the rEPPorter - July 2013

July 2013

The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

Message from the President

2 Members on the field

2-3 Returning Home – interview with Nikola Dobroslavic

“Hrvatska, Dobro nam došla u Europsku obitelj!”

4 Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Lithuanian Presidency

5 Eastern Partnership of local authorities – key component of safe, secure and prosperous Europe Łódź hosted an ENVE commission seminar

6 Plenary Highlights:

7 EPP opinions at Plenary

8-11 Ongoing Opinions Your Agenda

Croatia becomes today the 28th Member State of the European Union. Do you perceive it an event of high historical value for Croatia or look at it as part of natural process or finalizing something of technical nature?

Nikola Dobroslavić (Deputy Head of Croatian delegation to the CoR): Croatian accession to the European Union

is of historical importance for Croatia. Croatia has always felt as a part of Europe, spiritually it has always belonged there.

We consider accession to the EU as returning home. We are returning to the family of high standards in fundamental freedoms, advanced democracy and the rule of law. We are returning to the community economically capable to deal with other economic groupings of the world.

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Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Lithuanian Presidency The second half of 2013, when Lithuania for the first time in its history will assume EU Presidency will be a highly challenging time – writes Arnoldas Abramavičius, Vice-President of the EPP Group in the CoR - Having less than one year remaining to the European Parliament elections, aiming to finish legislative work with European Commission finishing its term, the Presidency will face the challenge of mediating the search for best way of the economic crisis and, most likely, - finishing the negotiations on new financial perspective. That is why Lithuanian Presidency has set a goal to act as honest broker, contributing to the overall good of European integration.

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Returning Home - interview Croatian CoR Member Nikola Dobroslavić

Vienna: EPP leaders approve declaration on “New Growth and Jobs for Europe”, prepare for 2014 European elections The leaders of the European People’s Party (EPP) who met in Vienna on 20 June for a Summit of heads of state and government and party leaders, approved an important declaration on “New Growth and Jobs in Europe”, in view of the upcoming 2014 European elections. The EPP leaders also discussed how to tackle youth unemploy-

ment and reviewed the 3-step plan of the Youth of the EPP on how to boost job creation. Moreover, the leaders discussed the preparations for the 2014 EPP electoral campaign, which are currently in progress, and decided on the exact dates for the Dublin Congress where the EPP will launch

its campaign: 6-7 March. Finally, in addition to the EPP Summit, a meeting of Secretary Generals of EPP member parties took place in order to coordinate actions between the EU-level and national campaigns for the 2014 European elections.

Message from the President “Everything changes and nothing remains still” - this quote from Heraclitus reflects well the momentum that we have reached in the middle of the year 2013. Changes remain high on the agenda. Those achieved, planned and others not yet accomplished but desired.

First of all, I am very happy and proud to welcome our Croatian friends, both into our EU family and into the EPP Group in the CoR as full Members as from the 1 July. Enlargement processes have always been perceived by us as a positive change and challenge. Providing on one hand possibility to share our European values and common responsibilities with the newcomers and on the other to witness a new spark, ignition, blow of fresh external air into the European machinery in which we function. Europe needs dramatically this new impetus to break through stagnation, overcome crisis and move forward. I am glad we are about to build our common home – Europe with more than 4 million new European Citizens enriching us with their traditions, values, characters and openness to work together for the common good. Dobro nam došla Hrvatska!

1 July marks also a change in the rotating EU Presidencies. On this occasion I would like to specially thank our Vice-President Constance Hanniffy for helping us to organize our EPP/CoR Group Dublin Meeting and successful cooperation during the Irish Presidency. We are looking hopefully towards Vilnius taking the steer as the first Baltic state to lead the EU. Lithuania considers itself one of the most successful countries to overcome the economic and financial crisis and to return to sustained recovery and growth. We are looking forward to see it in practice during our EPP External Seminar in Kaunas this October, following the invitation from our Members: VicePresident Arnoldas Abramavičius and Mayor Andrius Kupčinskas. Good luck!

Last but not least, I am looking forward to the change I have been lobbying for throughout this entire year: an agreement on the EU budget for 2014-2020 that hopefully will be reached by the Parliament and Council. There have been some positive signs over the possibility of a compromise reached sent by representatives of both institutions in the recent days. Again, we need to make everyone aware that delaying this issue until the autumn would cause big problems for many of European regions. I am seriously worried that we would face payments gap as from the 1 January 2014, because the necessary decisions wouldn’t be taken soon enough to secure smooth transition to the next budgetary period.

