Európai Gazdasági és Szociális Bizottság
The opinion intends to contribute to the design of the EU regulation on critical raw materials and to its follow-up, and could influence the political and economic decisions to be taken at EU level in the new geopolitical context.
In its 2023 Work Programme, the European Commission announced a proposal for a second basket of new own resources, building inter alia on the proposal for a single set of tax rules for doing business in Europe (BEFIT). The aim of these measures will be to ensure more diversified and resilient types of revenue and avoid undue cuts to Union programmes or excessive increases in Member State contributions, in view of repaying the grant component of the NextGenerationEU recovery plan.
In view of the upcoming proposal that will be published in the third quarter of 2023, the European Commission requested the European Economic and Social Committee to provide an exploratory opinion on this subject in order to feed into the preparation of the Commission proposal.
In 2021 the European Commission announced the revision of the Council Directive 2011/64/EU on the excise rules for tobacco. In the inception impact assessment, the EC stated that there are areas of weakness and ambiguity in the current legal arrangements which give rise to market distortions, legal uncertainty and can also hinder the detection and prevention of fraud. The review will ensure that the rules remain fit for the purpose and improve the proper functioning of the internal market, and a high level of health protection. The policy changes focus on:
One of the main conclusions of the 8th Cohesion Report is that although cohesion and convergence among regions in the European Union has improved, there are still remaining gaps especially in less developed regions related with their territorial characteristics. EU islands, mountain areas and sparsely populated areas still face many challenges on their growth and income and disparities exist.
In these regions, there are still a lot of gaps in terms of employment and investment, social exclusion is evident and gender disparities have not diminished.
The directive adopted in 2011, is the fundamental EU legislative act addressing trafficking in human beings. It establishes minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions; common provisions to strengthen victim's protection, assistance and support, as well as prevention; key actors to fight against the crime.
The evaluation aims at checking if the rules on health and social services of general economic interest meet their objectives under the 2012 services package.
The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles announced the review of the Textile Labelling Regulation. As part of this review, the Strategy mentions the possibility to introduce mandatory disclosure of types of information other than those already included in the current Regulation, such as sustainability and circularity parameters, products’ size and, where applicable, the country where manufacturing processes take place (‘made in’). The opinion will explore the different options to expand the scope of the Textile Labelling Regulation, including parameters on sustainability and circularity in coherence with current legislative proposals linked to traceability.
Dans son programme de travail 2023, la Commission européenne a annoncé une proposition pour un deuxième panier de nouvelles ressources propres, s'appuyant notamment sur la proposition d'un ensemble unique de règles fiscales pour faire des affaires en Europe (BEFIT). L'objectif de ces mesures sera de garantir des types de revenus plus diversifiés et résilients et d'éviter des réductions indues des programmes de l'Union ou des augmentations excessives des contributions des États membres, en vue de rembourser le volet subvention du plan de relance NextGenerationEU. Dans la perspective de la proposition à venir qui sera publiée au troisième trimestre 2023, la Commission européenne a demandé au Comité économique et social européen de rendre un avis exploratoire à ce sujet afin d'alimenter la préparation de la proposition de la Commission.