The European
Parliament adopted a resolution on the Commission legislative and work
programme (LWP) for 2007.
The resolution
was tabled by the EPP-ED, PES, ALDE and UEN groups.
The Parliament
welcomes the emphasis in the Commission's Legislative and Work Programme
(LWP) for 2007 on modernising the European economy and improving the
well-being of citizens. It agrees, in this context, with the importance
attributed to security, health, innovation, a cleaner environment, energy and
climate change, the internal market, migration and integration, Europe's global visibility and effectiveness, and improved communication with European
citizens. It considers that in order to restore the momentum behind the
European project, the Commission should play its full role in strengthening
and modernising Europe's social market economy, based on sustainable
development.
MEPs consider
that the distinction drawn between 'strategic initiatives' and 'priority
initiatives' increases the clarity and credibility of the LWP. Moreover, they
welcome the fact that the Commission has endorsed a range of the
contributions made by the committees of Parliament in the framework of the
new 'structured dialogue' and outlined in the summary report of the
Conference of Committee Chairmen.
The Commission
is called upon to inform Parliament why it chose not to include the following
legislative initiatives in its 2007 work programme, as requested by its
committees: (i) mutual recognition in trade in goods; (ii) proposals to
improve the CE mark; (iii) revision of the European Company Statute; (iv) the
development of microcredits; (v) reconciling work and family life; (vi) the
protection of atypical workers; (vii) a new proposal on a European mutual
society; (viii) thresholds for seeds containing GMOs; and (ix) a proposal on
the Transparency Initiative.
With regard to
the priorities for 2007, the Commission is called upon, in particular, to:
- improve the coordination
of economic policies, in particular with a view to promoting
national and European initiatives aimed at fostering research, skills
and new technologies;
- undertake
further initiatives to promote excellence in European universities,
higher education and life-long learning, as well as better knowledge of
languages;
- step up
efforts to complete the internal market, notably in the field of
financial services and insurance, and to explore all possible ways of
improving the patent and patent litigation systems;
- explore possible
pathways to enhance flexicurity and to help Member States to
achieve both high productivity and high social protection;
- give new
impetus in the field of consumer protection;
- address the
structural causes of massive migration by adapting and updating current
policies. The Parliament believes that a common immigration, visa and
asylum policy, as well as an effective economic and social
integration of immigrants on the basis of common principles, must be at
the heart of EU action for 2007. It calls for a move to the codecision
procedure and qualified-majority voting in all areas related to
immigration;
- better
develop the synergies between economic development, on the one
hand, and development and use of clean and energy-saving technologies,
on the other;
- support a
strong role for the EU in devising post-Kyoto policies and new
targets;
- better
coordinate transport and environment policy in the spirit of
sustainable development, proposing concrete targets for CO2 reduction
for the total vehicle fleet and integrating air transport into the
binding obligations of the Kyoto Protocol;
- take the
lead in facing the global challenge of biodiversity loss;
- take the
necessary initiatives to enable the creation of a better environment for
developing non-CO2 energy sources;
- enhance the regional,
social and environmental role of the CAP;
- make concrete
proposals and steps to give content to the European Neighbourhood
Policy and draw up an annual report on compliance with the human
rights and democracy clause of the agreements with Neighbourhood Policy
countries;
- propose
guiding principles for the strategic content of the EU's relations
with Russia;
- be more
ambitious in respecting their commitment to the Millennium
Development Goals;
- accelerate
the simplification and consolidation of EU legislation and to put more
effort into better regulation.