Members b on the h fi field ld

President of the Committee of the Regions Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso and former Presidents of the Committee of the Regions Jacques Blanc, Luc Van den Brande as well as EPP/CoR 1st Vice-President Michel Lebrun took part in the First Round Table discussion on the Report of the 20th Anniversary of the Committee of the Regions that took place in Murcia (Spain) on 28 May. Leaders discussed the roadmap for the CoR report on the occasion of his 20th birthday.

M b off the Members h Commission C i i ffor SSustainable i bl Development (SUDEV) of the EuroMediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) met in Bethlehem on 15 June to debate sustainable urban mobility and the local and regional dimension of water manage-

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ment in the Mediterranean. Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso presented the follow-up to his ARLEM report on water management in the Mediterranean, and Michel Lebrun showcased for inspiration the urban mobility strategy of the Region of Wallonia, including its sustainable urban mobility plans. The event and the study visits to the cities of Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron and Tulkarm accompanied by their respective Mayors, gave the opportunity to local and regional representatives from the EU and the Mediterranean partner countries to share concerns and exchange practice.

On 4 June June, Michel Lebrun, Member of the Parliament of the French-speaking Community (Belgium) spoke at the second meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee between the CoR and Montenegrin local authorities which was held in Podgorica, Montenegro. The meeting focused on two key issues faced by the Local authorities in Montenegro in the county’s course towards EU integration, i.e. absorption capacity of EU Pre-Accession funds and waste management.

As part of the debate, Michel Lebrun presented his views about the review of key EU waste targets on the basis of a draft opinion which has been discussed in April and is foreseen to be adopted at the CoR plenary session in July. He also presented the experiences from Wallonia region in the area of environmental protection, in particular on the waste management. On 27 June he also spoke at a workshop

“Proposals for the energy transition of cities and towns” organised by the Energy Cities in

the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2013.

the environment and climate, while boosting green growth and jobs in Europe.

Luc Van den Brande, Chairman of the Flemish-European Liaison Agency (Belgium) opened a forum “Effective Cooperation in

Europe. Regional development in the global p p perspective.

EU-Russian interaction” that

Jelena Drenjanin, Member of the Municipal Assembly of Huddinge (Sweden) along with Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström took part in the Launch of the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings that took place in Brussels on 31 May. She took part in the panel discussion on Working with Civil Society against Traffickingg in Human Beings. g

On 27 June, Jose Macário Correia, Mayor of Faro (Portugal) chaired a session entitled

took place on 27 May in Brussels. The objective of the forum was to demonstrate and discuss the most effective recent cooperation models and see how they can be adopted for other regions. Former CoR President also took part in a single-beneficiary Local Administration Facility study tour focusing on Turkey in Brussels from 12 to 14 June, organised by the European Commission’s DG for Enlargement. Former CoR President gave presentation on behalf of the Committee of the Regions focusing on the multi-level governance and the role of regions and municipalities under the Lisbon Treaty. The study tour touched additionally the subject of decentralisation.

On 6 June Ugo Cappellacci, President of Region g Sardinia (Italy), moderated a session

on “Urban air quality – challenges and opportunities for European green cities” organised in the framework of the Green Week 2013.

This session was part of the 2nd meeting of the Committee of the Regions/European Commission joint Technical Platform for Cooperation on the Environment, which aims to promote local solutions for a better implementation of EU environment law. One day later he spoke together with Commissioner Hedegaard, taking part in the European Commission’s campaign “A world you like. With the climate you like”. The event ‘‘Visions for a world you like: How to make our consumption more sustainable?’’ that took place in Palazzo Reale aimed at demonstrating how consumers and businesses that make sustainable choices can contribute to saving

“Local and regional renewable energy investment 2020 and beyond: the need for a level playing field” which was a part of the HighLevel policy conference of the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2013. Witold Stepien, Marshal of the Łódzkie Region (Poland) was the speaker at the same session.

Jelena Drenjanin, Member l b off the h Municipall Assembly of Huddinge (Sweden), Franz Schausberger, Delegate of the Region of Salzburg (Austria), Vladimir Kissiov, Councillor of Sofia (Bulgaria) and Kadri Tillemann, Mayor of Keila (Estonia) participated at the meeting of the CoR Working group on Western Balkans which was held on 26 June in Novi Sad, Serbia. The meeting happened just a day after the Council agreed to recommend the June European Council to open accession negotiations with Serbia by holding the first intergovernmental conference in January 2014 the latest. Beside the EU - Serbia negotiation talks the meeting of the WG on Western Balkans focused on decentralisation process in Serbia and the role of local and regional authorities in the promotion of respect for human rights and the protection of minorities; these are issues of great interest particularly for local authorities in Autonomous Province of Vojvodina which is known as a multinational region in Serbia.

