469th Plenary Session of the European Economic and Social Committee

The EESC and the Committee of the Regions for support to the strategy Europe 2020

The 469th EESC Plenary Session was held in Brussels on 16 and 17 February 2011. The guest was Mercedes Bresso, President of the Committee of the Regions with a presentation “Contributing to the success of Europe 2020 in partnership - a shared commitment for local and regional authorities, the social partners and civil society organisations“. Ms. Bresso stressed that: “Strategy Europe 2020 has to be better communicated both at the local and regional level. Both committees have to join their efforts, reach synergy and transform the idea of common objective in reality.“

 TEN/425 Roadmap for a low carbon energy system by 2050

The Roadmap will bring together a range of possible development paths for energy production and use in Europe which will provide a basis for a better assessment of current energy policy implications and a better understanding of the decisions of strategic importance needed today.
A Commission staff working paper on the issues to be considered for development of the Roadmap 2050 will be made available in autumn 2010. This document should serve to frame and foster public debate on the Roadmap 2050 during the second half of the year, prior to the adoption of the Roadmap.
Framing a properly joined-up European energy policy is a matter of great importance in the Committee's view. It is also important, within this framework, to integrate a medium- and long-term EU strategy that sets out a roadmap up to 2050 aimed at competitively and sustainably reducing the carbon content of energy produced, so as to provide a global response to the challenges of climate change and to satisfy the EU societal and industrial needs.
To achieve a common energy policy, in a global context, the Committee feels that an "integrated energy community" needs to be created, as provided for by Article 194 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The EESC believes that the Roadmap for "decarbonising" energy by 2050 should be able to:
•             assemble a variety of potential development paths for production and use of energy in Europe;
•             explore consensual avenues for economic transition;
•             define procedures for ongoing dialogue on the Roadmap at the various levels;
•             define the measures necessary for better understanding of strategic decisions;
•             outline economic compatibility systems which respect competition and are supported by society;
•             highlight the essential elements of flexibility to be able to adapt rapidly to climate change, new technologies and world economic development.

CCMI/78 Secondary raw materials

The representatives of a number of sectors (metal, paper, etc.) have sounded a warning regarding access to secondary raw materials such as scrap iron and recycled paper. There is clearly no level playing field, with some large countries such as China allowing such products to be imported but not exported.
The use of secondary raw materials in the manufacture of semi-finished products has major implications for production costs and for the ecological footprint of goods.
The current situation therefore places European industry at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its competitors.
The EESC welcomes the fact that material efficiency has become DG Environment's key priority.
The goal of material efficiency could be served simply by fine-tuning and balancing existing systems and production processes with the help of well-defined incentives. The EESC warns that neither the number nor quality of jobs in the recycling and process industries can be compromised.
Large volumes of collected secondary raw materials are currently being exported although they are badly needed in the European basic and process industries. This trend seriously jeopardises employment in all the process industries.
Unfortunately, illegal trading practices are often used in order to circumvent direct control of important secondary raw material flows.
The conflict between market forces and the existing regulatory framework should be analysed in detail to achieve better balanced results. One possible suggestion could be to apply export duties to protect against the risk of losing valuable materials. Such measures would obviously have to comply with WTO rules.
Another option would be to agree on flexible recycling targets depending on actual market developments, i.e. during market downturns (reduced demand), the recycling targets could be lowered, while during boom phases of high demand, they would go up.
Yet another option would be to make recycling targets/quotas equivalent only to volumes of waste that could be re-used within the EU, not including waste sold abroad that could not be used in EU facilities. However, such a measure should be accompanied by resetting targets/quotas to match actual EU recycling capacities.
The EESC strongly supports the industry's call upon the EU to develop a comprehensive and consistent policy on long-term sustainable access to raw materials and use of resources.
All the individual elements of the EU Climate Change Policy (ECCP) should take into account the environmental benefits of secondary raw materials (SRMs), and inconsistencies should be avoided. 

