German Printed paper 19/20564

19th electoral term 30 June 2020

Preliminary version

Motion tabled by the Members of the Bundestag , , Dr , Sven-Christian Kindler, Dr Frithjof , , , , , Dr , , Cem Özdemir, , , Jürgen Trittin, , , , , Ekin Deligöz, Katja Dörner, Katharina Dröge, Britta Haßelmann, , Claudia Müller, Beate Müller-Gemmeke, , Dr Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, Maria Klein-Schmeink, Christian Kühn, Stephan Kühn, Stefan Schmidt, Dr Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, , , Tabea Rößner, Corinna Rüffer, , Dr , Dr , Beate Walter-Rosenheimer, and the /The Greens parliamentary group to be

Europe is worth it – for a green recovery rooted in solidarity and a strong 2021- 2027 EU budget replaced by the

The Bundestag is requested to adopt the following resolution:

I. The German Bundestag notes: A strong (EU) built on solidarity which protects its citizens and our livelihoods is the best investment we can make in our future. Our aim is an EU that also and especially proves its worth during these difficult times of the corona pandemic, that fosters democracy, prosperity, equality and health and that resolutely tackles the challenge of the century that is climate protection. We need an EU that bolsters international cooperation on the world stage and does not abandon the weakest on this earth.

proofread This requires an EU capable of taking effective action both internally and externally, it requires greater solidarity on our continent and beyond - because no country can effectively combat the climate crisis on its own, no country can stamp out the pandemic on its own. In difficult times especially - when populists and autocrats are exploiting people’s fears, stirring up hatred and choosing nationalism – what is needed is a strong EU, one that puts its values into practice both internally and externally. This entails courageous political decisions, as well as sufficient financial resources in the new European budget and for a recovery plan

to manage the corona crisis.

version In light of all this, the Federal Government must finally abandon its obstructionist tactics towards new additional own EU resources, so that the EU can raise additional own funds, for instance in the form of a digital tax, minimum pricing for CO2 and border tax adjustment, a plastics tax and a bona fide financial transaction tax, and consequently increase its capacity to take action.

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Preliminary version Additional own funds are essential to effectively combat the corona crisis, to mitigate its social, environmental and economic impacts and to resolutely counteract the climate crisis. The corona crisis spares no country. The EU is facing the worst recession in its history. The larger the crisis grows, the more important solidarity and cohesion become. It is in the interest of all Member States for all of them to sufficiently fund their health services and to be able to stabilise and strengthen their societies and economies to withstand crises and be sustainable. For the euro zone, the European Central Bank (ECB) is expecting a decline in economic performance of 8 to 12 per cent in 2020 and a drastic rise in unemployment. All Member States now face tremendous challenges, which to a large extent they can only master through additional borrowing. The financial and economic starting conditions of the Member States differ greatly though. The EU must be prevented from drifting apart even further socially and economically. Solidarity and cohesion are fundamental EU values. What is more, they are also in the interests of a country like , whose economic success also rests on the success of the European Single Market.

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At the same time, the EU and its Member States need to tackle the climate crisis by systematically investing in climate protection. This makes it imperative and to be pivotal that the EU’s funds be used for climate protection and sustainability, social justice, equality and the rule of law. The higher contributions to the EU budget, more own revenues from European taxes and one-off common European bonds included in the recovery plan mean the Commission now has the right proposals

on the table for coping with the consequences of the corona crisis and the replaced by the deepening climate crisis. It is now time for a bold transition. The economic impacts of the corona crisis are hitting women particularly hard. They often work in areas directly affected by the crisis, such as the health and customer-oriented sectors. At the beginning of the crisis, almost five times as many women as men lost their jobs, while at the same time women perform the majority of the unpaid care work at home and in the area of childcare. To date, the proposal for the EU’s recovery plan focuses first and foremost on sectors and industries employing mainly men, although many sectors where the majority of workers are women are being impacted by the corona pandemic, such as the care sector. For this reason, at least half of the recovery funds needs to serve the goals of employing women and promoting their rights and equality. The conflicts between China and the US are obstructing effective global and cooperative crisis management, and populists are increasingly questioning or even deliberately weakening international organisations. The EU should be filling part of the large gap in international crisis management and thus demonstrate proofread international solidarity. To do so, it must make additional funds available in the areas of global health, development and humanitarian aid, support international organisations and bolster human rights. This in turn will enable multilateralism to be strengthened, especially in these times of crisis, and prevent others from exploiting the absence of effective global crisis management for their own power interests.

