ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 87/133

Thursday 12 March 2009

Employee participation in companies with a European Statute

P6_TA(2009)0131

European Parliament resolution of 12 March 2009 on employees’ participation in companies with a European statute and other accompanying measures

2010/C 87 E/25

The European Parliament,

having regard to the Commission Communication of 25 June 2008 entitled ‘Think Small First’ - A ‘Small Business Act’ for Europe (COM(2008)0394) and the Commission’s 2008 and 2009 Work Programmes,

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

A. whereas a Statute for a European Private Company (SPE) will facilitate SME business in the internal market, but will also be accessible for larger companies,

1. Calls on the Commission, on the basis of Article 138 of the EC Treaty, to initiate a consultation with the social partners, with a view to evaluating and where necessary streamlining, creating or reinforcing the provisions for employees’ participation in the internal market;

2. Calls on the Commission to assess the impact of the existing European company statutes and relevant rulings of the European Court of Justice (for example, the ‘Daily Mail and General Trust’, ‘Sevic Systems’, ‘Inspire Art’, ‘Überseering’, and ‘Cartesio’ cases) as regards employees’ participation in boards of companies and possible avoidance or circumvention of the relevant national provisions;

3. Calls on the Commission to assess crossborder problems with regard to corporate governance, tax law and employees’ financial participation in shareholding programmes related to the above-mentioned proposed consultation; calls for a possible review and/or new proposals to be discussed with the Council and Parliament;

4. Calls on the Commission to assess whether to introduce a rule for the SPE statute according to which the reimbursement of a loan or other contribution by a shareholder should be subordinated where a contribution to the share capital would have been more appropriate (that is, in the case of over-indebtedness of the company itself); believes that consideration should be given to the introduction of a rule whereby the shareholder has to return the reimbursement received if it was paid within a period close to the insolvency of the company;
J.

whereas the decrease in transaction size has led to a reduction in the capacity of market participants to instantly execute large orders on a particular market and the desire to prevent market impact for large orders has encouraged the expansion of dark-pool trading; whereas less than 10 % of all trading in EEA equities shares on organised markets use the MiFID pre-trade transparency waivers (CESR/10-394), whereas these MiFID waivers allows for dark-pool trading as a more transparent and better regulated alternative to dark trading in the OTC space but whereas the absence of sufficient regulation for OTC transactions, including Broker Crossing Networks, provides a competitive advantage to the OTC space and encourages an increase in trading in the dark, undermining market transparency in general; whereas in total around half of trades are currently not covered by pre-trade transparency requirements, but half of OTC transactions are below market size and therefore do not require protection against market impact,
EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 308/89

Thursday 9 September 2010

European Year of Combating Violence against Women

P7_TA(2010)0318

Declaration of the European Parliament of 9 September 2010 on establishing a European Year of Combating Violence against Women

2011/C 308 E/18

The European Parliament,

having regard to Rule 123 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the expression ‘violence against women’ denotes any act of gender-based violence causing or liable to cause women harm or physical, sexual or psychological suffering, including the simple fact of threatening such acts or the arbitrary limitation or deprivation of freedom, whether in the public sphere or in their personal lives,

B. whereas violence against women is a major obstacle to gender equality and is one of the most widespread human rights violations, knowing no geographical, financial, cultural or social barriers,

C. whereas this is a critical problem in the European Union, where 20 to 25 % of women suffer physical violence in their adult life and over 10 % are the victims of sexual violence,

D. whereas Parliament has called on several occasions for a European Year of Combating Violence against Women to be established, in particular in its resolution on equality between women and men in 2009,

1. Emphasises the importance of combating violence against women in order to help achieve gender equality;

2. Calls on the Commission to establish, within the next five years, a European Year of Combating Violence against Women;

3. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories (1), to the Commission.

