European Economic and Social Committee

EESC-2015-02850-00-03-TCD-TRA (FR/EN) 1/20

Brussels, 17 July 2015

PLENARY SESSION
ON 1 AND 2 JULY 2015
SUMMARY OF OPINIONS ADOPTED
This document is available in the official languages on the Committee's website at:

The opinions listed can be consulted online using the Committee's search engine:

EESC-2015-02850-00-01-TCD-TRA (FR/EN) 1/21

Contents:

1.EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

2.ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE / FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS / TAXATION

3.ENVIRONMENT / AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES

4.CONSUMERS

5.SOCIAL AFFAIRS

6.TRANSPORT

7.INDUSTRY

8.ENERGY

9.EXTERNAL RELATIONS

The plenary session on 1 and 2 July was attended byMr Nicolas Schmit, Luxembourg Minister for Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Mr Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ms ZandaKalniņa-Lukaševica, Parliamentary Secretary, Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy.

The following opinions were adopted at the session:

  1. EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
  • Evaluation of European Commission stakeholder consultations (own-initiative opinion)

Rapporteur:Ronny Lannoo (Various interests - BE)

References: EESC-2015-02021-PAC-TRA

Key points:

In this opinion, the EESC sets out recommendations on stakeholder consultation, with a view to enhancing the quality of these consultations and bridging the gap between the EU and its people.

The EESC is concerned about the way in which stakeholder consultations are carried out and therefore also about the quality of the results of such consultations. It is therefore calling for consultations to be consistent and representative and to ensure added value for the organisations and interest groups concerned.

The EESC has put forward a number of structural, practical and realistic proposals and asks the European Commission to cooperate constructively in developing and implementing new measures.

In view of its role set out in the Treaties, the Committee would like to act as facilitator to ensure the success of stakeholder consultations and the European Commission should make more use of the potential offered by closer cooperation with the Committee.

Furthermore, the EESC, as a promoter of structured civil dialogue and an essential instrument of participatory democracy, encourages the Commission to step up its use of structured dialogue platforms.

  1. ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE / FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS / TAXATION
  • Access to finance for SMEs (information report)

Rapporteur:Dimitris Dimitriadis (Employers – EL)

References: EESC-2014-06006-RI-TRA

Key points:

Inadequate supply of financing has been constraining investment by SMEs since 2008. Decisive measures are urgently needed. The EESC has examined this question and wants to draw the attention to the following:

  • SMEs' needs, structures and capacities vary. A comprehensive study on the main types of SMEs and mid-caps across all 28 Member States, their relative weight and relative contribution to jobs and growth is a necessary prerequisite for policy action;
  • the standard European definition of the terms micro, small and medium-sized under EU Recommendation 2003/361 has to be updated to better reflect the variety of SMEs;
  • for the current programming period (2014-2020), the allocated amount of financing, the structure of these instruments and the access to them needs to be improved;
  • a large number of impediments in terms of both supply of and demand for bank loans for SMEs have to be addressed at European level;
  • in order to enhance the lending capacity of banks, a careful revival of the securitisation markets needs to be encouraged;
  • capital requirements for banks and insurance companies should be calibrated in a way that does not discourage investment in assets that are essential for SME growth (equity, securitised SME loan portfolios, SME bonds);
  • market-based financing should be strengthened, and cross border investment operations need to be promoted;
  • the credit lines offered by the EIB and the EIF should be better structured so as to match better the needs of the different SMEs;
  • the transparency of how the local commercial banks, promotional banks or other intermediaries distribute these funds should be significantly improved;
  • innovative financing schemes and instruments (e.g. the SME instrument under Horizon 2020) should be properly adjusted to the needs of enterprises of different sizes and stages of development and to the specific situations in different countries;
  • greater awareness of the possibilities of obtaining funding from EU programmes at national level is necessary, as well as better follow-up and monitoring;
  • greater involvement of financial institutions and SME organisations as intermediaries between SMEs and EU programmes is advisable;
  • national governments should set up an "SME Intergroup" in all Member States to make information loops and efficient collaboration possible. Thinking about SMEs is not enough - the focus needs to be on action.

Contact:Gerald Klec

(Tel: 00 32 2 546 9909 - e-mail: )

  • Capital Markets Union

Rapporteur:Juan Mendoza Castro (Workers – ES)

Co-rapporteur:Milena Angelova (Employers – BG)

References: COM(2015) 63 final

EESC-2015-01333-AC-TRA

Key points:

The Committee

  • supports the Green Paper on a Capital Markets Union;
  • wants conditions to be created for an efficient, modern financial services sector with appropriate regulations, which grants access to capital providers by companies seeking investment, especially SMEs and high growth companies;
  • sees the capital markets as pools of liquidity, where companies can raise funds and trade in financial instruments;
  • strongly supports the ultimate goal of the CMU – to overcome the current fragmentation of the markets thus enabling the listing of all types of companies;
  • stresses the need for measures that will also allow SMEs to benefit from it;
  • strongly recommends decisive and swift action to be taken in the following directions:

developing a secondary market;

devising a unified simplified standard for qualitative and quantitative requirements for listing SMEs on regulated markets for financial instruments;

introducing credit ratings according to a standardised transparent methodology;

accepting simplified standardised criteria (model) for registration on regulated markets;

updating and amalgamating the definitions of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the different items of EU legislation;

providing a definition of an emerging growth and high growth company and devoting special attention to the needs of such companies on the capital market;

encouraging the strengthening of the administrative capacity of national consumer protection bodies and financial regulation agencies;

  • highlights the importance of traditional banking for the stability of the financial system;
  • affirms that sustainable high quality securitisation calls for promoting basic structures with short intermediation chains.