On 6 June Cor Lamers, Mayor of Schiedam (Netherlands), who is the CoR rapporteur on the review of EU air quality and emissions policy, spoke in the presence of Commissioner Potocnik, at the session on New ways in governance to help cities improve air quality organised in the framework of the Green Week 2013. This session was part of the 2nd meeting of the Committee of the Regions/European Commission joint Technical Platform for Cooperation on the Environment, which aims to promote local solutions for a better implementation of EU environment law. On 19 June he also met with Thomas Verheye, a representative of the European Commission, to discuss the state of play of the review of the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution and relevant Directives.

Adam Struzik, Marshal of the Mazowsze region (Poland) took part in the European Commission’s campaign “A world you like.

With the climate you like” together with Commissioner Hedegaard that took place in Warsaw, Poland on the 17 May. The event ‘Putting the Polish economy on a low-emissions track’ have showcased how improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions can boost skilled employment, economic growth, and access to attractive markets in Europe and abroad.

The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

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Returning R i Home H – interview i i with i h Nik Nikola l D Dobroslavić b l ić …continued from page 1 Croatia joins the European Union in 2013 – the European Year of Citizens.

Being a European Citizen – what does it mean to you? Has Croatia’s entry to the EU brought something new to your European identity or hasn’t changed much in the way you perceive yourself?

We are certainly pleased to become the citizens of Europe because we believe that Europe is the community with the highest democratic standards in the world. These are the standards that we in Croatia also pursued. But, they could not be achieved, mainly due to the communist system in which we lived. Through the negotiation process we showed that we have adopted EU standards.

However, within the EU, we want to preserve our identity, our culture and our worldview, which will also be our contribution to the EU. For me, being European does not mean being less Croatian. These two facts do not exclude but rather complement each other.

How will Croatia’s entry to the EU benefit your Dubrovnik-Neretva County?

What challenges do you see ahead?

I am convinced that Croatia will have multiple benefits of EU membership. So that Dubrovnik-Neretva Region will benefit as well. Our Region is predominantly touristic region, and direct contact with a large EU market will be a big benefit to our tourism.

Although, accessing the EU will make more difficult the arrival of tourists from some eastern markets, the benefits will be bigger than the damage. The biggest problem in

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our region is a territorial separation from the rest of the Croatia, and also from the rest of the EU, because there is territorial discontinuity of Dubrovnik area. This problem we have to solve, as soon as possible, by building a 2.4 km long bridge in which we expect the help of EU funds and the Government is intensively negotiating it with the European Commission.

You have been involved in the work of the CoR for some time already and cochaired the JCC Croatia. How do you perceive this experience and how much do you believe your new role as full member would benefit your region and voice of Croatian localities in Europe?

Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) and the duty of the observer in the Committee of Regions have helped our representatives of local and regional authorities to get familiar with the functioning of the EU and its administration, but also with regions, cities and municipalities in the EU countries. Likewise, it has enabled our EU colleagues to transfer their experiences to us. We consider CoR as a mean, or the possibility to present the voice of local and regional government, and that is the voice of the citizens, because this level is the closest to the citizens. My colleagues and I, as full members, will be able to actively contribute to the work of the CoR, and of course, represent the regions from which we come.

The region I come from has a great interest in many areas governed by EU regulations, such as transport corridors, coastal zone management, fisheries, protection of natural and cultural heritage, tourism, education and so on.

The Croatia’s accession to the EU comes in difficult times for the continent, shaken by the economic turmoil and austerity measures. Enlargements have always been perceived by the European Community as a spark, ignition of positive changes, providing the flow of fresh air into the European family. How do you see your and Croatia’s role in that regard? What shall we expect?

EU and Member States, in particular some of them, have great difficulties at this time of economic and financial crisis in the world.

However, I believe, these difficulties would be even bigger if these countries weren’t the EU members. Croatia also has problems, but I am convinced that they will not become the EU problems. I hope that the Croatian accession will be a positive boost for the whole European Union, because it will confirm also to the old member states that the EU is desirable and that countries from outside could see better all the benefits of this community.

Also, I believe that the predominantly traditional approach to values such as patriotism, religion, family as the foundation of community and marriage as union of a man and a woman, with which Croatia enters the EU, will allow the review of too liberal attitudes which sometimes lead to the extreme and can be a threat to the community.

