Debate&nbsp;on the Country Specific Recommendations in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility and Pierre MOSCOVICI, Member of the EC in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs EP Joint Committees on Employment and on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Danuta Maria H&Uuml;BNER (EPP, PL), Sergio GUTI&Eacute;RREZ PRIETO (S&amp;D, ES) and Alfred SANT (S&amp;D, MT)

Brussels

exchange of views

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

HÜBNER, Danuta Maria (EPP, PL)

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

economic governance (T)

MOSCOVICI, Pierre (PSE, FR, EC)

SANT, Alfred (S&D, MT)

joint meeting

DOMBROVSKIS, Valdis (EPP, LV, EC)

THYSSEN, Marianne (EPP, BE, EC)

GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO, Sergio (S&D, ES)

Exchange of views on the Country Specific Recommendations: extracts from the debate with Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Marianne THYSSEN and Pierre MOSCOVICI

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/14760339/I105131Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

External shot (1) of the EP building in Brussels.

SOUNDBITE (English), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, "Overall, the streamlining effort has led to a substantial reduction of the number of recommendations by nearly one third. This being said the absence of a country specific recommendation in a given area is not an invitation to stop the reform process."

SOUNDBITE (English), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility , "An impressive set of challenges remains ahead of us, as we still have, as you know, 23 and a half million fellow European citizens without a job and 4.6 - 4.7 sorry - million of them are young people."

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre MOSCOVICI, Member of the EC in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, "Half of the Member States, are called upon to reform their pension systems, with different specifics based on their differences. In the fiscal area all the Member States but 9 have been subject to recommendations: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Malta, The Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia. The remaining 17 are called upon to implement specific measures like lowering the taxation on labour and enlarge their tax base".

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre MOSCOVICI, Member of the EC in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, "It's important that Member States make use of the current period of low interest rates and this favourable wind to pursue their policies of deficit and debt reduction."

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre MOSCOVICI, Member of the EC in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, <p>"France, I will say it in French, has delivered on 10 June a report concerning the measures takes to adjust to the recommendations of the Council. The European Commission is about to finish its opinion, we will publish it soon, but Valdis and I myself have had the opportunity to say that things are on the right track, even if our concrete validation is still ongoing."</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Danuta Maria H&#220;BNER (EPP, PL), "One, it is really not clear how the Commission wants to motivate Member States to pursue and accelerate further what comes under recommendations. The second issue is related to the Five Presidents' Report also, it's about the de-mobilisation of Member States to proceed with structural reforms which are also fundamental for the European Semester procedure".

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Sergio GUTI&#201;RREZ PRIETO (S&amp;D, ES), "Some weeks ago the International Monetary Fund published a report saying that inequality negatively affects economic growth and that high Gini coefficients are related to lower growth and lesser social cohesion."

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Marianne THYSSEN, Member of the EC in charge of Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, "The study of the IMF saying that inequality is growing and that growing inequality is an obstacle for growth has been confirmed by another study by the OECD."

SOUNDBITE (French), Pierre MOSCOVICI, Member of the EC in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, "We should think of a more efficient taxation, maybe making taxes be paid in the country where income is generated, maybe with durther legislative development on anti-abuse clauses that could be envisaged."

SOUNDBITE (English), Alfred SANT (S&amp;D, MT), "The past and present reliance in so-called structural reforms to bring about so-called flexibility in labour markets has had serious social consequences. Beyond the effects on recession it has cut on living standards, it has injected insecurity in the lives of millions, young and old, it has failed to reduce unemployment significantly, not least, because it has helped to depress demand."