Brussels, 24/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Neither the European Parliament nor the member states are proposing to amend the European Commission legislative proposal on increasing pre-financing rates by 1% (or 1.5%) to 30% in one of the two budgetary envelopes in the youth employment initiative (see EUROPE 11246).
During the first exchange of views on this proposal at the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee on Tuesday 24 March, the rapporteur, Élisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France), asserted that there was an excellent unanimity between the political groups on leaving the Commission proposal as it stood. Morin-Chartier will therefore be able to resort to “an exceptional procedure” and not propose amendments because “Overall, there is no question of posing them” and according to her own words, “a swift implementation is required”. The shadow rapporteurs expressed the same opinion. MEPs, however, are expected to propose two amendments to the clauses in the proposal, in an effort to emphasise the need to speed up the implementation of the youth employment initiative.
The Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU affirmed during this debate that the member states also agreed at a Council workgroup level on not proposing amendments. The national representatives to the EU (Coreper) are expected to endorse this position on Wednesday, 25 March and European ministers responsible for work-related questions are expected to ratify it during their meeting on 21 April. (Jan Kordys)