During the plenary debate on the sustainable investment plan, just transition fund and Roadmap on Social Europe, the president of the Socialists and Democrats, Iratxe García, said:

“If we are serious about cutting at least half of our greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 we must provide the proper funding.

“We acknowledge the efforts made by the European Commission, but one trillion euros over ten years is definitely not enough. And, the Commission recognises that. Along with a more ambitious budget we also need to find new own resources coming from areas such as non-recycled plastics, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), fair taxing of the digital sector, a financial transaction tax (FTT) and a common consolidated basis for corporate tax.

“We also call for a golden rule so that sustainable investments are kept out of the calculation of national deficits. We need to make the Stability and Growth Pact more flexible for member states to stimulate sustainable investments.

“We need money to ensure a just transition for the regions and to the workers that will be most affected by this ecological transformation. We will not accept any reduction of the funding for agriculture and cohesion: there needs to be fresh money and the additional 7.5 billion euros to be added to the MFF proposal is a good first step.

“A strong social dimension is included in the European Green Deal, and therefore we want the social pillar to include measures to help people and regions adapt to the ecological and digital changes, and also to ensure quality jobs with fair wages, to reduce the gender pay-gap and to fight child poverty.”