Nikola Dobroslavi is an EPP Group Member of the Committee of the Regions, Deputy Head of Croatian delegation to the CoR, Prefect of Dubrovnik-Neretva County

Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Lithuanian Presidency curity as the top priorities of the European Union.

…continued from page 1 This presidency will have to deal with over 520 EU legislative initiatives, 115 of which are already indicated as being of the higher priority. Lithuanian Presidency will strive to make progress on priority legislative dossiers such as economic governance and financial stability as well as finalizing the regulations implementing the multi-annual EU budget for 2014–2020.

However we shall never forget that the life does not begins neither ends with the financial perspective. The continuation of already started initiatives, hard and sometimes little seen daily work of implementing decisions, often taken long time ago is of no less importance. This is especially actual for local and regional authorities, as the tier of governance, closest to each citizen and vested with a task of caring about small details making our daily life easier.

Lithuanian presidency is following similar principle of continuing, and what is more important – finishing already started initiatives and pushing forward questions, previously having received less attention. Focusing on the incremental approach Lithuania seeks to promote continuous economic growth and competitiveness through fostering employment, financial sustainability and energy se-

On its hand, we are adding four additional priorities, largely complementing existing policies and aiming to close the gaps between legislation and actual policies. The priority of energy security, aims not only to contribute to the solution of current situation of all three Baltic states, which are de facto energy island, almost in no way connected to the rest of EU, but also to the completion of the internal energy market and strengthening the external EU energy policy. Pushing for effective implementation of the European Union strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, would not only further contribute to the improvement of living, working and studying conditions, infrastructure and communications around the Baltic Sea, but also will better present this already highly successful initiative as the good practice example for the rest of EU. The priority of bringing the countries of the Eastern Partnership closer to the EU, represents a long-term goal of building safer and better neighbourhood in the East, followed by the priority to assure physical security along external borders by their effective management, including closer cooperation of border protection institutions while intensifying efforts to combat smuggling and fraud.

Some of those priorities will be reflected in two documents, requested from the CoR by the Lithuanian presidency – the opinion on the role of local and regional authorities promoting energy efficiency measures in public and private housing as well as on the position of local and regional authorities for better planning and spending in the new financial perspective.

At the same time we, the members of the European Union’s assembly of local and regional elected representatives, shall do our best in promoting the points of our agenda, corresponding to the Presidency’s priorities.

This is first and foremost to be said about the tasks in field promoting growth and employment in our regions, assuring full-fledged and prosperous living and working conditions.

Presidency’s priority of energy security is one of the fields where this can be achieved – by promoting local sources of energy, biofuels, boosting research and development in this sector, creating new employment and producing higher added value can be a perfect

example of synergy between different sectors. At the same time the size and flexibility of such projects makes local and regional authorities the best leaders of such initiatives.

While speaking about our daily agendas, we shall not forget that local and regional authorities can also become key contributors to the EU external policies. This is particularly important in building partnerships with our closest neighbours, where cross-border cooperation of local and regional authorities has proved to be an utmost power, bringing people into stable formats for long-term cooperation. Lithuania has added EU Eastern partnership among its priorities, at the same time stating that good borders make good friends. And it had a good reason for that – in many cases it is the eastern partnership where a lot has been achieved in building mutual trust and long-term partnerships. We are ready to share our best experiences as well as to discuss the reasons behind not so-lucky cases. And we consider the Committee of the Regions to be among the top places for such debate, leading spread of the good message as widely as possible.

Out of over 200 events to be hosted in Lithuania during the short Presidency period, 7 will be directly linked to the CoR activities. This include the traditional external Bureau meeting, to take place in Vilnius on September 3, followed by the CORLEAP meeting, also gathering representatives of EU Eastern partnership states. On its hand, NAT Commission will discuss its regular agenda as well as the needs to improve rural policies in Kaunas, on July 18-19, while ENVE Commission will focus on one of the Lithuanian presidency priorities during its meeting, taking place on September 2. This topic will be further explored in the Europe 2020 strategy conference “Resources efficient Europe”. Further to that, European People‘s Party will meet in Kaunas City on October 18-19.

Looking forward into the busy six months, awaiting Lithuania and all of the European Union, I am sure that Lithuanian Presidency and all 60 municipalities will do their best in order to push forward the European agenda for the common goal of all our Union at the same time bringing Europe to the citizen they represent.

The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

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Eastern Partnership of local authorities – key component of safe, secure and prosperous Europe

by Arnoldas Abramavicius The world does not end on the Eastern EU border. Neither does the Europe. This is very clear for a country like Lithuania, which although being at the geographical centre of Europe, at the same time is EU border state.

