German Bundestag Printed paper 19/20564 19th electoral term 30 June 2020 version Preliminary Motion tabled by the Members of the Bundestag Agnieszka Brugger, Anja Hajduk, Dr Franziska Brantner, Sven-Christian Kindler, Dr Frithjof Schmidt, Margarete Bause, Kai Gehring, Uwe Kekeritz, Katja Keul, Dr Tobias Lindner, Omid Nouripour, Cem Özdemir, Claudia Roth, Manuel Sarrazin, Jürgen Trittin, Ottmar von Holtz, Luise Amtsberg, Lisa Badum, Danyal Bayaz, Ekin Deligöz, Katja Dörner, Katharina Dröge, Britta Haßelmann, Steffi Lemke, Claudia Müller, Beate Müller-Gemmeke, Erhard Grundl, Dr Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, Maria Klein-Schmeink, Christian Kühn, Stephan Kühn, Stefan Schmidt, Dr Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn, Markus Tressel, Lisa Paus, Tabea Rößner, Corinna Rüffer, Margit Stumpp, Dr Konstantin von Notz, Dr Julia Verlinden, Beate Walter-Rosenheimer, Gerhard Zickenheiner and the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group be to Europe is worth it – for a green recovery rooted in solidarity and a strong 2021- 2027 EU budget the by replaced The Bundestag is requested to adopt the following resolution: I. The German Bundestag notes: A strong European Union (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. Printed paper 19/20564 2 – German Bundestag - 19th electoral term version Preliminary 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 Germany, whose economic success also rests on the success of the European Single Market. – 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 the by replaced 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. version. German Bundestag - 19th electoral term 3 – Printed paper 19/20564 The EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is where the Member States version Preliminary 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 by the replaced 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 European Commission 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.