Competition policy – annual report 2024

Amendments tabled for the plenary sitting on this text, in their own numbering series. This is a different set from the committee amendments tracked elsewhere on AmendEU, and is not counted in any of the site’s amendment totals.

1. Amendment 1Motion for a resolution · Paragraph 8 a (new)
   Amendment

   8a. Expresses its profound disapproval at the decision by the ArcelorMittal Group to cut up to 1 400 jobs in western Europe, almost half of them in France; deplores the plan to relocate some of these jobs to India and Poland; stresses that the group nevertheless made a profit of EUR 1.3 billion and paid out more than EUR 1.5 billion to its shareholders in 2024; recalls that over recent years ArcelorMittal has received several billion euros in public support from the European Union and from Member States, including France; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take measures to ensure that companies benefiting from public support cannot, as ArcelorMittal is doing, close industrial s…

   Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
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2. Amendment 2ESNMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 4 a (new)
   Amendment

   4a. Considers that fair and equitable competition within the common market begins with ensuring that imported goods and products, particularly agricultural ones, comply with the norms and standards imposed on goods produced in Europe;

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3. Amendment 3PfEMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 2 a (new)
   Amendment

   2a. Stresses that, in defining relevant markets and assessing a competitive playing field, the EU should take the global market, and not solely the European market, as its frame of reference; calls also for EU competition policy to move beyond an exclusive focus on low prices for consumers by integrating production-side realities, so as to support a stronger, innovation-driven and sustainable industrial base;

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4. Amendment 4PfEMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 8
   Current text

   8. Points out that State aid is increasingly used to support industrial policy objectives; recalls that such aid, as permitted under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU, must not adversely affect trading conditions or the common interest; notes the divergent fiscal capabilities of the Member States and warns that fragmented State aid creates an uneven playing field; calls on the Commission to monitor these effects and to ensure the integrity of the single market, which can be done through a common financing instrument for a European industrial policy, such as a European Competitiveness Fund, as proposed by Commission President von der Leyen in her political guidelines; calls on the Commission and the Mem…

   Amendment

   8. Points out that State aid is increasingly used to support industrial policy objectives; recalls that such aid, as permitted under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU, must not adversely affect trading conditions or the common interest; notes the divergent fiscal capabilities of the Member States and warns that fragmented State aid creates an uneven playing field; emphasises that a potential future European Competitiveness Fund should respect the sovereignty of Member States and cannot transfer competences to EU institutions, and should at the same time refrain from politically or ideologically driven conditionality; underlines that industrial policy and fiscal policy should remain a national competenc…

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5. Amendment 5PfEMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 15 a (new)
   Amendment

   15a. Calls for the urgent protection of European SMEs against the dominance of non-EU digital giants; stresses the need to take measures that preserve digital sovereignty, prevent market killer acquisitions and ensure a level playing field for European innovation actors; insists on the necessity of preserving the proper distribution of competences between national authorities and the Commission, and denounces the expansive interpretation of the treaties and regulations;

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6. Amendment 6The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 3 a (new)
   Amendment

   3a. Stresses that public ownership and public control of companies with strategic significance to the transition to a socially just and climate-neutral economy are vital to effectively guide, support and accelerate this transition and develop more democratic forms of production; calls on the Commission and the Member States to create an EU framework to facilitate public ownership and public control in such strategic economic sectors;

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7. Amendment 7The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 3 b (new)
   Amendment

   3b. Stresses that competition policy should not hinder the implementation of an active industrial strategy; calls for the EU and the Member States to pursue an active industrial policy underpinned by strong public investment to fight social and regional inequality, decarbonise industry and bolster autonomy in key economic sectors, while contributing globally to even and sustainable economic development;

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8. Amendment 8The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 3 c (new)
   Amendment