The border can be perceived in two ways – as a dividing line or as a uniting element. And the European Union has to decide how it wishes to see its Eastern border. So far EU is more investing into first direction – we see Schengen system getting stronger, improving external EU borders management, although this does not lead to decreasing illegal immigration and diminishing other soft security threats. On the other hand, any doctor would agree that it is better to deal with the cause of the problem rather than with its consequences.

This is more than true in case of EU external actions. Since a decade, following declaration on its priority of building a ring of friends from the Artic to Sahara, the EU shall focus more on investing into the basement of genuine friendship – the real people and contribution to the solution of daily, yet sometime

small-scale challenges they are facing. And this is the place where the local and regional authorities – the tier of governance closest to each and every citizen start to matter the most. Pursuing the aim of stable and neighbourhood, its local level, usually highly trusted by local people, cannot be ignored. Despite not-so-rare accusations of perhaps not purely democratic their nature, such institutions provide stable and viable platform for cooperation and are often manned by people, strongly committed to building strong and friendly relations.

In the context the CoR-initiated Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of EU Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) is a unique platform for exchanges of EU and Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian local and regional elected officials. During last several years it is actively developing in two out of four of its thematic platforms – democracy, good governance and stability and human connections. The recent CORLEAP meeting in Chisinau started to put more focus on one more remaining field – the economic integration and convergence with EU sectorial

policies. On its hand Lithuania, facing serious foreign policy challenges in the field of energy is also likely boost the importance of the remaining issue – the energy security and efficiency. The concrete steps in this direction, if addressed with necessary attention, has a huge potential to contribute to various EU goals – starting from global warming (reduced emissions due to increased energy efficiency) up to improvements in foreign trade balances (usage of local biofuels instead of expensive imported fossil fuel) or boosting research and innovations in the field energy.

Lithuania has declared Eastern partnership as its presidency priority. This is natural decision taking into consideration its geographical location and immense experience in building up relations with the EU Eastern neighbours. We do expect a lot and concrete decisions to be taken at the CORLEAP annual forum, scheduled to take place in Vilnius on September 3 as well as during the Eastern Partnership Summit, taking place in Vilnius at the end of November.

Ancient Lithuanian proverb says that even the longest road start from the first step, so the major EU goals shall be started to be addressed from the concrete steps on local and regional level. The enhanced cooperation, transfer of good governance and stability promoted by the CORLEAP are the key elements, contributing to the Lithuanian ambition to shift from the border of the European Union into the geographical centre of free, safe and prosperous Europe.

Łódź hosted an ENVE commission seminar EPP Members of the Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy were among the guests of the seminar “Comprehensible approach to renewable energy – an economic stimulus for regional development” co-organised by the Łódzkie Voivodeship (Poland) and the Committee of the Regions on 6–7 June 2013.

The event was an opportunity to present practical examples of the use of “green energy” that can be successfully deployed in European regions.

The representatives of the ENVE Commission took part in a debate on the future of EU energy policy and visited the sites in the Lodzkie Region where the key investments in the area of renewable energy are implemented: biomass

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boiler station in Daszyna and solar installations in Poddębice. As José Macário Correia, Vice-Chairman of the ENVE Commission remarked “The seminar is a significant contribution to the discussion because everyone can join in and everyone will leave this event with the experiences that can be implemented in our own regions”.

An example of the Daszyna commune shows that even a small local government unit with a low budget may use natural resources to improve the level of energy security on its territory.

On the basis of renewable energy sources, in this case cogeneration of biomass and geothermal energy, it has been proven that such solutions

are beneficial both economically by producing innovations, but also socially by creating jobs.

The hybrid power plant in Daszyna will generate heating and electricity using the biomass, wind and sun energy. Construction of the power plant, which is co-financed by the German Ministry for the Environment, is to start this year. There are also wind farms in the Łódzkie Region – currently 400 hundred installations are in use out of 1200 sites.

A host of the event, EPP Member Witold Stępień, Marshal of the Lodzkie Region pointed out that it is crucial that the new EU financial framework for 2014-2020 regulations concerning renewable energy is predictable for the

investors: “We hope for the involvement of the private investors, however regulatory frames for the support must be determined so that it can be easily assessed how and when they get the return on capital”.

The seminar can be an inspiration for further actions in the field of “green energy” and for the joint efforts to meet the ambitious goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The debates and the site presentations allowed learning about their technical, economic, environmental and legal aspects, equipping the participants with the knowledge necessary for achieving those objectives.