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The EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is where the Member States Preliminary version decide on the common budget for the next seven years and to what degree the EU will be able to do justice to its responsibilities and ambitions. With its Presidency of the Council from 1 July to December 2020, the Federal Government has a special responsibility for ensuring a new beginning in the EU and successful conclusion of the negotiations. The next MFF needs to be a budget for the future of the EU which delivers answers to the most urgent challenges of the coming years. Coping with the corona crisis and its impacts requires huge efforts and constitutes a dramatic break with the past for the EU. But even before the outbreak of the pandemic, the EU faced tremendous challenges. What is more, the pandemic has hit our continent particularly hard. No Member State is to blame for this. That is why in addition to the MFF, a temporary recovery plan is needed which is funded on the basis of solidarity and distributed fairly. This will then make it possible to support the people in the countries bearing the brunt of the corona crisis in coping with the huge health, social and economic impacts of this pandemic. The recovery plan needs to be large enough to have real macroeconomic impact commensurate with the seriousness of the problems. The egotistical tug of war over contributions

to the EU budget and the ideological obstructionism on the part of some Member -

States, including by the Federal Government in dealing with the corona crisis have

to be meant that a great deal of time and trust in the EU has already been lost. With the Franco-German proposal for a recovery plan, the Federal Government has finally put an end to its obstructionist stance of recent years, which has repeatedly dashed pioneering initiatives such as the proposal for a eurozone budget. There has been a price to pay for this behaviour during the current crisis.

replaced by the Europe was far less well equipped to deal with the crisis triggered by the corona pandemic than it could have been. This meant that important stabilising mechanisms were not available and had to be created ad-hoc in great haste. The fact that the Federal Government - in contrast to the financial crisis - now seems to be breaking with its old ideological dogmas and is finally acting as a driving force again is lending momentum to the EU. The recovery fund is an important step towards common solidarity and an effective fiscal response in dealing with the corona crisis and its impacts for the EU Member States. This historic momentum of standing together and closing ranks must now be harnessed and sustained for the future. The recognition of the need for a European fiscal policy must not be a one-off phenomenon in the face of the crisis - it must mark a new era in European policy, for a European economic and fiscal policy worthy of the name. Germany and France have called for a €500 billion recovery programme to be

funded by one-off, common European bonds. This is too little in light of the scale proofread of this crisis, though. The is proposing a new recovery instrument ("Next Generation EU") amounting to €750 billion, €500 billion of which the European Commission sees going to the Member States as EU funding and €250 going to the Member States as loans between 2021 and 2024. Disbursing the majority of the recovery funds through existing and tried and tested programmes of the EU budget bolsters the priorities of European policy. In the upcoming negotiations on the MFF, the European Commission and the Federal Government must prevent an even greater reliance on loans. A shift of this nature would hugely obstruct the recovery of the economy - particularly in Member

States with high levels of debt - version

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ultimately damaging the developed common European economy and the single Preliminary version market as a whole. For the EU’s recovery plan to be strong enough to have real economic impact and to reflect the historic nature of this crisis, investments of up to €2 trillion will be needed, as the has called for. In the long term, effective instruments will be needed to better protect the people and the economy of Europe from future crises and shocks and to boost cohesion and solidarity. This must be one of the pivotal lessons from the corona crisis and the last financial crisis. The EU therefore needs an additional stabilisation instrument on an effective macroeconomic scale post-2025, too, so that difficult crises like the corona pandemic do not catch us unprepared. The transition towards a sustainable economy that has been initiated and which invests in European public goods such as climate protection, the expansion of renewable energies, a European infrastructure for communication, energy, mobility and social security, must be secured and continued in the long term. It would be irresponsible if the Federal Government were to let this necessary reform step towards a deepened economic and monetary union come to nothing out of short-sighted tight- fistedness. What is needed now is swift agreement on the MFF and the recovery plan in order to provide the necessary fiscal stimulus for all EU Member States, to stop their -

