Speeches

Madam President, in every crisis there are voices calling for attempts to resolve crisis situations with isolationism and protectionism. The same proposals appear in the public debate also now in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. For example, this report on the EU pharmaceutical strategy proposes the relocation of the production of medicines to Europe, as well as the promotion of medicines made in Europe. I think that, as in previous crises, protectionism has turned out not to be the solution, so it will turn out now. Moving the entire supply chain to Europe would make production significantly more expensive and reduce specialisations also in scientific progress. In my view, the real solution is, on the contrary, to deepen openness, cooperation and competition, to break down barriers and to diversify supply chains. Instead of isolationism, marketing is sometimes called self-sufficiency.

Mr President. In the European Union, states finance primary and, in part, secondary education with public money. It is often the case that graduates move from poorer to richer countries, which in turn send them billions of euros through complicated EU funds. For example, 17 percent of students leave Slovakia to go to foreign universities. In 2010, it was 14 percent, so the problem is getting bigger. I think it would be better for richer states to fund teachers in poorer states directly, instead of projects that are linked to enormous bureaucracy, sometimes inefficiency, according to the European Court of Auditors, even corruption.

Mr President, I would like to thank and congratulate the rapporteur, Mrs Charanzova, for the quality of the work she has done. This is also the result, which I strongly support. The new rules on compulsory contractual insurance will bring a number of changes, but also an important role for Member States. When a citizen living, for example, in Slovakia or another Member State bought a vehicle, for example, in Germany, he had to insure it for transport there. It will be enough to insure him in Slovakia. If you drive without an accident and come to a Member State where those who drive without an accident have cheaper insurance, you will also have the right to get it, for example, as a Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Pole. It will also change which vehicles have to have insurance. Electric bikes and garden tractors will no longer need insurance. Fast electric scooter with speed over 25 kilometers per hour already new yes. However, Member States were also given the possibility of derogations. For example, not requiring insurance for vehicles that only drive on private land, as the risk of causing damage to someone in this way may be low. It will be up to the Member States to consider how to set the exceptions so that we are only composing the damage worth composing in the Guarantee Fund.

. – Madam President, I consider the main problem of the European budget to be its focus on outputs rather than results. The European Court of Auditors has raised a warning finger over, for example, the common agricultural policy, for which it recommends the development of reliable indicators assessing its impact. The flagship InvestEU Investment Fund evaluates some of its achievements according to the number of enterprises supported. However, the efficiency of the use of public resources is not to be measured by how much common money has been distributed, but by what added value it has brought to citizens. In this context, I consider it a mistake to conduct an investigation at the European Anti-Fraud Office. The increase in the European budget must go hand in hand with the staffing of its control bodies.

Since the financial crisis, the institutions of the Banking Union have undergone reforms improving its stability and resilience. However, under the current conditions, the proposal to establish a common guarantee for bank deposits would still, in my view, constitute a moral hazard by passing on potential costs from one group of euro area members to another. To date, we have not exhausted the possibilities to improve the health of the banking sector without further guarantee schemes. Domestic challenges in the form of structural reforms and a reduction in the level of non-performing loans have still not been fulfilled by a number of euro area members. The shared risk must be preceded by clear conditions for reforms and their implementation in a way that avoids fiscal blackmail. Otherwise, the common guarantees will be an unfair zero-sum game, where not everyone wins, but one at the expense of the other.

Mr President, combating tax fraud and tax evasion is an interest shared by all Member States. However, I find it wrong to confuse this interest with the harmonisation of direct taxes, which is the interest of only one group of Member States, which would take away the competitive advantage of the other group of Member States and limit tax competition. The United States Congress has more powers in the field of taxation than the European Union. However, the United States is not moving towards deeper harmonisation, as it does not seem to consider it more effective. Let's take this into account. The present report focuses on policy support for tax harmonisation instead of a more efficient exchange of best practices and a comparison of the efficiency of tax systems. I would emphasise: rather than sharing best practices more efficiently and comparing the efficiency of tax systems. I therefore consider the present report to be an missed opportunity.

Mr President, I understand the concern that we would give algorithms control over decisions that can seriously affect human life. For example, because algorithms can make mistakes. However, I do not agree that, solely on the basis of such concerns, we should ban across the board the use of artificial intelligence wherever it may have a legal impact on the individual, as this report suggests. We should have analyses that honestly compare the functionality and effectiveness of human and algorithmic decision-making and make a better choice. There are already examples of successful use of AI in criminal matters that have led to a more efficient and fair system. For example, the New Jersey Prison Prosecution Reform.

Madam President, I fully support the exchange of tax information and I am against tax evasion. However, we are to some extent again in a situation where the report turned into a political fight over the questions of tax harmonisation in the European Union. I believe national tax sovereignty should be maintained. Tax harmonisation in the Union might result in the limitation of tax competition. I believe healthy tax competition has benefits compared to full tax harmonisation, as it enables Member States to compare and apply best practices of the other Member States. Cuts on inefficient spending can allow governments to buy more for the same money or to use the savings to reduce the tax burden to attract international investment and stimulate economic growth and innovation. We should not limit this option yet.

Madam President, it is such a time that the ECON report on the review of the macroeconomic legislative framework, a report which to a large extent concerns the reform of fiscal rules in the European Union, mentions the word consolidation only once, and only in the subsequent phrase, and I quote: "The European Parliament calls for the early consolidation of public finances to be avoided." End of quote. As if we really believed that rising public debt is a permanent source of wealth growth, and as if we had already stopped saying what was still used to be said before this crisis, that in good times debt needs to be reduced. I agree that consolidation needs to be timed for a period of good times after the pandemic, when stable economic growth will be restored. But the preparation of consolidation plans in the Member States should come today so that we are ready to start consolidation as soon as the general escape clause is deactivated. Governments should already today identify concrete consolidation measures that will increase the sustainability of public finances in the long term. The basis of such a list should be the identification of inefficient spending, otherwise the lesson from this crisis will only be that higher public debt today means higher taxes tomorrow. As the ECON report does not call on Member States to prepare consolidation, I cannot support it.

Mr President, according to the Commission's plan, the European Investment Bank is also to contribute an additional 350 billion new investments to climate objectives every year by 2030. However, it is not enough to label investments as green for recovery. Recovery requires investment to be productive, deliver long-term economic growth and meet climate objectives efficiently. All EIB investment objectives must be subject to an independent evaluation of their value for money. Without value for money, the Union's 2030 targets may end, like the already forgotten ambition of becoming the world's most competitive economy by 2010, with unnecessarily limited economic growth and unnecessarily expensive climate targets.