Plenary Highlights There are 4 EPP-led opinions (presented in details on next pages) that are going to be presented for vote during the 102nd Plenary Session of the Committee of the Regions. For the first time Croatian Members will be taking part in the voting as full members. Among the 9 new colleagues from the 28th Member State of the EU, 3 of them will be representing EPP: Nikola Dobroslavić - Prefect of Dubrovnik-Neretva County (Deputy Head of Croatian delegation), Danijel Marušić - Prefect of BrodPosavina County and Bruno Hranić - Mayor of Vidovec, EPP. The plenary will additionally have two guests: Vytautas Leškevičius, Lithuanian Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs who will deliver a statement on the priorities of the upcoming EU Lithuanian Presidency and Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development on the future Common Agricultural Policy Dacian Cioloş who will debate with the CoR members on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development on the future Common Agricultural Policy Dacian Cioloş

The activity Th i i report off the h EPP G Group iin the h CCommittee i off the h Regions R i

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EPP opinions at Plenary Assessing territorial impacts Rapporteur: Michael Schneider (President of the EPP Group in the CoR, State Secretary, Delegate of the State of Saxony-Anhalt for the German Federation, Germany) CDR29-2013 – COTER-V-038

“No policy area should be excluded a priori from territorial impact assessment.

The impacts arising as a result of proposed action can only be identified following the completion of an assessment. The absence of any impacts from an assessment also needs to be established, supported by an appropriate analysis of the situation” IIn his opinion, president of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions Michael Schneider recommends that the European Commission should pay M more attention to assessing territorial impacts in its efforts to deepen territom rial cohesion. He sees it as a way to improve EU financial instruments and ri implementation of cohesion policy - it will make it more flexible and gear im it more effectively to the relevant territorial level – he suggests. Moreover, Schneider calls for the European spatial development policy to be updated S aand suggests that more attention should be given to the territorial impacts of the Europe 2020 strategy. In fact, the rapporteur suggests that no policy area should be exempt from Territorial Impact Assessments.

Schneider argues that impact assessments have capability to map out the potential impact of legislative proposals in an integrated and balanced way, covering their social, economic and environmental aspects, and when possible, their potential short and long-term cost and benefits. He treats impact assessments as a tool to aid decision-making and support EU policies and a better law-making: in most policy areas, powers are shared between the EU and the Member States. A territorial impact assessment as part of a subsidiarity check can constitute a key argument for action at EU level should it demonstrate that this would be of greater benefit than action at Member State or regional level – argues Schneider - territorial impact assessments can also be useful way of shedding light on potential downsides to EU policy proposals, which is especially important in view of the principle of proportionality.

Finally, Schneider’s opinion calls for a closer cooperation between the European Commission’s DG for Regional Policy, the Joint Research Centre, the ESPON programme and the Committee of the Regions, to identify pragmatic approaches to assessing territorial impacts. It also states that the CoR intends to develop its own strategy for assessing territorial impacts, so as to further implement the measures proposed in this opinion.

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eHealth action plan 2012-2020 – innovative healthcare for the 21st century Rapporteur: Johan Sauwens (Member of the Flemish Parliament, Belgium) CDR2063-2013 – NAT-V-027

“Development of eHealth services must benefit all EU citizens, and not lead to (greater) inequalities in terms of the accessibility and use of healthcare services.

The needs of patients must be at the heart of the eHealth revolution: patients have a right to take decisions on access to their data, and must be given a clear explanation of what use can be made of such access, and by whom. eHealth should give citizens and patients the opportunity to take control of their own healthcare” E Establishment of the eHealth Network as ordered by the Directive on the A Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare marks a furth ther step towards formal cooperation on eHealth, with the aim to maxim imise social and economic benefits through interoperability and the implem mentation of eHealth systems. Despite the substantial progress, barriers co continue to exist that need to be addressed in order to reap all the benefits fr from a fully mature and interoperable eHealth system in Europe. The new eHealth Action Plan aims at addressing and removing these barriers. It clarifies the policy domain and outlines the vision for eHealth in Europe, in line with the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Digital Agenda for Europe.

Johan Sauwens in his opinion supports the Commission’s communication on the eHealth Action Plan 20122020, which outlines a strategy for eHealth in the EU and sets out the key objectives that need to be achieved in order to realise its full potential. He particularly stresses that development of such services should widely benefit all EU citizens and avoid deepening accessibility inequalities. Furthermore he stresses the importance of the citizen’s control over the data stored in the eHealth systems, and access to it.