(1) The list of signatories is published in Annex 2 to the Minutes of 9 September 2010 (P7_PV(2010)09-09(ANN2)).
M.

having regard to the Commission communication on the digital agenda, which recognises that consumers in the EU very often opt to engage in transactions with firms based outside the EU, for example in the US, a factor which points to the need to develop a policy for encouraging global forms of e-commerce, together with the necessity to promote the importance of internationalisation of internet governance in line with the Tunis Agenda, whereas neither consumers nor businesses can reap the benefits of a Digital Single Market since very few on-line retailers sell their products or services to other Member States and most of those sell only to a limited number of Member States; whereas there is a need to address consumer discrimination, including at the time of payment, by ensuring provisions are in place to make and receive payment and delivery; whereas e-commerce is now a significant part of the mainstream economy, and businesses and consumers increasingly utilise both online and offline commercial practices to their best advantage,
D.

whereas in the light of this ambitious plan and the huge achievements already made by the EU in this field, it is time to stand back and reflect on what we are doing in the field of civil law with a view primarily to adopting a more strategic and less fragmented approach based on the real needs of citizens and businesses when exercising their rights and freedoms in the single market, and taking account of the difficulties of legislating in an area of shared competence where harmonisation is only infrequently an option and overlapping needs to be avoided, and where there is a consequent need to respect and accommodate radically different legal approaches and constitutional traditions, and also with a view to conceptualising the Union’s approach to this area in order better to understand what we are seeking to accomplish and how best to tackle the problems that have to be confronted, as part of an overall plan; whereas it is essential to focus in the first place on ensuring the functionality of the measures that have already been put in place and consolidating the progress that has already been made,
C.

whereas on 23 September 2010 the opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison on charges of disinformation and falsifying public documents by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court; whereas his conviction was based on an act of civil disobedience involving the uprooting of six wooden temporary border posts at the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, which is still disputed between the two countries; whereas the action took place in support of villagers who claimed to be victims of land-grabbing, saying that the Vietnamese had illegally shifted the posts onto Cambodian soil, in their rice fields, and that their complaints to the local authorities had remained unanswered,
8.

Calls on the European Commission, the HR/VP and the Member States to urge the Chinese Government to ensure, firstly, that the right of peaceful expression by students is respected and that the relevant authorities address their grievances substantively and appropriately, and, secondly, that the 2002 ‘Regulations on the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language’ are properly implemented, in accordance with the Law of Regional Ethnic Autonomy;
19.

Underlines the importance of constant monitoring of implementation of the agreement, with an open and inclusive approach at all phases: (a) notes the use of impact studies on sustainable development but considers that they should also be carried out before, during and after the negotiations, to ensure continuing evaluation; also points out the importance of acting in full on their results; also considers that the negotiators should take more account of the priorities and concerns that emerge from these impact studies; (b) asks the Commission to carry out impact studies on human rights in addition to those on sustainable development, with comprehensible trade indicators based on human rights and on environmental and social standards; (c) calls on both parties to submit regular reports on the general progress of implementation of all the commitments made under the agreement; (d) asks the Commission to ensure that partner countries’ parliaments are involved in trade negotiations, with a view to enhancing governance and democratic scrutiny in developing countries; (e) underlines the importance of public involvement at all stages of the negotiations and follow-up to the agreement, and to this end calls for sustainable development fora or advisory groups to be set up to allow the social partners and representatives of independent civil society to be consulted;
3.

Calls on the Commission to explore innovative funding channels, such as the establishment by the Member States and/or the Union of a financial guarantee to enable funding for the TBVI to be obtained from the European Investment Bank, with a view to securing finance for research in developing countries into neglected diseases and those involving little profit potential;
9.

Stresses the need to diversify the energy portfolio, given the problems arising from over-reliance on one energy source for power generation, such as imported fossil fuels or hydropower (where prolonged drought means empty reservoirs that dramatically reduce generating capacity); urges the World Bank to scale up its investment in renewable energies and energy efficiency, but to refrain from investing in large hydroelectric projects, whose negative social and environmental impact resulting inter alia from greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs must be properly assessed prior to their financing; underlines that small hydropower dams are more sustainable and economically viable than large hydropower facilities;
24.

Considers that, in view of demographic trends and the need to ensure that pensions can be paid for, it is necessary for more people to participate in the labour market and to do so for longer, but observes that life expectancy is growing and that better occupational health is a precondition for longer working lives; calls on Member States to make it possible for people who want to carry on working to do so; calls on the Member States which have increased the statutory retirement age or will be doing so to encourage work by older people through fiscal and social security exemptions; also calls on the Member States to create adapted and flexible employment contracts and retirement schemes for older people and to encourage and facilitate combining work with retirement and put in place dissuasive measures so that companies find it harder to make older people redundant; calls on the Commission to set up a study analysing the way wealth distribution is influencing life expectancy in Member States;
F.