debt levels increasing further and to ease the strain on the ECB’s monetary policy. to be It is imperative that the recovery plan and the MFF be calibrated to the climate protection goals and systematically implement the Green Deal. The Federal Government must finally stop scuppering more ambitious EU climate targets and in the upcoming negotiations clearly advocate higher climate targets in the MFF, in the recovery plan and their funding. In addition to climate protection, the recovery plan must also be geared towards investments in the replaced by the future, such as in digitalisation, and that bolster the rule of law and the strategic sovereignty of the EU so that it can act more independently and set its own standards in areas such as health, critical supply chains and digitalisation. The recovery funds must be enshrined in the EU budget and subject to democratic oversight. Unlike the Juncker fund coming to an end this year, the recovery plan must not attempt to use unsound opaque financial tricks and unrealistically large leverage effects. Reliability and transparency are needed as well as an effective mechanism to ensure that EU funds are tied to respect of the rule of law in all Member States. The European Commission also proposes tying the distribution of funds to its Member States to the recommendations of the European Semester. These conditions make sense in principle. It must be ensured, however, that they do indeed promote a more coordinated European economic policy and that existing democratic structures are strengthened. In the future, the Bundestag will have to adopt the national recovery plan for Germany including the associated

proofread recovery measures, and the European Parliament will need to be given a stronger role in the European Semester and in the evaluation of the national recovery plans. Loans awarded to the Member States should be repaid over the very long term in line with economic performance measured in terms of gross national income (GNI), and by using new own resources and reducing tax dumping and by establishing fair taxation of tax havens. Given the enormous challenges such as the climate crisis, and in order to deal with the health, social and economic impacts of the corona crisis over the long-term,

the EU needs

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an ambitious, green budget rooted in solidarity that grows as its tasks and Preliminary version challenges grow and makes the EU more crisis-resilient. At the same time, adequate resources are needed for important tasks, such as social cohesion and digital progress, but also for the MFF’s traditional tasks, such as food, research, citizens’ exchange, trade and the challenges of external relations and development policy. Not just for the very long-term repayment of the one-off common bonds, but also for a strong and effective budget, the EU needs more own funds to shore up its institutions and relieve the strain on national budgets. In addition to the new recovery instrument, the European Commission is proposing endowing the MFF with €1.1 trillion for the years 2021 to 2027. However, a sum of €1.3 trillion would actually be needed to be able to provide medium-term investments for innovation and climate protection after the first years of the recovery plan as well, as the European Parliament has in fact decided. So the Federal Government needs to deliver a significantly higher contribution to the MFF. Especially given the huge challenges and Brexit, it is particularly regrettable and irresponsible that the Member States – including the Federal Government in particular – are continuing to cling to rebates. The current negotiations must not be allowed either to lead to an increase in funds only in the first few years, and then to these being rolled back again later, so that there is no

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longer enough money available to combat the climate crisis, make investments in the future and find a lasting way out of the crisis. The willingness to enshrine to be permanent stabilisation mechanisms in the EU budget and how high its contribution to the MFF is will show how seriously the Federal Government takes its promises to support recovery, climate protection and innovation, and in turn also to bolster European integration.

A budget that funds the social-ecological transition in Europe replaced by the The climate crisis shows in dramatic fashion that the transition towards a sustainable economy in the EU can no longer be postponed. The President of the European Commission has issued the target that the EU should be climate-neutral from 2050 onwards. Achieving this requires charting the necessary economic and social-ecological course and providing the necessary resources though. Economically strong countries such as Germany in particular have a responsibility to provide their fair share of the required funds for investments in green innovation and climate protection. For the future MFF to implement the goals of the Paris Climate Convention and the global sustainable development goals (SDGs) in a binding manner, all the programmes in the budget need to be vetted for their compatibility with the Paris climate targets and the SDGs. At the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Federal Chancellor clearly spoke out in favour of higher EU climate targets for 2030 and the Green Deal. It is all the more incomprehensible that in Brussels the Federal Government is continuing to