Contact:Gerald Klec

(Tel: 00 32 2 546 9909 - e-mail: )

  1. ENVIRONMENT / AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES
  • The reform of the CAP: implementing arrangements, diversity, redistributive effects and other decisions taken by the Member States when implementing the reform of direct payments (Information report)

Rapporteur: MarioCampli(Various interests -IT)

References: EESC-2015-01409-RI-TRA

Key points:

Since the Commission communication, "the increasing diversity of agriculture and rural areas following successive enlargements" has been recognised, as has the fact that: "policies set at European level are therefore needed in order to ensure fair conditions with a common set of objectives, principles and rules." The Commission's legislative proposal of October 2011 reiterates, consequently, that: "The proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity. The CAP is a truly common policy". The proposal itself, then, already had around twenty areas in which decisions are entrusted to the Member States. However, the Regulation which emerged from negotiations has around seventy areas in which Member States have the option of making their own decisions.

An information report does not adopt recommendations, since its purpose is, on the one hand, to map a state of affairs and, on the other, to provide a knowledge base for a future own-initiative opinion. Nevertheless, it is possible to draw some conclusions from it.

  • The lengthy decision-making process has led to delays in reaching political agreement and implementing the CAP. It should be borne in mind that the new CAP has been applicable since 1 January 2015 (in other words, a year later than the date initially planned) and that, given the difficulties in implementation, farmers must submit aid applications without full knowledge of the new rules. They risk making mistakes, which should not be penalised.
  • Implementing the common agricultural policy will not be any easier in the years to come. The report shows that the final outcome of the reform and the subsequent decisions made by Member States on a range of more than fifty delegated matters is not a simpler CAP. In some cases use was not made of flexibility, partly due to this administrative complexity. One example of this are the "equivalent practices" to greening, introduced during the negotiations on the reform, but in practice applied by only five countries in 2015.
  • When Member States make their implementation decisions, it will be necessary to monitor and verify regularly whether the wide diversification as set out in the co-decision procedure is compatible with the principles of an agricultural policy that the Treaties themselves define as "common" (see Article 38 TFEU).

Contact:Arturo Iñiguez

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 8768 – e-mail: )

  • Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council "The Paris Protocol – A blueprint for tackling global climate change beyond 2020"

Rapporteur: Lutz Ribbe(Various interests-DE)

References: COM(2015) 81 final

EESC-2015-00580-AS-TRA

Key points:

The EESC expects the COP 21 negotiating parties to finally decide on a binding agreement which is both fair and ambitious. Apart from some minor exceptions, the Committee fully supports the Commission's negotiating position on this matter. However, it takes issue with the fact that seemingly the EU has yet to fully grasp the key role to be played by civil society in this process.

All parties to the framework convention on climate change must, without exception, assume responsibility for meeting the actual goal. The principle of common but differentiated responsibility is correct. Most countries should rapidly embark on a process of transformation away from fossil fuels towards a high level of resource and energy efficiency and renewables.

Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations in Paris, in reality the battle for future markets in green technologies that are important for protecting the climate started a long time ago, and it is a battle that Europe needs to fight, whether or not COP 21 produces results. The EESC cautions that it is not by the ambitious outcomes of COP 21 that our climate will be saved, but rather by their systematic implementation. The decisions therefore need broad public approval and support from businesses, trade unions and all other elements of civil society. The new climate policy cannot and must not be imposed "from above", but needs to be based on broad support from all stakeholders and to be implemented "from below". The EESC recommends that the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament finally engage in intensive and structured dialogue, so that society's fundamental willingness to develop new structures is not jeopardised.

Contact:Stella Brozek-Everaert

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 9202 – e-mail: )

  • Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a multiannual recovery plan for Bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean repealing Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 (category C)

References: COM(2015)180 final – 2015/0096 COD

EESC-2015-02994-AC-TRA

Key points:

The proposal aims at transposing into Union law measures of the multiannual Bluefin Tuna recovery plan in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at its annual meetings between 2012 and 2014.

Since the Committee endorses the content of the proposal and feels that it requires no comment on its part, it decided to issue an opinion endorsing the proposed text.

