The EESC welcomes the request of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union for an exploratory opinion on "The impact of subsidiarity and gold-plating on the economy and employment". It adds value and more aspects to the ongoing debate on Better Regulation to provide legal certainty, clear rules and "to ensure that regulatory burdens on businesses, citizens or public administrations are kept to a minimum".
The EESC reiterates its demand that future-related issues including debates on competences and on the level of regulations must be addressed at national and European level with the full participation of social partners and other civil society organisations. This is a fundamental expression of multi-level participatory democracy and must therefore be strengthened in the EU and the Member States.
Download — advies EESC: The impact of subsidiarity and gold plating on the economy and employment (exploratory opinion requested by the Austrian Presidency)
The future Austrian Presidency of the Council has requested the EESC to draw up an exploratory opinion on the Bioeconomy, and how it can contribute to achieving the EU's climate, energy goals and the UN's sustainable development goals.
Download — advies EESC: Bioeconomy – contributing to achieving the EU's climate and energy goals and the UN's sustainable development goals (exploratory opinion requested by the Austrian Presidency)
The EESC supports the proposal for a Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed. A proper coverage of workers in non-standard forms of work and the self-employed would be in line with the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Access to social protection systems is key for fairer societies. The main outcomes would be: increasing the mutualisation of risk, income security, labour market dynamism, higher productivity, better allocation of resources, and reducing insecurity and poverty for individuals.
Download — advies EESC: Access to social protection
The Committee considers that the Commission's proposal for setting up a European Labour Authority (ELA) is, if adequately implemented, an important step in the right direction towards improving cross-border mobility, enforcing European and national legislation, fostering cooperation between national labour market authorities and improving access to adequate and up-to-date information, tackling illegal activities and strengthening the internal market, provided that the ELA respects national and European competences and the Member States demonstrate their support and cooperation.
The annual revision of the Eurostat SDG Report must be an opportunity for broader dialogue with civil society concerning which indicators be included and what the target for each of these should be. This own-initiative opinion examines how organised civil society could be better involved in a more qualitative follow-up of the annual revision of the Eurostat SDG report as part of SDG monitoring and follow-up programmes that have been established.
Download — advies EESC: Indicators better suited to evaluate the SDGs – the civil society contribution (own-initiative opinion)
The Commission's initiative follows one of the recommendations of the Agricultural Markets Task Force that the EU should legislate in the areas of UTPs for agricultural products, and responds to some of the conclusions of the 2016 EESC opinion on "A fairer food supply chain".
Download — advies EESC: Improving the food supply chain
The Commission is proposing a targeted revision of the General Food Law Regulation coupled with the revision of eight pieces of sectoral legislation, to bring them in line with the general rules and strengthen transparency in the area of GMOs, feed additives, smoke flavourings, food contact materials, food additives, food enzymes and flavourings, plant protection products and novel foods.
Download — advies EESC: Transparency in scientific assessments and governance of EFSA
The Internet of Things (IoT), thanks to its interconnectivity of persons and objects, offers a vast range of opportunities for individuals and businesses. These opportunities must be backed by a series of safeguards and controls so as to ensure introduction of the IoT is problem-free. With this opinion the EESC aims to promote awareness-raising and digital capacity-building initiatives and calls inter alia on the European institutions and EU Member States to ensure that security and privacy are protection by building appropriate regulatory frameworks that contain strict monitoring and control provisions.
Download — advies EESC: Trust, privacy and consumer security in the Internet of Things (IoT) (own-initiative opinion)
The EESC flags up the potential of AI and would like to give its input to efforts to lay the groundwork for the social transformations which will go hand in hand with the rise of AI and robotics.
Download — advies EESC: Artificial intelligence: anticipating its impact on jobs to ensure a fair transition (own-initiative opinion)
Le CESE estime que la directive devrait présenter un meilleur équilibre entre les droits fondamentaux des personnes et la nécessité de garantir une meilleure application de la législation touchant à la lutte contre la criminalité et à sa répression.
Le CESE formule un certain nombre de recommandations concrètes, portant notamment sur les points suivants:
Download — advies EESC: Rules facilitating the use of financial and other information in criminal cases
The EESC supports the proposed regulatory framework, comprising: amendments to the technical standards and rules of the Union Customs Code (UCC); corrections of technical errors and omissions, aligning the code with the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA); and the inclusion of the municipality of Campione d'Italia and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano in the EU customs territory, as requested by the Member State concerned. With regard to the inclusion of "territorial enclaves", the EESC recommends paying particular attention to making the necessary amendments at the same time to Directive 2008/118/EC (Excise duties) and Directive 2006/112/EC (the VAT Directive).
The key message of the opinion is that transforming the energy system towards carbon-free, decentralised and digitalised supply offers enormous opportunities, in particular for structurally weak and rural regions in Europe. The development of renewable energy (RE) can have a major and beneficial impact on employment, and can be configured so as to provide a completely new stimulus for the regional economy. There is therefore potential for mutually reinforcing the positive effects of Europe's energy and cohesion policies. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) finds it regrettable that both the Commission and the Member States have yet to properly recognise this potential, let alone exploit it.
Download — EESC opinion: The effects of a new carbon-free, decentralised and digitalised energy supply structure on jobs and regional economies (own initiative opinion)
The EESC welcomes the proposed Regulation. It builds on and replaces the existing Regulation, on which the EESC commented in January 2011, and tries to learn from experiences at national and EU level since it came into force in 2013 and into (intended) full effect by September 2014. The EESC notes a number of areas where greater clarity on the scope and implementation of the Regulation should be considered; these will also need to be discussed in greater detail with Member States in the months ahead. The EESC questions the effectiveness of grouping such widely disparate substances under a single regulatory regime. This makes the legislation hard to draft and even harder to implement or comprehend as a professional user or member of the general public. A different substance-specific approach is therefore recommended. EU legislation in respect of drug precursors provides a useful model for this.
With this opinion, the EESC welcomes the proposal since it strikes a balance between the need to develop technologies with a low environmental impact (Euro 5 type-approval step) and the actual ability of some companies to introduce these within the stipulated timeframe (technical feasibility).
For the EESC this legislation will have a beneficial effect on the costs to companies and, consequently, on those borne by consumers. Moreover, the EESC is in favour of renewing the Commission's power to adopt delegated acts for a further period of five years.
Download — advies EESC: The application of the Euro 5 step to the type-approval of two- or three- wheel vehicles and quadricycles
Persistent organic pollutants ("POPs") are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk to human health and the environment.
The aim of this proposal for a regulation is that the Commission has identified needs to update and recast the existing regulation on Persistent Organic Pollutants that dates back to 2004.
Download — advies EESC: Recast of Regulation 850/2004 on persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
The objective of this proposal is to bring the benefits of Regulation 924/2009 to people and businesses in Member States outside the euro area, and put an end to the high cost of intra-EU cross-border transactions in euro. This proposal will enhance transparency for consumers by disclosing the full cost of a cross-border transaction. It will help them compare currency conversion service offers before starting a payment transaction involving a currency conversion.
