What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

Efficient EU governance in key policy areas

16. Calls for the European single market to be completed, as enshrined in Articles 26 and 114 TFEU and Article 3(3) TEU, in order to unleash its full potential and to overcome the remaining barriers, including unfair international competition, with a view to countering high energy prices, skills and labour shortages, difficulties in accessing capital, fragmented implementation of EU rules, insufficient support for digital and green transitions and high administrative burdens for citizens and enterprises, and for economic growth, social, economic and territorial cohesion, and cultural exchange to be promoted within the EU; calls for the development of a European integrated capital market, as envisaged by Articles 26 and 63 TFEU, through a newly established SIU, building on the incomplete CMU; calls for a strengthened European Securities and Markets Authority, under the legal basis of Article 114 TFEU, to enhance supervisory convergence and cross-border coordination within the framework of the SIU; notes also that the Letta report recognised the importance of the single market’s economic power to the EU’s global and trade ambitions, including in economic relations with strategic partners;

17. Supports the addition of a ‘fifth freedom’ to the existing four, as suggested by the Letta report, to enhance research, innovation, knowledge and education for researchers, innovators and workers in the single market;

18. Calls on the Commission to ensure that future initiatives to strengthen EU competitiveness and deepen the single market are anchored in measures that enhance economic, social and territorial cohesion as enshrined in the treaties; stresses that institutional mechanisms for equal opportunities, solidarity and the reduction of inequalities must be fully embedded in the EU’s governance system; reiterates its call for the implementation and monitoring of the European Pillar of Social Rights to be strengthened through EU governance structures, thereby embedding social progress as a core element of EU decision-making;

19. Reaffirms that the objectives of the single market should align not only with the right to free movement, but also with the ‘freedom to stay’, as outlined in the Letta report; calls on the Commission, therefore, to assign responsibility for the ‘freedom to stay’ to one of the Commissioners, with a portfolio including cohesion policy and services of general interest, and, with the aim of ensuring that policies on the ‘freedom to stay’ are carefully tailored to a region’s specific characteristics and of honouring the socio-economic and cultural diversity of the regions in the EU, to establish a structured and continuous dialogue between the Commissioner and the regional authorities of the Member States; recognises that fostering infrastructure development, community building, job creation, access to public services and a suitable environment for industries and investments is essential to upholding the right of people to stay in their regions and contributes to the EU’s economic development and competitiveness; stresses the importance of keeping cohesion policy a strong part of the EU budget, ensuring it responds more effectively to the specific needs of regions and cities, including by providing more direct access to EU funds; highlights the need for cohesion policy projects to be deployed more efficiently and visibly on the ground, delivering tangible results that strengthen citizens’ sense of belonging and support for EU integration;

20. Emphasises that the EU should act more effectively in strategic areas, complementing national efforts and supported by a mix of EU own resources and coordinated contributions, and that such action would strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, innovation, economic resilience, social and territorial cohesion, environmental and energy sustainability, and collective security; stresses, in the light of the findings of the Draghi report, the need to maintain an open and forward-looking debate taking into account the lessons learned from the experience of NextGenerationEU; highlights, the importance of creating EU-level investment instruments and tools to finance strategic joint investments in European public goods and services, and the importance of adjusting funding programmes in order to take into account the changing dynamics of trade and innovation; stresses that genuine new EU own resources are key to enabling Parliament and the Council to adopt flexible budgets to empower the EU to act more autonomously and reduce its dependence on national budget contributions; highlights for example that the carbon border adjustment mechanism is a candidate for a new EU own resource which enjoys a high level of support among Member States; recalls Parliament’s position in its proposal on the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework on the need to go beyond the self-imposed rule according to which the size of the EU long-term budget must not exceed 1 % of the aggregated gross national product of the Member States;

21. Stresses that, with a view to maintaining and enhancing the EU’s global competitiveness, the EU budget should be simplified to cut unnecessary administrative burdens, to ease access to funds for beneficiaries and to better serve the objective of enhancing economic, social and territorial cohesion by ensuring that funding reaches those who need it most, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, local communities and social economy actors, including in rural, peripheral or economically disadvantaged areas; recalls, however, that simplification efforts must not bring any prejudice to the fundamental principles underpinning the multiannual financial framework and its programmes, nor weaken democratic scrutiny over their implementation; stresses that simplification must be accompanied by strong guarantees for equal access, non-discrimination and effective accountability, with Parliament ensuring democratic oversight throughout the funding cycle;

22. Underlines that achieving the EU’s competitiveness goals requires embedding climate neutrality and sustainability objectives within the EU’s institutional and governance framework; stresses that reforms must respect treaty provisions, including Article 194 TFEU, and be subject to strong democratic legitimacy through the involvement of Parliament in their design, financing and oversight; emphasises the importance of strengthening interinstitutional coordination and ensuring that decisions in this area are subject to effective parliamentary scrutiny, thereby reinforcing the Union’s democratic foundations;

23. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, in view of existing geopolitical challenges, to set up a genuine European defence union and to boost European defence industrial investment, in particular by resorting to truly European instruments, with new financing, coupled with a complete programme for defence, including against hybrid attacks, ensuring that planning, development, procurement, and management of capabilities is done together, in groupings of significant numbers of Member States; calls on the Commission to improve the consistency between existing and future instruments, including at the level of governance, in order to ensure effective democratic control of the new defence union; calls for the EU to overcome market fragmentation, in line with the recommendations of the Draghi, Letta and Niinistö reports, by creating a single market for defence where binding common rules apply; notes that such common rules would guarantee fair competition and ease the cross-certification of defence products while ensuring full interoperability and interchangeability, bring economies of scale, and enhance capabilities and resources; calls on the Commission and the Member States to embed defence investments in a broader security concept that also includes common European initiatives, in particular European Defence Projects of Common Interest, strengthening critical infrastructure and the advancement of research and development projects and thereby creating and retaining quality jobs; calls on the European Council to agree on the activation of Article 42(2) TEU with a view to establishing a common Union defence policy; underscores that the new defence union must complement and not replace NATO; takes note of the fact that Member States have embarked on the progressive framing of the European defence policy, while establishing the European Defence Agency (EDA) and starting Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO); calls on the Member States to continue working on the progressive framing towards establishing a European defence union with a common defence; recalls that the establishment of the start-up fund, the EDA and PESCO, as well as the use of the EU budget, are governed by QMV; recalls that a group of Member States may, pursuant to Article 44 TEU, also decide to use QMV;

24. Stresses that the strengthening of AI governance must be based on transparency, the protection of fundamental rights and the safeguarding of the public interest, in line with the EU’s rules-based approach; calls on the Commission to enhance the role of the existing European AI Office; welcomes the AI continent action plan for the development of an EU ‘AI model’, based on cooperation between public and private actors;