Contact:Eric Ponthieu / Petra Dlouhá

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 8394 – e-mail: )

  1. CONSUMERS
  • Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Council Directive 76/621/EEC relating to the fixing of the maximum level of erucic acid in oils and fats and Council Regulation (EC) No 320/2006 establishing a temporary scheme for the restructuring of the sugar industry (category C)

References: COM(2015)174 final – 2015/0090 COD

EESC-2015-02992-AC-TRA

Key points:

The above mentioned legal acts relating to the common agricultural policy have become obsolete. For reasons of legal security and clarity, those obsolete legal acts should be repealed.

Since the Committee endorses the content of the proposal and feels that it requires no comment on its part, it decided to issue an opinion endorsing the proposed text.

Contact:Eric Ponthieu / Petra Dlouhá

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 8394 – e-mail: )

  • Environmental, social and health claims (own-initiative opinion)

Rapporteur:Bernardo Hernández Bataller(Various interests – ES)

Reference:EESC-2015-00503-AC-TRA

Key points:

The EESC:

  • invites the Commission to put forward European methodologies for measuring and communicating the overall environmental impact of products and services and to compile an inventory of official labels;
  • hopes that the Commission will revise the guidelines facilitating consumers' and businesses' access to reliable and transparent information and will clarify the use of environmental, ethical and health-related claims in marketing communications;
  • encourages Member States' consumer authorities to carry out a "sweep" of environmental, social, ethical and health-related claims, to be able to assess the situation today on the basis of real data;
  • believes that the EU should equip itself with a coherent, comprehensive and consistent legal framework for regulating on-line marketing communications;
  • calls on the European Commission and the Member States to develop initiatives for surveillance, monitoring and sanctions in relation to existing self-regulation and co-regulation schemes in the area of environmental, social and health-related claims.

Contact:DorotaZapatka

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 90 67 – e-mail:

  1. SOCIAL AFFAIRS
  • Sport and European values (own-initiative opinion)

Rapporteur:Bernardo Hernández Bataller(Various interests – ES)

Reference: EESC-2014-04496-00-00-AS-TRA

Key points:

  • Sport helps meet the EU’s strategic objectives, brings to the fore key educational and cultural values and is a conduit of integration, since it is open to all members of the public, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, religion, age, nationality, social situation or sexual orientation. Sport is a tool to tackle intolerance, xenophobia and racism.
  • Sporting activities allow all people to channel their hopes in a constructive way, enriching them with the values that sport entails such as hard work, solidarity and cohesion. Such activities also bring physical and mental well-being while helping to alleviate social problems by providing positive values.
  • Volunteering has a key role to play in the development of grassroots sport and in clubs, affording it considerable value from a social, economic and democratic point of view.
  • The principle of good governance and sound management should ensure integrity in sporting competitions.
  • The EESC supports strengthening the role of sport as a driver of innovation and economic growth.
  • With an eye to the development of the sports sector, steps should be taken to foster at different levels the use of EU funding instruments.
  • At European level, efforts should be made to promote social cohesion, measures to include disadvantaged groups in sporting activities and social integration.
  • The EU has an important role to play in tackling inequality with a view to removing the barriers that prevent people with disabilities and older people from taking part in sport.
  • Special attention should be devoted by the EU and Member States to promoting sport and physical exercise amongst older people.

Contact:Irina Fomina

(Tel.: 00 32 2 546 80 91 – e-mail:)

  1. TRANSPORT
  • Women and transport (Exploratory opinion requested by the Commission)

Rapporteur:Madi Sharma (Employers - UK)

Co-rapporteur: Raymond Hencks(Workers - LU)

Reference:EESC-2015-01773-AS-TRA

Key points:

All dimensions of the transport sector - air, sea, road, rail, inland navigation, space, logistics - are traditionally male-dominated and as a result: transport policy is male-oriented, i.e. devised by men and centred around their lifestyle; employment in the sector is primarily male and is geared to male workers; the values embedded in the industry show little support for females in the sector and lack gender-sensitivity; gender consideration is absent from EU transport policy.

Many of the barriers highlighted are generic to other sectors, but the transport sector is specifically poor in addressing the issues.

This exploratory opinion, drawn up at the request of the EU Commissioner for Transport, focuses on the opportunities for the transport sector to better include women and generate more economic, social and sustainable growth. This report does not cover women as users of transport.

Despite the failings, the situation can change by implementing gender neutral policies to support competitiveness, innovation, growth and jobs in the context of EU 2020. The new Investment Plan for Europe promoting growth and jobs must mainstream gender equality, by eliminating existing gender impediments and developing a culture of engagement and inclusiveness for both men and women to be equally active in all aspects of transport. Greater recognition of gender is needed for it to become a prominent part of EU transport policy.

The key recommendations are to: collect data and establish key indicators to identify and deconstruct barriers; ensure women are visible and active in policy- and decision-making, and planning; proactively engage both sexes in creating a better working environment, including equal pay for equal work, within all the diversities of the sector; take actions towards attracting women to employment opportunities with measures to improve employment quality; better engage universities and career services to promote the wide scope of the sector, including technology, R&D and engineering; proactively promote the role of women in business; empower women and the sector to be more inclusive.