Sauwens suggests that local and regional authorities must be closely involved in any reforms that impact healthcare and welfare. In particular he sees a need for more interregional cooperation and exchanges of practical and policy experience and believes the European Commission could play a role by collecting and collating knowledge and best practice. Best eHealth initiatives and models could therefore pave their way towards EU-wide implementation as a result. The rapporteur considers improving people’s knowledge concerning their health to be an important element in strategies to eliminate health inequalities and regards the electronic sharing of data between care providers as crucial to improving quality of care. He regrets that the EU eHealth market is highly fragmented and as a result laboratory tests are often repeated unnecessarily due to a lack of access to patients’ medical history.

European doctors deal with emergencies without access to summaries of the patients’ key medical data.

Sauwens is aware that the large-scale deployment of eHealth is not just a question of legal and technical feasibility.

He underlines that it depends first and foremost on the trust patients, health professionals and the public place in it. He deems important to tackle the issues of privacy, confidentiality, data protection and liability in the first place, to ensure that sensitive data are protected from hacking, leaks, privacy breaches and other forms of abuse.

Thereupon, he finds regrettable that the budget for the Connecting Europe Facility that serves as funding basis for eHealth has been cut severely.

The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

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Manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products Rapporteur: Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos (Municipal Councillor of Aigaleo, Greece) CDR2062-2013 – NAT-V-026

“The CoR points out that almost EUR 100 billion are collected in the European Union every year in taxes on tobacco products and that illicit trade currently accounts for around 10%, which results in EUR 10 000 million in lost tax revenue every year. This shows that the European market needs to be better protected against the threats of illicit trade and for citizens to be better informed as regards the danger of consuming tobacco products of unknown or unauthorised origin, which have not been subject to any quality control, thus endangering consumer safety” Twelve years on after the adoption by the EU of the current Tobacco Products Directive smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the EU and kills almost 700 000 people every year. The opinion presented

by Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos comes as a response to the proposed directive on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products. Members of the Committee of the Regions believe that revision of the directive is necessary and should therefore be carried out without further delay to protect the health of the European public, particularly its youngest members, from the risks of smoking.

The opinion emphasises that European Union together with national, regional and local authorities should increase efforts in public health terms, education, awareness-raising and health promotion campaigns providing information on the consequences of smoking as well as restrictive measures altering levels of consumption. It supports measures aimed at reducing the addictiveness or toxicity of tobacco on the basis of scientific evidence, together with objective measures to prevent consumers being misled by things such as the inclusion of additives which might persuade them that certain tobacco products had healthy or therapeutic effects.

The opinion suggests that regular public education and awareness-raising campaigns should be promoted, providing advice in primary and secondary schools and urge the Members States to prohibit the principle of free distribution of tobacco products (via online retail outlets or in public areas). It additionally suggests that manufacturers and importers should be obliged to disclose their expenditure on advertising, promotion and sponsorship per Member State, on a yearly basis.

The draft opinion warns that the delegated and implementing acts give the European Commission wide powers to amend or supplement, unilaterally and a posteriori, essentials aspects of the directive such as the maximum levels of additives, flavours and tastes which may be prohibited, and the wording, location and size of health warnings.

Consequently it questions whether the Commission’s excessive discretional powers of action might contravene the Lisbon Treaty, which stipulates that delegated acts may only be used to amend or supplement “non essential elements” of a legislative act. Furthermore it considers the new definition of “cigarillo” proposed in the directive to be inconsistent and unnecessary since it is contrary to Council Directive 2011/64/EU of 21 June 2011, on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco.

Finally, the opinion calls on the European Commission together with Member States to look into a scheme that would compensate for the loss of jobs in the tobacco sector and packaging industry following the adoption of the new directive.

10

The review of the European Union’s key waste targets Rapporteur: Michel Lebrun (Vice-President of the EPP Group in the CoR, Member of the Parliament of the French-speaking Community, Belgium) CDR1617-2013 - ENVE-V-035

“The CoR calls for the review of the targets to be underpinned by the principle of proximity. This principle is to be understood in both a local and international sense: in other words, the future legislation will have to focus, as a priority, on maintaining and developing waste management activities within Europe. The CoR calls for steps to be taken to ensure that the review of the targets does not damage the competitiveness of the European public- and private-sector players active in this sector and that it supports this sector of economic activity within the European Union” Michel Lebrun’s opinion comes as a response to the request from the European Commission, which intends to assess the overall effectiveness of the existing European waste legislation. Such studies are necessary in the perspective of Commission’s plans for next year to amend the European waste legislation, more concretely, the most important waste policy targets set out in the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, the Landfill Directive 99/31/EC and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 94/62/EC. Rapporteur in the opinion regrets the disparities between Member States with regard to waste management and calls for the EU to prioritize its encouragement and support for the development of infrastructures, methods and capacities for good waste management by and for the least performing Member States and local and regional authorities (LRAs). Furthermore, Michel Lebrun by emphasising the key role played by LRAs in the implementation of European legislation in this area and underlining that optimum waste management is currently one of the biggest challenges facing LRAs, asks that Committee of the Regions would be involved at all stages of policy-making for the policies to be adopted in this field.

