Publications Archive

Following the failure of its last Amendment Proposal, the Commission is again planning a review of the Working Time Directive. Based on a questionnaire, the Commission intends to undertake a full-scale consultation of the social partners (workers and employers associations) at European level, in order to clarify whether the social partners also consider a review of the Working Time Directive to be necessary and, if so, what such a review could look like.
The key issues are the rules on the maximum working time, dealing with on-call time, determining rest periods and calculating the average weekly working time.

Member States have agreed to improve the coordination of their employment policies, in the scope of the Europe 2020 strategy. To this end, the Commission presented to the Council guidelines for employment policies outlining the direction which educational, labour and social policies of Member States should take. The headline targets of the guidelines are identical to those proposed to the European Council within the context of the Europe 2020 strategy.

Since the onset of the financial crisis the EU Financial Market Supervision, which is still very nationally-oriented, is up for discussion. Now, the Commission proposes that the ESRB is to monitor the stability of the entire European financial system. Moreover, three European Supervisory Authorities are to ensure an improved prudential supervision of single financial institutions.

The Commission is planning to increase Europeana’s collection by 10 million objects by 2010. To this end, it calls Member States to contribute to a “sustained digitisation“.

Without financial support for developing countries, it is likely that no global climate agreement will be reached. The Commission presents criteria for how these payments should be distributed among developed countries. Further the Commission discusses whether the share of the EU should be financed through the EU budget, a common EU climate fund or using the budgets of Member States.

According to the Commission climate change requires adaptation measures in key policy sectors such as health and social affairs, agriculture and infrastructure. In order to supplement the expenses of Member States and to share burdens, adaptation measures could be financed through EU spending programmes.

Since the onset of the financial crisis the EU Financial Market Supervision, which is still very nationally-oriented, is up for discussion. Now, the Commission proposes the establishment of three European supervisory authorities (ESA) which are to ensure an improved prudential supervision of banks, insurances and investment firms.

The action plan is intended to implement the objectives laid down in the Stockholm Programme. It cites 354 measures and a precise timetable for this purpose.

The Commission is reviewing the European standardisation procedures in terms of their efficiency and transparency. The aim is to develop a reform proposal (“standardisation package”) facilitating a more efficient and transparent European standardisation. Moreover, the Commission wishes to simplify the access to standards for SME and to increase the capacity for innovation of European enterprises.

Vertical agreements are entered into by companies operating in the production or distribution chain at different levels. Such agreements are generally prohibited, however, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for exemptions from the general prohibition. The Commission decides whether or not an exemption is given. In its Block Exemption Regulation in the Motor Vehicle Sector (EC) No. 1400/2002 and its Guidelines, the Commission is presenting the conditions according to which an agreement is deemed in line with competition law. Said Regulation will expire on 31 May 2010. At the end of last December the Commission has submitted a follow-up Draft Regulation and Draft Guidelines.