Debate: Commission Work Programme
Date: THURSDAY, 30 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Maroš Šefčovič
Language: EN

I think that the motive with which our President presented her new Commission is that this would be the geopolitical Commission, which would strive for more, and I believe that with your help, with your support, we can really achieve that. I would like to echo the words of Ms Niebler and Mr Marques, who said that to have an ambitious programme is a very good thing, but what would be even more important now is its proper implementation. I found an echo of this call in many of your interventions and I really would like to tell you that we take it very seriously and we hope that with the close cooperation with co-legislators, with you and the Council, we can deliver on this programme.  Ms Keller made a very emotional reference to yesterday’s discussion and we’ve all been here and I think that the emotions and the farewell bids to our British friends is still with us. Therefore, I think that her question on how to respond to the challenge of yesterday is clearly that we have to build an even better Europe, which would be more efficient, more competitive, greener, closer to the citizens. I believe that starting the constructive work on this joint ambitious programme would be the right first step forward to meet these ambitions.  To my compatriots, Ms Ďuriš Nicholsonová, who was highlighting the challenges around minimum wage setting, I would like to underline once again that what we are going to propose is to set a framework for minimum wage setting and that we are going to consult widely with the social partners, with our Member States, and we would respect, one hundred percent, the national tradition and collective bargaining, but we believe that everyone in the European Union deserves a fair wage and that we have to be socially just if it comes to this very basic human right, which is so important for Europeans on our continent. On the infringement case against Austria, it’s ongoing. We are currently studying the response of Austria to our reasoned opinion and we will inform this Parliament accordingly once this study is completed.  Ms Aubry made reference to the carbon adjustment mechanism. I would like to reassure her that it’s already in our Commission’s Work Programme for 2021. As I’m sure many of you know, this is a rather complex task. It would require a lot of preparation, a proper mechanism and we have to be ready for quite intense international debate on this issue. We would like to see countries like China and many others who have an emissions-trading (ET) system as ambitious as we have, but if this would not be the case, we simply would have to consider a mechanism like carbon adjustment to make sure that we have a level playing field and that we would motivate also other big economies to make sure that they would work on lowering their carbon footprint for their economy and for their products.  Many of you insisted on the importance of the rule of law and I cannot agree with you more. I think that it’s quite clear that this Commission is really committed to ensuring respect for the rule of law equally in all Member States. Ms de Sutter, I also would like to assure you on one very important fact – that the Commission will also ensure full respect – and I would like to underline both words – of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in addressing emerging issues such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition. In the context of the statement of Mr Azmani, thank you very much for your intervention. Among other and different constructive observations, you also referred to anti-Semitism, which again, we were debating yesterday and witnessing very emotional testimony of Holocaust survivors, and I am sure that I do not need to say how much I agree with you and how important this would be for the work of the European Commission.  Mr Garicano was referring to the Work Programme and to the fact that, with the UK leaving, a lot of the universities which have been part of the European Union educational area are going as well. But I also would like to assure him that we are looking for ways to maintain good contacts with our British friends within the framework of Erasmus, within the framework of research programmes. But on top of that, we want to make sure that the European education area becomes a reality by 2025, and we will work with equal intensity on our skills agenda, where we are going to present our programme and proposal already this year.  To Ms Hayer, I would like to reassure you that, for us, the impact assessment is a very important one. I’m responsible for that and there will be no important legislative proposals without a proper impact assessment being done – because we know that the impact assessment offers very often the best answers to the proper argumentation and the debates we would have, especially with those who are opposing our proposals. To make sure that we will respect full transparency, we are going to establish the interinstitutional evidence register by the end of this year – just to make sure that we will share this information with all of you.  When it comes to the issue of poverty, which was raised by several colleagues, we are going to address it through the social roadmap, through the framework for minimum wage setting, as I said, and we are going to work on the children guarantee, which several of you referred to as a very important measure. I hope that with your help and with proper funding, we will restart a renovation wave across the European Union. This would not only help us to tackle greenhouse gas emissions but increase the quality of life, especially for all those who are living in social housing, and that through this measure, thanks to energy efficiency, we would reduce the bills they have to pay electricity at the end of every month for heating, cooling or simply using.  To Mr Belka, I would like to say that we are very serious about tax evasion and we will be working very closely with our Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) partners and, if there will be a deal within the OECD, we will do all necessary and take all necessary steps to implement it. However, I also would like to assure you that in the absence of such agreement on the global level by 2020, the EU shall act alone. We just simply will not have more patience to wait for the continuation of avoiding paying proper taxes on the European territories.  I know, Mr President, that time is limited, but to Ms Fritzon I would like to say that we will consult very thoroughly with the social partners and respect all prerogatives of this social dialogue because this is how we know we will get the best results.  On enlargement, I think that we have been very clear on making sure that we will come with a new methodology. We will have a very important summit in Zagreb, organised thanks to the Croatian Presidency, where we want to bring a new impetus, new energy into this process and our commitment to Northern Macedonia and Albania is very clear, and that’s a priority for this European Commission.  On the transition fund and the multiannual financial framework (MFF), to conclude, Mr President, that was the point made by Ms Bonafè, by Mr Hajšel and many others, I want to assure you that when you are talking about EUR 7.5 billion for the Just Transition Fund, we are talking about fresh money. This is how the European Commission presented its proposal. It’s on top of the MFF proposals which you already tabled and with which you are so familiar and for which the Commission is ready to battle with the Council to make sure that we have proper financing for all the ambitious items which we have in our programme. Of course, it would be on all of us to make sure that we would use the Just Transition money where it’s most needed, for the people who need to be retrained, where we need to find new jobs for coal miners, for the people working in energy—intensive industries, to make sure that this transition is fair and that nobody is left behind, whether a person or a city, or a region.  I cannot agree more with all of you who’ve been highlighting the importance of an ambitious multiannual financial perspective. Mr Olbrycht, Ms Dalli, Mr López Aguilar, Ms Niebler, all of you have been referring to the importance to have a proper multiannual financial perspective. As you know, we will have an extraordinary summit where this would be the item on the agenda, so let’s hope and let’s make strong arguments towards our heads of state and government that we need an agreement, we need it very soon – because every month that we are late with the MFF, we are already putting our programmes in serious danger.  Once again, Mr President, honourable Members, thank you very much for all your points. I’m sure that now in the way of structured dialogues with your committees, you will have even more chance to debate all the programmes and all the items in greater detail, and we are very much looking forward to it.