proofread scupper the minus 55 per cent target on the EU level. The transition to a new green era in the EU will only succeed if agriculture is overhauled and made green. But the current system of the common agricultural policy (CAP), which is the largest single item in the EU budget, does not support this aim. The existing CAP system has failed. The way agricultural funding has been distributed to date is unacceptable and needs to be fundamentally overhauled. Public funds must not be allowed to go to agricultural sectors that harm the climate, animals and biodiversity. Public money must only be used for public services. The substantive criteria for awarding agricultural funds need to

be overhauled fundamentaly. In addition, steps need to be taken to ensure that version the funds that are to be channelled into agriculture from the recovery plan

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Preliminary version are used exclusively for investments that support the Green Deal. The EU’s biodiversity strategy and the “farm-to-table strategy” of the European Commission are ambitious and a step in the right direction. Only if all areas of the EU budget are calibrated to climate protection and the Member States systematically stand by their commitments can the EU become climate-neutral by 2050.

A budget for international solidarity, global crisis management and human rights A strong, humane EU rooted in solidarity must be capable of taking action internally and of engaging in global politics externally. Only together can the EU Member States be a powerful voice in the world for peace, human rights, global justice, civil conflict resolution and disarmament. The corona pandemic means the EU also needs to show solidarity internationally. This entails the EU boosting civil external relations and security policy measures in particular, equipping them with adequate financial resources in its next budget and these funds also being clearly allocated to these areas. The European Commission’s proposal to top up –

funds in the area of humanitarian aid and development cooperation (DC) in particular is a step in the right direction. At the same time, it is clear that the EU to be will also need to improve cooperation on military security matters in the future. Under no circumstances should stronger military cooperation be based on a dangerous armaments rationale and serve an irresponsible arms export policy which would ultimately generate greater insecurity and contribute to escalation.

The Asylum and Migration Fund (AMF) should clearly base the distribution of its replaced by the funds on what services are being provided for reception, accommodation and integration, but also to promote legal immigration channels, and should also directly support local authorities in the scope of these tasks. We reject making funding for civil society organisations contingent on whether they are engaged in activities against repatriations as the current AMIF funding guidelines do (AMIF Call 2019, p. 7). We call for the creation of a new European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) with a staff of European civil servants and appropriate financial resources, accountable to the European Parliament. The European Commission’s priorities for migration and asylum harbour the danger that ultimately funds will be used primarily to stop refugees and to store masses of data without respecting fundamental rights. Solidarity should be shown where people and Member States are in distress, not where refugees are being warded off.

In the area of internal security, European funds must be used to generate greater proofread data protection, transparency and security, wherever better networking and liaising make sense. It is imperative that the data protection principles also enshrined in the EU’s GDPR, such as data processing being strictly tied to a specific purpose and confined to what is necessary, be taken into account. Instead of mass surveillance not based on any specific suspicions, which is incompatible with applicable EU fundamental rights and ties up huge amounts of resources, the focus must be on defending against specific security threats.

II. Given its leadership role in the upcoming Council Presidency, the version. German Bundestag calls on the Federal Government,

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in cooperation with the countries within the EU, to support an EU budget Preliminary version that grows as its tasks grow and 1. in the scope of the negotiations, to advocate and work towards a higher 2021-2027 MFF, endorsing the position of the European Parliament calling for €1.3 trillion to be made available to enable important investments in innovation for the social-ecological transition, common international policy, prosperity, a long-term and sustainable way out of the crisis, cultural exchange, research and the rule of law financially as well; 2. to additionally advocate and work towards a recovery plan (“Next Generation EU”) that is enshrined in the EU budget, and: a. is funded in line with the principle of solidarity and which supports people, organisations and businesses in particularly hard-hit states and sectors in coping with the health, social and economic impacts of the coronavirus; b. makes additional funds of up to €2 trillion available for further investment, as called for by the European Parliament, in order to