whereas the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Hungarian authorities, when reviewing the media law, to take account of Council of Europe standards on freedom of expression and media pluralism, the relevant recommendations of the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and, in particular, the binding standards set out in the ECHR and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights; whereas he referred to the use of unclear definitions which are open to misinterpretation, the establishment of politically unbalanced regulatory machinery with disproportionate powers which is not subject to full judicial supervision, threats to the independence of public-service broadcast media, and erosion of the protection of journalists’ sources; whereas he also stressed the need for all relevant stakeholders, including opposition parties and civil society, to be able to participate in a meaningful manner in the review of this legislation, which regulates such a fundamental aspect of the functioning of a democratic society (6),
25.

Calls, therefore, on the Government to address these issues systematically by amending legislation and by ensuring its proper implementation at all levels of government, including the municipalities; points too, in this context, to the recommendations adopted by the Venice Commission in spring 2010 concerning the legal personality of religious communities and the ecclesiastical title ‘Ecumenical’ of the Orthodox Patriarchate; welcomes the recent decision by the ‘Foundations Assembly’ to transfer the Büyükada Greek Orphanage for Boys to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, and the granting of Turkish citizenship to several Greek Orthodox clergy in order to facilitate the Patriarchate and the Holy Synod; welcomes the religious ceremony in the Sümela Monastery Museum in Trabzon and the ceremony in the church on Akdamar Island in the province of Van; finds the Turkish Supreme Court decision against Mor Gabriel Monastery, concerning a land dispute with villages and the Turkish Treasury, to be regrettable; restates its expectation that the Government’s announcements about the reopening of the Halki Greek Orthodox seminary will soon be followed by action and by measures providing for the unhindered training of Christian communities’ clergy; urges the Government to pay special attention to educational materials in schools, which should reflect the religious plurality of Turkish society, and to the need for unbiaised learning materials;
15.

Recalls that the long-term goal of development cooperation must be to create the conditions for sustainable economic development and fair redistribution of wealth; therefore stresses the need to identify the LDCs’ needs and strategies, to diversify trade by enhancing fair prices for LDC production and to address supply-side constraints to increase the LDCs’ trading capacity and ability to attract investment which respects ILO core labour standards and protection of the environment;
16.

Recalls that, in its resolution of 21 September 2010 on poverty reduction and job creation in developing countries: the way forward, it emphasised that the EU should not hesitate to apply sanctions when countries fail to respect their governance and human rights obligations under trade agreements, asked the EU authorities to ensure scrupulous respect for the principle of conditionality, as stipulated in the Cotonou Agreement, and emphasised that the same conditionality criteria should apply to the provision of support under both the European Development Fund (EDF) and the Financing Instrument for Development Cooperation (DCI); stresses that similar conditionality criteria also should apply to EU assistance other than development assistance and humanitarian aid, including the macro-financial aid provided via IMF loans, as well as lending operations by the EIB and EBRD programmes, and that such assistance should be based on partnership, shared objectives and values and allegiance and should be able to fulfil the expectations of both the donor and the beneficiary; stresses, further, that the active support from the EU to beneficiary countries should be effective and results-oriented and that the EU’s core values should be respected; asks the VP/HR and the Commission to pursue the objective of allegiance to the EU and its core values when shaping the architecture of EU financial assistance and in bilateral relations with countries which are beneficiaries of such assistance; believes that a process of reflection should be started at EU level on the bases of and scope for the application of conditionality criteria to EU financial assistance;
6.

Welcomes the UN Secretary-General’s decision to respond positively to the panel’s recommendation for a review of the UN’s actions regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and protection mandates during the war in Sri Lanka, particularly in the final stages of the conflict; notes that the panel of experts has recommended that the UN Secretary-General should immediately proceed to establish an independent international mechanism, but that the latter has been advised that this will require host country consent or a decision by member states through an appropriate intergovernmental forum;
4.

Points to shortcomings in the standardised approach in the Basel regulatory framework allowing regulatory capital requirements for financial institutions to be set on the basis of external credit ratings; considers it important to establish a capital adequacy framework that ensures robust internal risk assessment, better oversight of such risk assessment, and improved access to credit-relevant information; supports in this respect the increased use of the internal-ratings-based (IRB) approach provided that it is reliable and safe and that the size, capacity and sophistication of the financial institution allow for an adequate risk assessment; considers that in order to ensure a level playing field it is important that internal models respect parameters prescribed in the EU regulation and be subject to rigorous supervisory validation; considers, at the same time, that smaller and less sophisticated players with lower capacities should be able to use external ratings, if no internal credit risk assessment is viable, provided that they fulfil appropriate due diligence requirements;
20.