   3c. Stresses that industrial policy cannot be confined to the scope of competition policy, which has so far been the EU’s primary focus; underlines that this narrow approach is no longer sufficient in the light of today’s global challenges and the urgent need to reduce the technology gap with the United States and China; calls for a renewed EU industrial policy centred on the identification of strategic sectors and technologies and aimed at achieving clearly defined environmental, economic and social objectives of public interest; notes that competition rules alone are inadequate to address the deep crisis affecting key sectors such as the automotive sector, which is leading to significant j…

   Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
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9. Amendment 9The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 5
   Current text

   5. Underlines the need for coordinated, targeted and truly European industrial policy to boost competitiveness; notes that this must not result in market dominance or abuse thereof, price distortion or economic inefficiencies, and points to the need for effective merger control procedures;

   Amendment

   5. Underlines the need for coordinated, targeted and truly European industrial policy to boost industrial upgrading, to reduce the technology gap with China and the US, to preserve employment levels and to foster the green transition; notes that this must not result in market dominance or abuse thereof, price distortion or economic inefficiencies, and points to the need for effective merger control procedures;

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10. Amendment 10The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 11 a (new)
    Amendment

    11a. Stresses that State aid should not amount to a transfer of public wealth to the private sector; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that strict social and environmental conditions are imposed on companies receiving State aid, including prohibitions on closures, production cutbacks, relocations and the distribution of dividends to shareholders and bonuses to upper management, and the obligation to create high-quality, highly paid, unionised jobs with extensive labour participation rights and credible plans for the ecological transformation;

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11. Amendment 11The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 14
    Current text

    14. Recalls that under the Treaty, the Commission is empowered to address exploitative abuses;

    Amendment

    14. Recalls that under the Treaty, the Commission is empowered to address exploitative abuses; highlights that corporate profits have been significant contemporary drivers of inflation; stresses that profit-driven inflation, or greedflation, should be met with appropriate interventions, such as windfall taxes, price controls or antitrust proceedings, in order to mitigate its socially harmful impact on the cost of living; calls on the Member States and the Commission to immediately introduce permanent windfall profit taxes to combat profit-driven inflation in all sectors and to redistribute windfall profits to low-income households;

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12. Amendment 12The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 18 a (new)
    Amendment

    18a. Deplores the significant number of cases in which large companies that have received substantial amounts of State aid are simultaneously announcing large-scale redundancies while distributing dividends to their shareholders; is deeply concerned that, in Germany, the 40 corporations listed on the DAX received public money of about EUR 35 billion between 2016 and 2023, while simultaneously earning billions in private profits; deplores the fact that Volkswagen is planning to cut more than 35 000 jobs, even though it received public support of over EUR 6 billion between 2016 and 2023 and distributed about EUR 22 billion to shareholders between 2021 and 2023; calls on the Member States to pr…

    Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
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13. Amendment 13The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 38
    Current text

    38. Notes the high-net profits of EU banks during this inflationary period, mostly driven by the delayed pass-through of the rapid monetary policy tightening to deposit rates;

    Amendment

    38. Notes the high-net profits of EU banks during this inflationary period, mostly driven by the delayed pass-through of the rapid monetary policy tightening to deposit rates; expresses concern about the ultra-privileged rate on the excess liquidity of banks deposited into the European Central Bank (ECB), which allows profits to accumulate; highlights that the distribution of these windfall profits to banks has been unequal across Member States; calls on the Commission to propose measures to ensure that ECB policies do not disproportionately benefit certain banks or increase inequalities between euro area countries; proposes the consideration of policy tools to mitigate such distortions in b…

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14. Amendment 14The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 39 a (new)
    Amendment

    39a. Regrets the Commission’s in-depth investigations into State aid rules in the cases of the public rail freight operators Fret SNCF and DB Cargo; regrets that the investigations put pressure on the operators to implement restructuration plans, which imply reducing activities and costs in order to comply with market logic, whereas freight transport should be a public service; laments that the restructuring has led to the loss of hundreds of jobs in Germany and France; calls on the Commission to consult the trade unions and to guarantee workers’ rights in such cases; reminds the Commission of the objectives set by the Sustainable and Intelligent Mobility Strategy under the European Green De…

    Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
    official amendment document ↗