duly reflect the scale of the crisis and to have the necessary -

macroeconomic relevance; is replaced by the edited version. c. is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement and the SDGs, systematically implements the Green Deal and fosters social justice. The necessary legal guard rails need to be put in place for investing today in the technologies of tomorrow and the necessary economic stimuluses to boost the economy and to make the economy and society more resilient to crises need to be provided; d. bolsters the EU’s strategic sovereignty in the areas of health, critical supply chains and digitalisation; e. is tied to respecting the rule of law and democracy; f. in which at least half of the funds benefit women and which introduces a gender impact assessment and gender budgeting. A special fund should be established for businesses run by women, and funds should be used to promote the employment of women, their rights and equality; g. is funded through one-off common bonds without increasing national debt burdens; h. focuses on disbursement through EU programmes, with a maximum of one third disbursed as loans. The Federal Government must prevent the ratio from shifting even further towards loans in the negotiations; i. ensures adequate parliamentary involvement in the decision on how funds are allocated; j. enables very long-term repayment based on economic performance measured in terms of GNI and at the same time

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also provides for funding through new own resources and the Preliminary version reduction of tax dumping and through fair taxation; k. should under no circumstances substitute stabilising unemployment reinsurance; l. sets forth an honest and transparent mid-term review of the effectiveness of the recovery plan so as to better tailor it to actual requirements if necessary; 3. to learn the lessons from the corona crisis and the last financial crisis and to better protect the people and the economy of the EU from asymmetric or symmetrical economic shocks in the future by enshrining an additional instrument for stabilisation of an effective macroeconomic scale in the new Multiannual Financial Framework from 2025 onwards; 4. to support the European Parliament’s call and the European Commission’s proposal for additional own resources for the EU, to make headway with the debate on this in the Council in order to swiftly reach agreement on possible own resources and to take measures to effectively combat tax avoidance and fraud in the EU, and in the negotiations to zero

in on areas where the EU can ensure fairer taxation than the Member -

States alone, in particular to be a. harmonised company taxation with fair minimum tax rates and a common basis of assessment; b. EU-wide taxation of companies and digital corporations

operating internationally;

replaced by the c. creating effective minimum CO2 pricing and, in order to create an international level playing field to shore this up, establishing effective border tax adjustment which imposes a compensation payment on imports from regions outside the EU where there is no comparable climate protection regime, without discriminating against developing countries; d. a plastics tax; e. a bona fide financial transaction tax including derivatives etc; f. introducing the departure from the principle of unanimity and the introduction of the majority principle for tax matters; 5. to advocate and work towards increasing the funding for civil protection mechanisms, including an epidemiological early warning system at European level, and the coordination of assistance being improved

proofread without this entailing fewer national precautions; 6. to support the call for full democratic oversight of the MFF by the European Parliament, including of additional funds which are not part of, but dovetail the MFF; 7. to advocate and work towards gender budgeting for the MFF in the negotiations;

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Preliminary version to fund a social-ecological transition in Europe and 8. to advocate and work towards ensuring that the MFF charts a strategic course towards the goal of climate neutrality in 2050, including for subsequent MFFs, and that the MFF and all EU funding facilities are compatible with the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement and the SDGs; 9. to advocate and work towards ensuring that at least 50 per cent of the total budget in the next MFF and in the Next Generation EU Fund is required to be spent on climate protection, that the remainder of the total budget complies with the “do no harm” principle, thus stimulating green investments and innovation in the EU; 10. to advocate and work towards systematic climate mainstreaming being included and reviewed throughout the entire MFF, so that funding projects that harm the climate are removed from the MFF; 11. to support the Just Transition Fund for the transformation of coal and

other CO2-intensive regions and sectors, making at least the proposed –

€44 billion available for it and to be open to further increases. The funds are supposed to support the transformation process towards climate- to be friendly regions and sectors based on renewable energies. Investments should be made exclusively in projects that do not conflict with the climate protection goals of the Paris Agreement and that drive forward

the exit from fossil fuels in all sectors and from nuclear power. This is

why no investments in underground carbon dioxide storage can be replaced by the supported either; a. to use the Just Transition Fund to initiate the necessary socio- structural change for climate protection in regions or sectors where many people are employed in fossil production areas or economic sectors with high greenhouse gas emissions, and, in tandem with social partners and civil society, to work out how the social-ecological transition can happen in these regions; b. to support the transformation of the European Investment Bank into a climate bank; 12. to advocate and work towards the adoption of a climate-friendly and social investment programme within the scope of the European recovery fund on the basis of binding climate protection criteria which invests in sectors of the future such as digitalisation, renewable energies, storage technologies, sustainable mobility, green hydrogen and CO2-neutral steel proofread and buildings, thus creating new, secure jobs in SMEs; 13. to advocate and work towards there being no EU funding for the construction of new nuclear power plants, thus endorsing the position of the EU Parliament; 14. in the negotiations, to advocate and work towards: a. calibrating the MFF to the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in order to bolster the protection of species in

