Should the EU Limit the Juncker Plan Interventions Aiming at Promoting Growth? the Vote of the Meps
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Should the EU limit the Juncker Plan interventions aiming at promoting growth? The vote of the MEPs The European Fund for Strategic Investments as part of the Investment Plan for Europe (so-called Juncker Plan), one of the main flagships project of the current Commission. The goal of EFSI is to unlock up to 315bn of additional (mostly private) investment in the EU economy over a three years period. EFSI builds on a EUR 16 billion guarantee from the EU budget, which was partly provisioned with funds coming from other EU programmes, particularly Horizon2020 (the EU programme financing research and innovation) and the Connecting Europe Facility (the EU programme financing trans-european infrastructures). Despite the innovative nature of the instrument, some MEPs criticized it, raising concerns about the additionally and quality of projects financed by EFSI as well as on the overall pertinence of the instrument to guarantee growth and development. However, most MEPs defended the instrument and a critical amendment tabled by EFDD was rejected by more than 70% of MEPs. Centrist groups ALDE, S&D, the EPP and ECR strongly defended Juncker Commission’s initiative, whereas, EFDD and ENF both voted against the European Fund for Strategic Investments. Interestingly, the majority of MEPs from Greens/EFA and a substantial amount of representatives from GUE-NGL decided to abstain. The MEPs from the Czech Republic widely DISTRIBUTION OF CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES IN rejected the criticism against the fund THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN 2016 established by the Commission. The only European Conservatives parties supporting the amendment were the and European Civic Democratic Party and the Party of Free Reformists : United Left- Citizens. Instead, all the other parties ODS Nordic Green Left: defended EFSI, with the exception of the KSČM Communist Party, which was split: Jaromír Kohlíček supported the critical amendment, European People's Party: whereas Kateřina Konečná abstained. TOP09, STAN, KDU–ČSL Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats: ČSSD Should the EU limit the Juncker Plan interventions aiming at promoting growth? The vote of MEPs elected in Czech Republic* For Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ Jan ZAHRADIL Petr MACH Jaromír KOHLÍČEK Civic Democratic Party Civic Democratic Party Party of Free Citizens Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia ECR ECR EFDD GUE/NGL Against Dita CHARANZOVÁ Martina DLABAJOVÁ Petr JEŽEK Pavel TELIČKA Luděk NIEDERMAYER Stanislav POLČÁK ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 Top 09 and Mayors Mayors and Independents ALDE ALDE ALDE ALDE EPP EPP Jiří POSPÍŠIL Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ Jaromír ŠTĚTINA Pavel SVOBODA Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ Pavel POC Christian and Democratic Union – Christian and Democratic Union – Christian and Democratic Union – Top 09 and Mayors Czechoslovak People's Party Top 09 and Mayors Czechoslovak People's Party Czechoslovak People's Party Czech Social Democratic Party EPP EPP EPP EPP EPP S&D Miroslav POCHE Olga SEHNALOVÁ Czech Social Democratic Party Czech Social Democratic Party S&D S&D Kateřina KONEČNÁ Abstain Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia GUE/NGL Jiří MAŠTÁLKA Jan KELLER Absent Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Czech Social Democratic Party GUE/NGL S&D *Source : Jacques Delors Institute / Data : www.vottcwatch.ee u Should Employers to ban specific kinds of symbols that are claimed to be of a religious nature? The vote of the MEPs Two months after the Nice attacks, the MEPs voted on an amendment defending the rights of the employers to ban religious symbols on the workplace whenever these symbols violate the rights of women or can lead to security problems. This vote is quite important given the French context: France had already banned women to wear headscarves in public schools, as well as the burka and the niqab (the veils that cover women’s faces). In the case of the European Parliament, the vote on this amendment was pretty tight. The amendment was rejected by a slim margin of 5%. The amendment was supported by EPP and ENF, whereas ALDE, S&D, the Greens and GUE-NGL opposed the ban. Interestingly, ECR and EFDD were split, although a majority of their MEPs voted against the proposal. Despite the rejection of the amendments by the plenary, Czech MEPs were mostly in favor of the ban with 13 votes in favor of it. This also means that Czech MEPs did not follow their groups’ colleagues in their opposition to the ban. In fact, the members of Civic Democratic Party, TOP 09, Democratic Union– Czechoslovak People's Party voted differently from their European political groups and supported the right of the employers to limit the wearing of religious symbols. In a similar way the EFDD member from the Free Citizens Party, Petr Mach voted in favor. Even more striking, none of the DISTRIBUTION OF CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN 2016 members of the Czech Social Democratic European Party followed their political group in Conservatives voting against the right to ban: Pavel Poc European and from the