Lebrun referring to the new targets stresses the need to ensure their compliance with the principle of proportionality. Specifically in reference to the Waste Framework Directive he advocates them to be decoupled and set separately. He provides an example of critical materials which are important for the economy but would not be recovered by waste streams specific targets alone. In accordance with the precautionary principle, he asks to take account of the impact new measures might have on LRAs, their budgets, and their administrative and operational capacity.

Equally important, he urges to assure that the review of the targets would not damage the competitiveness of the European public- and private-sector players active in this area.

The rapporteur believes that single, effective and transparent method for calculating waste should be adopted within the European Union. Consequently he calls for the creation of a European lexicon, setting out a clear and comprehensive list of the terminology used in connection with waste and European waste nomenclature encompassing all waste streams. Additionally Lebrun suggests introduction of more stringent standards with respect to waste prevention, calls for the adoption of measures to reduce food waste as well as for legal framework for recycling targets for biowaste.

Finally, Michel Lebrun supports the creation of a European information platform presenting the best practices that have been implemented within – and outside – the European Union with respect to waste prevention and management.

Ongoing Opinions Comission

Opinion

Rapporteur

Expected Adoption

BUDGET

Annual EU Budgetary Procedure 2014

Luc Van den Brande (Flanders, Belgium)

October 2013

CIVEX

Local Authorities in Development Cooperation

Hans Janssen (Oisterwijk, Netherlands)

October 2013

CIVEX

Migrant researchers, students, volunteers and other groups

Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos (Egaleo, Greece)

November 2013

COTER

4th Rail Package

Pascal Mangin (Alsace, France)

October 2013

COTER

Better spending of local and regional authorities in the new financial perspective 2014-2020

Alberto Nunez Feijoo (Galicia, Spain)

October 2013

EDUC

Disability, Sport and Leisure: a major element of the Sport for All project, part of the Europe 2020 strategy

Jacques Blanc (Canourgue, France)

November 2013

ECOS

Reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe

Pawel Adamowicz (Gdańsk, Poland)

October 2013

ECOS

CARS 2020: Action Plan for automotive industry

Christian Buchmann (Styria, Austria)

October 2013

ECOS

Package on e-invoicing in Public Procurement

Catarina Segersten-Larsson (Värmland, Sweden)

January 2014

ENVE

Policy: Releasing the Potential for Growth in the Space Sector

Adam Struzik (Mazowieckie, Poland)

October 2013

ENVE

Green Paper on A 2030 framework for climate and energy policies

Sirpa Hertell (Espoo, Finland)

January/ February 2014

NAT

Strategic Guidelines for the sustainable development of EU aquaculture

Marialuisa Coppola (Cerignola, Italy)

November 2013

JCC Montenegro

Increasing absorption capacity of EU pre-accession funds and improving administrative capacity at the local level in Montenegro

Witold Stepien Łódzkie voivodeship (Poland) & Aleksandar Bogdanović (Cetinje, Montenegro)

November 2013

Your Agenda 8, 9 July Italy

CIVEX external seminar

Bolzano-Bozen

COTER external meeting and seminar

Dunkirk, France

PMG CoR – EESC

Brussels

NAT external meeting

Kaunas, Lithuania

2 September

ENVE

Vilnius, Lithuania

5 September

Ad hoc Budget

Brussels

18 September

EDUC

Brussels

23 September

CAFA

Brussels

24 September

CIVEX

Brussels

26 September

COTER

Brussels

1 October

NAT

Brussels

2 October

ECOS

Brussels

4 October

Ad-hoc Rules of Procedure

Brussels

9 October

JCC Iceland

Brussels

11, 12 July 15 July 18, 19 July

Secretary General: Heinz-Peter Knapp Press Officer: Dominik Krakowiak, dominik.krakowiak@cor.europa.eu, +32 2 282 2539 This issue is also available at www.epp.cor.europa.eu | Join us on

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