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b. gearing the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund towards the Preliminary version protection and restoration of marine ecosystems; c. equipping the EU agencies for chemicals safety (ECHA), the environment (EEA), occupational health and safety (OSHA) and food safety (EFSA) with better financial resources to enable them to make a more independent contribution to protecting the environment and health of all Europeans; 15. in the scope of the MFF negotiations on the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to advocate and work towards a. an overhaul of agricultural funding and public funds in the form of EU funds only being invested in public work and services, thus ensuring that these serve the European common good. CAP funds should be linked to the aims and objectives of the biodiversity strategy and the “farm-to-table strategy” of the European Commission and specifically serve to foster the protection of biodiversity, water, soil and animals, pesticide-free management, the conservation and care of landscapes and

research, advice and education promoting sustainable –

agriculture;

to be d. environmental work and services, such as the protection of biodiversity, water, soil and animals and pesticide-free management being documentable and verifiable by means of indicators;

e. unconditional area-based subsidies being reduced as far as replaced by the possible and the EU no longer providing funds for unconditional direct subsidies by no later than 2027; f. instead of compensation payments for additional costs incurred, a financial incentive mechanism being introduced to encourage farmers to implement measures to protect the environment; g. the creation of a nature conservation fund of €15 billion annually for nature conservation measures in the area of agriculture in order to ensure, inter alia, systematic implementation of the EU biodiversity strategy; h. a systematic reorientation of European agricultural and food policy in line with development policy goals and the SDGs, to ensure that consumer and production structures in Europe do not destroy natural resources and livelihoods in countries of the Global South by flooding the markets of Africa, Asia and Latin America with agricultural products from the EU at dumping proofread prices; 16. in the field of science, research and innovation, to use the MFF to bolster Europe’s future, by the Federal Government a. advocating and working towards an increase in funding to €120 billion for the next European research programme entitled “Horizon Europe”, as called for by the European Parliament, in order to close the innovation gap in the European Union so as to provide creative and forward-looking solutions for the

version. ecological, social and digital transition;

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b. advocating and working towards more forward-looking and Preliminary version better equipped research for more renewable energies, energy saving and energy and resource efficiency; c. advocating and working towards driving forward research for climate protection and sustainability in other sectors as well, so as to support the development and market launch of climate- neutral technologies, for example in the chemicals, steel, cement and aviation industries; d. advocating and working towards greater promotion of peace research in the “Horizon Europe” European research programme; e. advocating and working towards better nuclear safety and final storage research whilst reaffirming Germany’s exit from nuclear power. And in the context of the MFF negotiations, advocating that the €5.3 billion not be earmarked for the ITER project and instead for social-ecological investments in the future; f. advocating and working towards common European technologies, such as a European Cloud and a European 5G -

consortium, in order to promote Europe’s digital sovereignty and to be IT security; g. advocating and working towards a fund being established in the EU for persecuted scientists, which can be used to fund research

residencies in Europe;

replaced by the 17. to support the European Commission’s proposals on promoting investment during the MFF negotiations. In the context of the European Green Deal Investment Plan, to provide the existing EU funding instruments - especially InvestEU - with additional funds, and, in tandem with the European Investment Bank, to promote sustainable investments by the public sector and private investors, especially in the area of environmental and climate protection; a. in the scope of the EU’s international investment policy in the form of its investment plan and investment funds (EIP/EFSD), to advocate and work towards the requirement that these be aligned with social, environmental and human rights standards and that all financial products be subject to regular environmental, social and human rights risk and impact assessments based on the applicable taxonomy, and that their

impact on the common good and sustainable development and proofread effectiveness be reviewed; 18. in the negotiations on the MFF for the Connecting Europe investment facility, to advocate and work towards strengthening the possibility for direct public investment in cross-border, climate-protecting projects and ensuring that funds can be invested not just through public-private partnerships (PPPs); 19. in the context of the negotiations on the structural and cohesion funds in the MFF:

a. to support the proposal of the European Commission that, in version addition to gross domestic product per capita, additional funding criteria such as youth unemployment, educational level, climate change adaptation needs and

