exclusion and a strengthened bias on 'financial sustainability' (meaning promotion of cuts and privatising risks) in social security pension schemes and health care against universal accessibility and quality;

11. Considers the proposal of the Commission for the next financial perspectives deeply insufficient to respond the social, economic and environmental challenges facing the enlarged EU and to cope with its cohesion needs and the high levels of unemployment, poverty and income inequality;

12. Opposes the strategy of the signatories of the so-called “Letter of the Six” to confine the debate on the next financial perspectives in proposing to keep the budget at a maximum 1% of Community GNI; rejects the setting of the next financial perspectives' annual average expenditure on a compromise level between the proposal of the Commission and the proposal of signatories of the so-called “Letter of the Six”;

Environment

13. Welcomes the Commissions' intention to initiate thematic strategies on ecological sustainability via new legislation (maritime environment, soils, pesticides), but regrets that it refrains from a legislative approach on other thematic strategies (biodiversity, urban environment, renewable energy, biomass, prevention and recycling of waste, sustainable use of natural resources); calls for legislative action in these fields too; underlines the fact that sustainable development, as laid down in Art.6 of the EC Treaty, is an overarching principle that applies to all activities of the EU and asks the Commission to make an explicit commitment to include the requirement of environmental policy integration and adopt action programmes for its implementation in all relevant policy sectors;

14. Strongly criticizes that the Commission Communication on "Winning the Battle Against Global Climate Change" abandoned the EU´s leading role in fighting climate change by not setting targets for reductions in greenhouse gases beyond 2012; asks the Commission to secure legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets which are consistent with the EU objective of limiting global temperature rise to 2° Celsius; urges the Commission to stress the need for climate protection when holding dialogues with international partners, especially the United States and the emerging countries like China, Brazil and India, and to stress that relations between the EU and third states cannot remain unharmed in the absence of a constructive position on this matter;

15. Emphasizes that hazardous chemicals contaminate our everyday living environment through pollution of air, water and the food chain; calls on the Commission to ensure the systematic substitution of carcinogens, toxic, persistent and bioaccumulative substances with innovative, safer alternatives wherever possible to halt chemical contamination;

Area of freedom, security and justice

16. Stresses the urgent need of a framework decision on data protection providing the same level of protection in the third pillar as in the first pillar (directive 95/46CE);

17. Supports the improvement of the Common Asylum System; underlines the fact that EU funds should be used to help migrants' integration and to address the root causes of migration instead of financing removal and repatriation policies;

18. Asks the Commission to take initiatives concerning migrants’ right to vote at European and local elections, a right which could help the social, cultural and political integration of migrants;

19. Alerts the Commission to the risks posed by interoperability of information systems, opposes the "principle of availability" as regards the SIS, and calls on the institutions and the Member States not to use the new Schengen information system, SIS II, or the Visa Information System, VIS, to establish a global repressive data base;

20. Rejects the general idea of introducing biometric identifiers in identity documents, whether in visas, residence permits or EU-passports, first of all because of the huge risks to data protection and privacy, secondly because of the lack of a proper explanation regarding the necessity, functionality, efficiency and probable side-effects of including such identifiers in identity documents;

21. Notes that a genuine European area of justice in criminal matters is very much based on mutual trust. Is worried by the fact that negotiations in general over procedural safeguards continue to lag behind the drive to intensify judicial cooperation, while the mutual recognition which is to underpin such cooperation cannot hide the lack of basic mutual trust given the significant differences in the standards of justice across the EU;

22. Asks the Commission to base the new Action Plan on Drugs on structured consultation with associations and operators involved in this field in the Member States and on legal, institutional and financial bases which are derived from effective past action and the success of best practices;

23. Welcomes the decision of the Commission to revise the Television without Frontiers directive. This revision should take into account general interest objectives such as cultural diversity and media pluralism as asked by the European Parliament in resolution of the 21st of April 2004;

External relations

24. Attaches great importance to a mutual advantageous neighbourhood policy of the EU; calls on the Commission in cooperation with its partners in the neighbouring countries to elaborate tailored action plans which meet the specific political economic, social and environmental conditions and needs of the partners; considers that the Northern Dimension of such policies also needs to be given new impetus;

25. Expresses its serious concern at the economic and social situation in the countries of the Western Balkans; calls on governments and the EU to make economic and social development the top priority; stresses that the solution to that crucial question is the key to stable development of those countries; calls on the Commission to adopt a clearer strategy for the Balkans which meets these problems;

26. Welcomes the decision of the European Council to sign in April 2005 at the meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council the Accession Treaty with Bulgaria and Romania;

