The 462nd Plenary Session of the EESC with Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič
“We have to focus more on the growth and competitiveness.”
(Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, Interinstitutional Relations and Administration)
The 462nd Plenary Session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was held in Brussels on 28 – 29 April.
The guest of the plenary session was Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, who presented the work programme of the Commission for 2010. In his intervention he stressed the need to focus on the sources of the growth and competitiveness and identified the most important initiatives of the Commission in this respect: digital agenda, modernisation of the industry in the global area, initiative new skills for new jobs, white book on transport, new EU trade policy and also new approach of the Commission to the organisation of the working time in Europe.
The Plenary session discussed and adopted the following opinions relevant for the business and employers:
- INT/492 Monitoring the application of the Community Law COM (2008) 777
As guardian of the Treaty, the Commission has the authority and responsibility to ensure respect for the law of the European Union, verifying that Member States respect Treaty rules and secondary legislation. The rules of the Treaty – 10 000 regulations and over 1 700 directives in force for 27 Member States - make up a substantial body of law. Issues and challenges in the application of law are inevitably many and varied. Certain areas face particular implementation challenges.
In September 2007 the Commission adopted a Communication on "A Europe of results – applying Community law" stating that it would "develop the focus of its Annual Report on strategic issues, evaluation of the current state of the law in different sectors, priorities and programming of future work" to "assist strategic inter-institutional dialogue on the extent to which Community law achieves its objectives, the problems encountered and possible solutions".
The Committee endorses the Commission's main objectives, namely:
- information and informal problem-solving in the service of citizens and business; and to deal with the problem of extensive late transposition of directives;
- to step up preventive measures, including the continuing need to develop the analysis of implementation and compliance issues when preparing Impact Assessments;
- to improve distributing information and informal solution of problems in the interest of citizens and businesses; and
-to prioritise the most important cases and work closely with Member States to accelerate correction of infringements.
The Committee would suggest a more pro-active approach, e.g.:
- drawing up "easier to transpose" Community legislation;
- establishing an accurate and constantly updated correlation table from the outset;
- allowing transposition by means of a specific reference to prescriptive or explicit provisions in a Directive. - INT/503 Enforcement of the consumer acquis
By drawing attention to the enforcement of the Community acquis on consumer protection, the Commission seems - for the first time - to place the matter of the effectiveness of legislation at the heart of its concerns, and this is to be welcomed. It demonstrates that, over and above "law in the books", it is also interested in "law in action", i.e. the way in which legal standards are accepted, interpreted and applied by those concerned, namely, public authorities - particularly the courts - businesses and the public in general.
For many years, this concern has been a key point made in various EESC opinions, which have repeatedly drawn attention to the importance thereof and put forward recommendations and suggestions for action to be taken, including those contained in the following own-initiative opinions: "Consumer policy post-enlargement", "How to improve the implementation and enforcement of EU legislation" and "The proactive law approach: a further step towards better regulation at EU level".
The Committee welcomes the Commission's initiative in which, for the first time, it sets out its concerns about the application of the Community acquis on consumer protection.
It would point out, however, that - from a strictly legal point of view - the application of Community legislation on consumer rights is not substantially different from the application of Community legislation in general. In this connection, it would refer to the various opinions issued on the matter.
Nevertheless, it recognises that - from a social point of view - the unfavourable position in which consumers find themselves in general in consumer affairs, and which, as is well-known, puts them in a weak position in a legal relationship that, by its very nature, is unbalanced, does warrant particular attention to the way that this legislation is applied in the different various national legal systems. - ECO/276 Financial contributions EU to the International Fund for Ireland
The International Fund for Ireland (hereafter IFI) was set up in 1986 by the UK and Irish Governments with a view to "promote social and economic advance and to encourage reconciliation between nationalists and unionists on the island of Ireland". The European Union has been one of the main donors, alongside the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, of the EUR 849 million that has supported over 5 700 projects in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland for over 20 years.
The EESC has, in its own-initiative opinion “The role of the EU in the Northern Ireland peace process”, underlined the importance of the IFI and supports rapidly rectifying the legal basis upon which the EU's financial contributions to the IFI are governed for the period 2007-2010 in the light of the ECJ court case C-166/07.
The EESC notes that the Commission's proposal for a Regulation governing the European Union's contributions to the International Fund for Ireland (period 2007 to 2010) has been now based on Articles 175 and 352(1) of the TFEU, thus complying with the decision of the European Court of Justice of 3 September 2009 in case C-166/07. - REX/298 The Role of the civil society in the EU-Montenegro relations
Recommendations enhancing the validity of this opinion both for Montenegro and for the European Institutions:
To the Montenegrin Parliament
· The procedure for appointing NGO representatives to the National Council for EU integration should be defined by Parliamentary decree and based on clear criteria of the credibility and legitimacy of NGOs with a track record in EU affairs.
· The Law on Volunteers which is still to be passed should incorporate NGO standpoints.
To the Montenegrin Government:
· To intensify the fight against corruption in line with the recommendation made in the EC Progress Report. Corruption remains prevalent in many areas and continues to be a particularly serious problem.
· The implementation of the adopted National strategy for cooperation between the Government of Montenegro and non-governmental organisations should be intensified. Clear mechanisms should be established in order to provide genuine NGO representation within diverse bodies as stipulated by the spirit of the existing regulation, and especially within the planned Council for cooperation with NGOs, where the NGO representatives should not be elected by the Government but only verified on the basis of eligibility criteria.
· The existing Office for cooperation with NGOs has very limited human and technical resources to assist NGOs appropriately and to ensure the further development of NGOs in Montenegro. The plan to establish a Governmental Council for NGOs, with genuine NGO representatives, has to be a high priority.
· Tax regulations should be clearly specified for NGOs and accompanying laws introduced where applicable. Also, NGOs should be more effectively included in public debates on draft laws in order to contribute to the process of aligning Montenegrin legislation with EU standards and best practices. The same applies to the updates to the National Plan for Integration and IPA programming.
· The register of NGOs should be updated and made public on the website of the competent body to provide precise details of the number of NGOs, thus stopping the manipulation concerning this issue. All NGOs should publish their narrative and financial reports on a regular basis, in order to contribute to the overall process of transparency in society and to increase their own credibility.
· The draft Law on Trade Union representativeness that is still pending must create a legislative framework establishing transparent and non-discriminatory criteria for the representativeness of trade union organisations and enable a plurality of trade unions in the country. Detailed criteria for representativity of employers' associations should be also enshrined in the Law, as it is defined for trade unions.
· To realise the potential of the Social Council and use it as an effective tool for consulting and informing the Social Partners, in order to address all relevant economic and social concerns.
· To open the governmental Commission for European Integration up to representatives of the social partners and involve them gradually in the process of integrating the country into the EU.
To the European Commission:
· To apply new indicators in the monitoring process,– one for the development of civil society and the second one for social dialogue – in order to help ensure that civil society is better and more effectively involved in the pre-accession process.
· To continue to support civil society partnerships and capacity development, and also to include civil society in IPA programming and to promote the establishment of an EU-Montenegro Joint Consultative Committee as soon as Montenegro has been granted the status of candidate country.
To the EESC:
· To continue in cooperation with Montenegrin organised civil society, to assist it in the pre-accession process and to make concrete steps towards establishing an EU-Montenegro Joint Consultative Committee.
Vladimíra Drbalová
International Organisations and EU Affairs
Member of the EESC
Published: Apr. 30, 2010