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the integration of migrants be taken into account in order to Preliminary version specifically address the challenges in the different regions; b. to adamantly oppose the cutbacks in the new MFF proposal for the ESF+, compared to the 2018 proposal, and to advocate and work towards a significant increase in the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to mitigate the social impacts of the pandemic in Europe; c. to advocate and work towards ensuring that, as set out in the European Commission’s proposal on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), funding continues to be provided for all regions and that the most disadvantaged regions in the EU also benefit most from the funding; d. to endorse the European Parliament’s position on the ESF+ and advocate and work towards an increase in funding for projects to support migrant workers, third country nationals, the homeless and marginalised groups and to make the eligibility for funding of ESF+ projects contingent on compliance with the EU Charter

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of Fundamental Rights in the future;

to be e. to advocate and work towards the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) not being removed from the common provisions regulation on the European structural and investment funds (ESIF), as a single set of rules for all funding

possibilities in rural areas facilitates access to existing funding and improves the chances of integrated rural development and in replaced by the turn preserves the regional scope for action in the EAFRD;

to use European money to protect European values and 20. to back the principle of making EU funds conditional on the rule of law, so that governments in Member States with systemic failings in relation to the rule of law no longer access EU funds; a. in the negotiations, to advocate and work towards ensuring the possibility is created within the MFF negotiations to make funds conditional and able to be allocated directly to local authorities, regional bodies, businesses and civil society actors who so request, so that money is only withheld from the governments in question and not from the people in the affected countries;

proofread b. to advocate and work towards the decision by the European Commission to cut EU funds only being able to be contested by the Council by a qualified majority (reverse qualified majority); c. in the negotiations, to make the case for EU funds not disbursed due to rule-of-law failings not merely being frozen, but instead being channelled into programmes that bolster the rule of law, democracy, equality and human rights, for instance the Justice, Rights and Values Fund;

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21. in the scope of the Rights and Values Programme, to advocate and work Preliminary version towards ensuring that in the future human rights defenders and democracy activists can also be supported financially without cross border activities and without red tape; 22. to advocate and work towards ensuring that the Fund for Investigative and Independent Journalism (IJ4EU) is sustained with adequate funds; 23. in the context of the negotiations, to advocate and work towards the development of dialogues for citizens and information services for youth and adult education; 24. in the MFF negotiations, to strengthen cohesion and solidarity in Europe through exchange programmes: a. to advocate doubling the funding for the ERASMUS+ programme; b. to involve under-represented groups in the ERASMUS+ programme more, such as participants from vocational education and training, non-academic families and under-represented

regions; -

25. to strengthen the EU Solidarity Corps (ESC) programme for young to be people and make it far better funded, and a. in the scope of the ESC programme, to examine how participation for people from non-EU states can be ensured here

as well;

replaced by the b. to provide all participants with a free Interrail ticket as an incentive to participate; c. to at least double the funding for European cultural exchange through the Creative Europe programme so as to create new opportunities for young people; d. to recognise the importance of culture for European cohesion and to promote the cultural sector, which is particularly hard hit by the impacts of the COVID19 pandemic, by doubling funding for Creative Europe;

to advocate and work towards a budget for peace, humanity, global justice and security, and

26. in the context of the negotiations on the MFF, to advocate and work towards proofread a. the EU showing international solidarity in response to the corona pandemic by providing additional funds for humanitarian aid and in the area of global health and development, supporting international organisations and strengthening human rights worldwide; b. civil measures in the field of external action and security policy being strengthened, these receiving even better funding and the funds being clearly allocated to these areas;

c. real progress being made in security and military cooperation, version but not supporting the Defence Fund in its present form, as

