Brussels, 27/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - Ensuring that economic recovery is sustained will be the main “strategic priority” of the European Commission over the next year, according to the 2010 working programme adopted by the College on Wednesday 27 October. The working programme, which we have published in full in No. 2542 of our series EUROPE/Documents, annexed to this bulletin, covers the five priority actions sketched out by José Manuel Barroso before the European Parliament in his “State of the Union” speech on 7 September (EUROPE 10209). These are:
1) Sustaining Europe's social market economy out of the crisis and beyond. The following, amongst others, will be proposed: a legislative framework for the management of banking crises, proposals to reinforce protection for consumers of financial services and a regulation on ratings agencies.
2) Restoring growth for jobs. Amongst other things, the Commission hopes to propose new mechanisms for budgetary restraint, proposals to support the competitiveness of the EU's businesses, particularly SMEs, a European energy efficiency plan, a social enterprise initiative, legislative initiatives on worker secondment and working time and an improvement of the corporate taxation and VAT systems.
3) Pursuing the citizens' agenda: rights, freedom and justice. The Commission has announced proposals to reinforce consumer rights, to create a reference framework for contract law, new legislation on civil protection, a traveller registration programme and a new governance structure for Olaf, the EU anti-fraud office.
4) Europe pulling its weight on the global stage. Under this heading, the Commission pledges to support the new European External Action Service (EEAS), which will take up its duties on 1 December 2010, and to improve development aid, by doing more to target the countries which need it the most.
5) Making the most of EU policies. Under this slogan, the Commission has announced proposals for the forthcoming multi-annual financial framework (2014-2020). It also intends to give greater priority to “smart regulation”.
Full list of forthcoming strategic initiatives. In a number of annexes to the working programme, the Commission has listed in detail the 40 “strategic initiatives” schedule for 2011, and the 89 other initiatives it is planning to take before the end of its term in office. The Commission has also provided the list of proposals it plans to make in order to simplify the community acquis, and of the legislative texts it intends to withdraw.
These lists are available in full on the Commission's website: http: //ec.europa.eu/atwork/ programmes/docs/cwp2011_annex_en.pdf. (H.B.)