Category: Economy

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Europe action brings concrete benefits for citizens and businesses and protects rule of law

Europe law

The European Commission adopted this month its Annual Report on Monitoring the Application of EU Law. The report outlines the enforcement actions that the Commission took in 2022 to guarantee the protection of the rights and freedoms of people and businesses across the EU. The Commission also published its Single Market Scoreboard for 2022 enforcement data, outlining how well the Single Market is functioning and measuring performance per policy area and Member State.

The Commission also concluded a stocktaking exercise, identifying ways to further improve its working methods when it comes to the enforcement of EU law. Launched in 2022, the aim of the stocktaking exercise was to ensure that the best possible enforcement tools are available to make it work in practice. The Commission is now reporting on its outcome.

Finally, the Commission has adopted its regular package of decisions on infringements. Continue reading “Europe action brings concrete benefits for citizens and businesses and protects rule of law”

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International Procurement Instrument : Council gives green light to new rules promoting reciprocity

World economy

The Council adopted a regulation to promote reciprocity in access to international public procurement markets.

This legislative act will enable us to introduce a new trade policy tool to ensure access and a level playing field for EU companies on third countries’ public procurement markets, thereby increasing business opportunities for these companies. Public procurement currently accounts for 15 to 20% of global GDP.

The EU’s public procurement markets are among the largest worldwide in terms of value and are broadly open to competition. But European companies do not always have equal access to procurement markets in non-EU countries, where they are often subject to discriminatory restrictive practices. Fewer than half of the world’s public procurement markets are currently open to European companies. Continue reading “International Procurement Instrument : Council gives green light to new rules promoting reciprocity”

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EU should crack down on breaches of the rule of law

Euro

Disbursement of EU funds, including the Recovery Fund, must be tied to respect for the rule of law in all Member States. Systematic deficiencies in the rule of law always undermine the implementation of EU-funded programmes, and the absence of a rapid and comprehensive EU response to this will jeopardise the EU’s credibility, warns the EESC

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has taken a tough stance on breaches of the rule of law in the EU, declaring it is committed to ensuring that the Council of the European Union and the European Commission impose high dissuasive penalties on Member States which systematically disrespect the rule of law in a way that puts the EU budget at risk.

In the own-initiative opinion Rule of law and the recovery fund adopted at its plenary session on 20 January, the EESC welcomed the EU’s Regulation 2020/2092, which enables the Commission to impose financial penalties for systematic shortcomings in the rule of law in a given EU country, and called for the regulation to be applied strictly in all areas that are relevant to the budget. Continue reading “EU should crack down on breaches of the rule of law”