INT/528 Regulating financial services for sustainable growth

A safer, sounder, more transparent and more responsible financial system, working for the economy and society as a whole and able to finance the real economy, is a precondition for sustainable growth. It is the essential complement to the efforts Europe is undertaking to consolidate public finances and undertake the structural reforms that will deliver a vibrant economy in the future. A healthy financial services sector should underpin the Europe 2020 Strategy, ensuring Europe's businesses, and notably SMEs, can invest for growth and its citizens can plan with confidence for the future. Regulation of financial services needs to be complemented by an ambitious reform agenda for growth, based on the internal market.
The EESC welcomes the Commission's communication and sees the new regulation of the financial markets as the crucial instrument needed for re-launching a sustainable economy.
The EESC emphasises and reiterates the importance of redoubling efforts and reaching an international agreement.
The EESC welcomes some of the innovative choices made in the US legislation and proposes that the Commission undertake an in-depth study of the proposal to establish a financial services consumer protection authority.
The whole process of regulatory update should be finished by 2011 and be fully running from 2013. This will indeed be possible if no problems crop up and everyone sticks to the schedule. However, the EESC has its concerns and fears that this may not happen. The Commission should ask the European Parliament and the Council to fast-track all actions related to the regulation of financial markets.
Civil society at European and national level must continue to press the authorities and public bodies to swiftly adopt new rules in the financial sphere.

ECO/282 Enhancing economic policy coordination

Although the EU has a number of instruments for the coordination of economic policy the crisis has shown that they have not been used to the full and that there are gaps in the current governance system. The purpose of the Communication is to:

• Develop the proposals for greater economic policy coordination and surveillance set out in the Commission's 12 May Communication on reinforcing economic policy coordination into concrete proposals by (i) addressing imbalances through stronger macroeconomic surveillance, including alert and sanction mechanisms; (ii) strengthening national fiscal frameworks by specifying minimum requirements for domestic fiscal frameworks, and notably moving from annual to multi‑annual budgetary planning; (iii) strengthening the Stability and Growth Pact, in particular by focusing on the issue of debt dynamic as well as deficits.
• Set out effective enforcement mechanisms to ensure that Member States will act in compliance with the EU framework they have agreed. Where developments in Member State economies pose a risk to the overall development of the Union, a series of preventive and corrective measures are proposed, including a range of sanctions that could be applied where breaches occur.
• Establish a European semester for policy coordination and explain the process and timing that will provide a European input to national policy decisions, leading to more effective ex-ante policy coordination. This also applies to the structural reforms and the growth enhancing elements of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The EESC is pleased that the European Commission has taken on board the need to further integrate European economic policy coordination, placing the need to strengthen EU economic governance on its agenda. The EESC hopes that European economic governance will be strengthened ensuring equal attention to the need for stability and job-creating growth. The EESC hopes that, at least for countries in the euro area, European economic policy coordination will be the first step towards a genuine common economic policy and the coordination of budget policies.
Only by ensuring continued consistency between the objectives of growth and economic and social development set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy – which require levels of investment which may be incompatible with budgetary constraints – and the requirements of monetary and financial stability laid down in the SGP will it be possible to make budgetary constraints publicly acceptable.
It will be necessary to adopt an appropriate set of indicators which go beyond GDP and encompass social and environmental advances and losses and thus reflect the real concerns of the general public, by implementing the five actions planned under "Beyond GDP".
Achieving real coordination of European economic policies requires a consensus on both the reference and projected macroeconomic frameworks. To this end, the Committee trusts that steps will be taken to ensure that the key information is available to Eurostat.

SOC/406 Guidelines for the Employment policies

According to the proposal from the Commission the guidelines for Member States' employment policies as set out in the Annex to Council Decision of 21 October 2010 on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States should be maintained for 2011 and taken into account by the Member States in their employment policies. The Committee endorses the content of the Commission proposal.

Vladimíra Drbalová
International Organisations and EU Affairs
EESC member