27. Welcomes the decision to start accession negotiations with Turkey; reminds the Commission that in the first phase of the negotiations priority should be given to the full implementation of the political criteria; calls on the Commission to elaborate a roadmap for the first phase of the negotiations with a concrete and verifiable timetable for the implementation in practice of the political criteria of Copenhagen with special emphasis on the recognition of Cyprus by Turkey and the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the occupied northern part of Cyprus; visible progress towards the solution of the problems of the Kurdish people in Turkey, in particular the reconciliation with those Kurdish forces who have chosen to abandon the use of arms, the dissolution of the village guard system, the return of Kurdish people to their villages and the full guaranty of fundamental rights for the Kurdish people in Turkey, the guaranty of human rights and full fundamental freedoms in both theory and practice

28. Welcomes the opening of accession negotiations with Croatia; restates its hope that Croatia will take concrete steps in order to fully comply with the Copenhagen criteria in particular by settling its border disputes with Slovenia, making greater efforts to facilitate the return of refugees and guaranteeing fair and effective domestic war-crime trials;

29. Calls on the Commission to intensify its efforts for a just and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East through the negotiation of a firm and final peace agreement as laid out in the Roadmap for Peace, without prior conditions, based on the existence of two democratic, sovereign and viable states - Israel and Palestine - coexisting peacefully side by side within secure and recognised frontiers of 1967; reaffirms its commitment for the creation of a viable sovereign Palestinian state in 2005;

30. Calls on the Commission to contribute to the establishment of the real an comprehensive sovereignty of Iraq and the withdrawal of the occupying troops; stresses the need to continue providing humanitarian aid to the population of Iraq;

31. Stresses the obligation on the international community to continue to promote stability, peace and democratic and economic development of Afghanistan; calls on the Commission to implement a long term strategy for the recovery of this country and to preserve the specific budget line for Afghanistan;

32. Reaffirms the importance of strong relations between the peoples of the United States and the European Union; and regrets that largely because of the foreign policy of the Bush administration, but also in the economic cooperation, there are serious problems in the development of the transatlantic partnership; calls on the Commission to intensify the political dialog on civil crisis prevention, strengthening of international law and the role of the UN in international security, sustainable development and the fight against poverty with priority;

33. Calls on the Commission to develop an external policy which promotes peace and stability by strengthening the rule of law in the international relations and preventing conflicts by peaceful means; continues to reject a European security and defence policy based on the military dimension in close cooperation with NATO and on raising the military budgets of the Member States; emphasises that the elimination of economic and social disparities, the strengthening of democracy and the protection of human and minority rights constitutes the decisive aspect of crisis prevention;

34. Calls on the Commission to give more consistency and coherence to the external action of the European Union as the human rights dimension is concerned; insists on the need to preserve EIDHR;

35. Stresses the need for a concrete action plan for the achievement of the Millennium Development goals by 2015 to be presented to the 60. UN General Assembly in September 2005, containing inter alia: a Council decision to achieve within the European Union the 0,7% line of GDP in ODA by 2010, calls on the Commission to preserve a clear and important role for development and human rights within the new financial programmes; estime que la Commission devrait intensifier son action sur le plan multilatéral pour l'annulation de la dette extérieure des pays en développement; et notamment celle des pays ACP qui sont en train de négocier un accord de libre-échange avec l' UE;

36. - demande que la Commission, au lieu de penser à compenser les effets négatifs d'une réforme de l'Organisation Mondial du Marché du Sucre, ait plutôt pour objectif de modifier sa proposition de réforme afin qu'elle ménage les intérêts des producteurs ACP et des paysans producteurs de l'UE;

Better law making, implementation, simplification and inter-institutional relations

37. Reiterates that impact assessments need to take social, consumer protection and environmental concerns strongly into account; points out that such assessments are to be distinguished from cost-effectiveness assessments and that the latter should not put into question the initial objectives of proposed legislation; welcomes the Commissions' intention to consult civil society and other interested parties when preparing policy;

38. Considers that the Parliament should be fully involved in the selection of laws that can be simplified and in the monitoring of the effects and results. Insists that simplification should not lead to circumventing the objectives of adopted legislation, notably legislation adopted in co-decision, and should not reduce the level of protection of human health, the environment or social and quality standards;

39. Expects the Commission to hold true to its commitment of "rigorous treatment of infringement" and assumes that the Commission in line with this new priority, will take the necessary measures to strengthen its administrative capacity, especially as regards infringement procedures concerning environmental and social legislation;

40. Is concerned about a series of proposals for financial action programmes for the period 2007-2013 that are to be decided in co-decision but lack concrete content and leave it up to Commission and Council to decide alone on the choice of actions for the implementation of the programme (e.g. the Development Co-operation Instrument); requests that the Parliament should be fully involved in the policy making in those areas (notably the multi-annual and country strategy papers) and asks the Commission and Council to enter into dialogue with the Parliament to find solutions to fill this democratic gap; warns that failing a solution for this problem , the Parliament may well decide to reject or substantially modify the current proposals;

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

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