Emphasises the importance of the new media and, above all, of the internet as free, easily accessible and user-friendly communications and information platforms which should be actively used, inside and outside the EU, in the context of intercultural dialogue; in addition, stresses the importance of the new media in providing access to cultural goods and content and in making Europe's cultural heritage and history better known, inside and outside the EU, as demonstrated by key projects such as Europeana;
28.

Requests that the Member States and the Commission roll out measures improving access to finance to support research projects so as to ensure that the best possible technologies for identifying caller location, including via VOIP, are developed and supports accordingly the development of next generation standards and regulations; asks for the ICT-PSP funds indicated in the EU Budget 2009, 2010 and 2011 to be allocated to support the testing and implementation of innovative services (based on VoIP and IP-access to 112) that could be initiated through network-independent applications in anticipation of the establishment of a Next Generation 112 system in the EU; calls on the Commission to examine also the implementation of Next Generation 112 applications such as texting, video and social networks and how such applications, which are currently available to citizens, can be implemented in emergency communications to improve access to 112 as well as to enhance citizen-initiated emergency response;
8.

Welcomes the Council’s announcement of 17 May 2011 that EUR 200 million would be allocated to South Sudan in addition to the EUR 150 million allocated last year to assist the most vulnerable populations throughout Sudan; points out that EU development aid is at the ready to assist both sides; stresses that the new money should be used to support basic services, notably education and health, agriculture, food security and institutional capacity-building; calls for the accession of South Sudan to the Cotonou Agreement as a matter of urgency and for the EU to take all steps necessary to ensure that funding from the European Development Fund becomes available as soon as possible;
4.

Confirms its position as set out in the relevant reports, and in particular: — that, in accordance with Article 9 of Protocol 1 of the Lisbon Treaty, ‘the European Parliament and national Parliaments shall together determine the organisation and promotion of effective and regular interparliamentary cooperation within the Union’, in order to promote co-ownership in the organisation and exercise of effective and regular interparliamentary cooperation; — that its own representation in any new form of interparliamentary cooperation should be of a scale which reflects the range and importance of its role in scrutinising CFSP/CSDP, recognises the common European nature of such policies and satisfies the need to reflect the political and geographic pluralism of the House; — that, in the pursuit of added value as well as in order to contain costs, the Secretariat and premises of the European Parliament are in principle available to support the organisation and hosting of the interparliamentary meetings; — that the conclusions of the interparliamentary meetings shall not be binding on the participating parties;
10.

Invites the Member States and the Commission to implement new policies to enable more women to become involved in managing companies, in particular by: (a) initiating a dialogue, not limited to the issue of quotas, with the boards of large companies and with the social partners about ways of increasing female representation, which could take place annually; (b) supporting initiatives to assess and promote male-female equality on recruitment committees and in other areas, e.g. with regard to wage differentials, job classification, training and career patterns; (c) promoting corporate social responsibility for European companies, with a commitment to ensuring managerial responsibility for women and family-friendly services; (d) supporting cultural measures to orient young women more towards scientific and technological studies, as called for by the United Nations Economic and Social Council; (e) introducing specific measures and arrangements for the provision of high-quality and affordable services, for example childcare and care of the elderly and other dependent persons, fiscal incentives for companies or other compensation to help women and men employed by businesses to balance family and work commitments; (f) developing women’s individual capabilities in-house, by means of specific further-training courses and other forms of professional support, such as dedicated mentoring and networking in order to prepare them effectively for management duties at all levels; (g) developing training on gender equality and non-discrimination; (h) promoting precise and quantifiable commitments on the part of companies; (i) encouraging all stakeholders to set up initiatives to change the way women are perceived and women’s self-perception in the work field, so as to enable more women to take on leadership responsibilities on the operational side of the business, and not just on the functional side; takes the view that such initiatives should aim at encouraging girls and young women to consider a broader spectrum of careers with the support of teachers, family members and various role models, and presenting female leadership positively in the European media; (j) identifying ways to increase the representation of women from particularly under-represented groups, such as those from an immigrant or ethnic-minority background;