Brussels, 08/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Twenty gender equality and environmental organisations have written to the European Commission calling on it to ignore the hit list of proposals that some lobbyists, particularly those representing European business leaders, want to see booted into touch, Euractiv reported on Friday 5 December.
According to business leaders, Frans Timmermans, who is in charge of recasting EU legislation and who will announce the Commission projects in Strasbourg on 17 December, should reconsider a number of European rules as they damage the competitiveness of companies: numbers of women on company boards, the extension of maternity leave, pollution reduction and the introduction of a financial transactions tax. The circular economy package which contains provisions on waste should be withdrawn and re-tabled as an economic piece of legislation, says BusinessEurope, which also has concerns over future rules on rare minerals from conflict zones and the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme.
Among the signatories of this letter are NGOs Greenpeace, Oxfam International, BEUC, WWF and European Women's Lobby. They reject the arguments advanced by business leaders and believe, on the contrary, that having higher social and environmental standards will help improve companies' competitiveness.
In line with the political programme set out by Jean-Claude Juncker, Timmermans, Commission first vice-president, is currently examining 130 pieces of legislation in the pipeline to determine which should be continued and which jettisoned. Some announcements have already been made, for example, by Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos who said last week that the smart borders legislative package, considered by the Parliament and the Council to be very costly, would be withdrawn. Intentions have also been expressed, for instance, by Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill who would like to withdraw a number of reforms and delay banking sector reform, EuObserver has reported. On Thursday 11 December, Juncker will meet the leaders of the Parliament groups to discuss the Commission's work schedule for 2015. (SP)