Czech Social Democratic Party Reformists : United Left- ODS Nordic voted in favor of the ban, whereas Jan Green Left: KSČM Keller and Olga Sehnalová abstained. The only Czech opposing the ban were European People's Party: the members of the Communist Party of TOP09, STAN, Bohemia and Moravia. KDU–ČSL Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats: ČSSD Should Employers to ban specific kinds of symbols that are claimed to be of a religious nature? The vote of MEPs elected in Czech Republic* For Dita CHARANZOVÁ Martina DLABAJOVÁ Petr JEŽEK Pavel TELIČKA Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ Jan ZAHRADIL ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 Civic Democratic Party Civic Democratic Party ALDE ALDE ALDE ALDE ECR ECR Petr MACH Luděk NIEDERMAYER Stanislav POLČÁK Jiří POSPÍŠIL Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ Pavel SVOBODA Christian and Democratic Union – Christian and Democratic Union – Party of Free Citizens Top 09 and Mayors Mayors and Independents Top 09 and Mayors Czechoslovak People's Party Czechoslovak People's Party EFDD EPP EPP EPP EPP EPP Pavel POC Czech Social Democratic Party S&D Against Jaromír KOHLÍČEK Kateřina KONEČNÁ Jiří MAŠTÁLKA Communist Party of Bohemia and Communist Party of Bohemia and Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Moravia Moravia GUE/NGL GUE/NGL GUE/NGL Abstain Jaromír ŠTĚTINA Jan KELLER Olga SEHNALOVÁ Top 09 and Mayors Czech Social Democratic Party Czech Social Democratic Party EPP S&D S&D Absent Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ Miroslav POCHE Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party Czech Social Democratic Party *Source : Jacques Delors Institute / Data : www.votewatch.eu Should the Parliament censor the European Commission? The vote of the MEPs Shortly after receiving the approbation from the Members of the European Parliament, the new President of the Commission was involved in a litigation regarding his responsibilities in defining tax policies in Luxembourg, where he was Prime Minister, for multinational businesses tax-breaks-related issues. The censure motion to the Commission executive was tabled by Eurosceptic MEPs from EFDD and ENF, was largely rejected by more than 70% of the Members. However, more than 189 Members did not vote against the motion, therefore questioning the Juncker’s leadership over the European Commission. EPP, S&D, ALDE and the Greens sided with the Juncker-led Commission, whereas most of the members of ECR and GUE- NGL decided to abstain. Also in the Czech case, the motion of censure on Juncker’s Commission did not draw much support. All the members of centrist parties (ANO 2011, Czech Social Democrat Party, TOP 09 and Christian Democratic Union– Czechoslovak People's Party) defended the Commission by the attacks of the fringe parties. However, there was a notable exception, as Stanislav Polčák (Mayors and Independents) abstained from voting. On the other, all the Czech Communists, DISTRIBUTION OF CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES IN Conservatives and Eurosceptics THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN 2016 supported the motion against Juncker. European Conservatives and European Reformists : United Left- ODS Nordic Green Left: KSČM European People's Party: TOP09, STAN, KDU–ČSL Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats: ČSSD Should the Parliament censor the European Commission? The vote of MEPs elected in Czech Republic* For Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ Jan ZAHRADIL Petr MACH Kateřina KONEČNÁ Jiří MAŠTÁLKA Communist Party of Bohemia and Communist Party of Bohemia and Civic Democratic Party Civic Democratic Party Party of Free Citizens Moravia Moravia ECR ECR EFDD GUE/NGL GUE/NGL Against Dita CHARANZOVÁ Martina DLABAJOVÁ Petr JEŽEK Pavel TELIČKA Luděk NIEDERMAYER Jiří POSPÍŠIL ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 ANO 2011 Top 09 and Mayors Top 09 and Mayors ALDE ALDE ALDE ALDE EPP EPP Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ Jaromír ŠTĚTINA Pavel SVOBODA Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ Jan KELLER Pavel POC Christian and Democratic Union – Christian and Democratic Union – Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party Top 09 and Mayors Czechoslovak People's Party Czechoslovak People's Party Czech Social Democratic Party Czech Social Democratic Party EPP EPP EPP EPP S&D S&D Miroslav POCHE Olga SEHNALOVÁ Czech Social Democratic Party Czech Social Democratic Party S&D S&D Stanislav POLČÁK Abstain Mayors and Independents EPP Miloslav RANSDORF Documented absence Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia GUE/NGL *Source : Jacques- Delors Institute / Data : www.votewatch.eu Should the EU pursue closer relations with Iran? The vote of the MEPs On the 25th October 2016, the EP passed a resolution advocating for closer relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, with a particular focus on the economic relations between the EU and the Middle Eastern country. Ultimately, the resolution was approved by a heterogeneous majority of MEPs, made up of GUE-NGL, Greens/EFA, S&D, EPP and EFDD. On the other hand, the Liberals from ALDE and ECR voted against, whereas most members of ENF abstained. Quite remarkably, overall, Czech MEPs hold opposite views on EU’s relations with Iran than most of their colleagues.