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Preliminary version

it is legally and politically problematic. This holds true for ambiguities in terms of its legal basis, the content and the lack of parliamentary oversight of the fund. Civil funds from the EU budget must not be diverted to military purposes. There is a danger that, ultimately, funds will be used primarily to serve the profit interests of the arms industry rather than to enable a common security policy; d. in the context of the negotiations on the MFF for 2021-2027, to advocate and work towards external action and development policy instruments and the and Peace being retained as permanent financial instruments in their own right, and funds for civil crisis and conflict prevention, neighbourhood, development policy and human rights being retained as funds in their own right or at least ringfenced in a possible major external relations instrument (NDICI) and significantly increased;

e. ensuring that funds from other civil budget lines such as the –

Instrument for Peace and Stability and development cooperation are not diverted to the Defence Fund; to be f. keeping all spending on military support and missions separate from development cooperation and stability and peace spending in the future, and military capacity building (CBSD) being transferred from a possible NDICI to a European Peace Facility

replaced by the (EPF) and ensuring parliamentary oversight of the EPF; g. ensuring the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) can be maintained as an instrument and is increased; h. making funds like the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), the External Investment Plan (EIP) and the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD), which are outside the European budget, subject to parliamentary oversight and ensuring that their effectiveness is regularly and independently reviewed, that they are modified and, where appropriate, even discontinued; 27. in the MFF negotiations, to speak out in favour of funds from the EU budget not being used to stop refugees and the use of EU funds always

being contingent on compliance with fundamental and human rights proofread standards and, in this context, in particular; a. ending cooperation with authoritarian states in the fields of so- called security partnerships, border management and so-called migration control, and projects that are used to stop refugees (https://enoughproject.org/files/BorderControl_April2017_Eno ugh_Finals.pdf) without, however, stopping projects for refugees and their rights in such difficult circumstances, advocating and working towards military capacity-building projects not being mixed with EU development funding and instead, access to a fair asylum procedure for those seeking version. protection being guaranteed

German Bundestag - 19th electoral term 15 – Printed paper 19/20564

and ensuring legal routes to Europe for refugees and migrants; Preliminary version b. establishing a civil maritime rescue system organised and funded at the European level and, in this context, ending questionable forms of cooperation, for instance with the Libyan coast guard; 28. to advocate and work towards better funding in the areas of refugees and migration and, in the negotiations, to advocate and work towards a. allocation of funding from the Asylum and Migration Fund (AMF) being based on the services provided for reception, accommodation and integration, and AMF funds being spent primarily on the reception of refugees, integration and the promotion of legal immigration channels, and support for voluntary return in all EU Member States always having to be preceded by unbiased and independent return advice and counselling; b. a European Integration Fund being created which directly supports European regions and local authorities in the housing, social integration, medical care and education of refugees and

enables them to take in refugees under their own responsibility; -

c. the funds for relocation and resettlement being increased; to be 29. to strengthen fundamental rights and freedoms in the area of internal security in the MFF by a. making it clear during the negotiations that increased funding for

Europol and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) replaced by the are important steps towards strengthened cooperation in the field of internal security and that only adequate funding for the EPPO can ensure it can start its work as planned, but that further development of Europol, Eurojust and EPPO can only happen if applicable levels of protection are ensured in the areas of the rule of law, protection of victims, fundamental rights, the rights of accused persons and the defence; b. the Federal Government committing to increasing funds for de- radicalisation and exit programmes; c. the proposal for an ERASMUS programme for the police being part of the negotiations; d. approval of the European Commission’s funding proposal being made conditional on high standards of fundamental rights for

modernising and establishing border systems and exchanging proofread information, and by not agreeing to the data of all persons entering and leaving the EU being stored without any specific grounds, as well as the linking of several databases established for different purposes and the legally problematic transfer of data to third countries, and instead advocating and working towards the MFF being used to invest in existing databases, such as the Schengen or Europol information systems.

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Printed paper 19/20564 16 – German Bundestag - 19th electoral term

Preliminary version

Berlin, 30 June 2020

Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Dr and the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group

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to be

replaced by the

proofread

version.