On November 9, 2016, the second hearing was held at the European Parliament on the petition New Deal 4 Europe: “A European special plan for sustainable development and employment”, promoted by the European federalists, which has gathered the support of 126 Mayors (e.g. those of Paris, Lyon, Turin, Rome), 87 civil society Organizations (e.g. EMI, ACLI-FAI-ARCI, Gruppo Abele, CIME, CESI, CSF, ANCI, AICCRE), 13 trade unions (e.g. CES, U4U, CFDT, UGT, CGIL, CISL, UIL), 47 personalities of the world of culture from 10 EU countries. The petition demands that the plan be funded by a financial transaction tax and a carbon tax, as a compensation for the damages caused by financial speculation and pollution, and by a European loan in euro project bonds. The new resources shall be earmarked to promote the creation of new jobs, especially for young people, in strategic sectors of the green economy, research-innovation-training, education and health protection, and the defense of Europe's natural, historical and cultural heritage.
In this second hearing, the first petitioner Lucio Levi (former President of the Italian pro-European Federalist Movement and editor of the review The Federalist Debate) restated the objectives of the petition and the urgency that the European institutions take immediate action to provide European citizens with public goods such as jobs, sustainable development and security, and indicated in enhanced cooperations (the initiatives that a group of EU states can take in various sectors, such as a Financial Transaction Tax, a Carbon Tax, a single common defense, etc.) the tool that can be adopted with no changes to the Treaties, therefore without waiting very long for them to be reformed.
The Budget, Economic and monetary, and Employment, labour and social affairs Committees, which the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament had solicited after the first hearing to rule on the merits of the petition, expressed their appreciation for the initiative and undertook to thoroughly consider its proposals. The Chairman of the Committee on Petitions, Cecilia Wirkström, read the document sent by the Economic and monetary Committee headed by Roberto Gualtieri, who, considering the relevance of the petition's content, urged to follow the petition through and send it to the working group on the reform of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) of the European Commission. Numerous interventions of MEPs (Soledad Cabezon, Peter Jahr, Jonás Fernándes, Enrique Calvet, Elly Schlein, Fernando López Aguilar, Brando Benifei, Andrea Cozzolino) followed, expressing their support to the petition and their commitment to further its advancement. The Committee President Cecilia Wirkström expressed her personal appreciation for the long and difficult work carried out by the petitioners, and said: "it is not usual that a petition addresses issues that are central to the work of European institutions and has an influence on their decisions". She concluded by encouraging the promoters of the New Deal for Europe petition to persevere in their action. (g.b.)
The petition can be signed by organizations and individuals at the link www.newdeal4europe.eu
The link to the video of the hearing is http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20161109-1500-COMMITTEE-PETI
The link to the YouTube video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOSIWXSCE3U