In a compromise text dated 20 April and seen by EUROPE, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU is trying to convince Member States about the regulation creating the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI). To this end, it proposes, in particular, giving a greater role to the Council when activating the ‘vigilance’ mode of the SMEI. This is the second level, after the ‘planning’ mode, and before the ‘emergency’ mode.
The Commission had proposed triggering this ‘vigilance’ mode itself, if the conditions described in the text are met. In the compromise of 20 April, the Swedish Presidency suggests that the Commission should propose activation to the Council (still on the basis of the criteria in the text) and that it should then be up to Member States to adopt the decision (Article 9). The same applies to extension and deactivation of the ‘vigilance’ mode, according to the text, which must be validated by the Council.
This change was not included in the previous compromise detailed here (see EUROPE 13155/1). MEPs, on the other hand, want to have a say at this stage too (see EUROPE 13169/9).
The Commission is no longer only “able” to activate the planning framework by means of an implementing regulation on the recommendation of the SMEI Advisory Group, but “shall” simply do so, according to the Swedish Presidency’s compromise.
Finally, another notable change compared to the previous version of the text, the authors of the compromise specify the fundamental rights that the regulation must not affect in any way; this includes “the right to collective action, including strike action”.
European trade unions had expressed concern that the instrument might consider a strong mobilisation as a case of crisis and thus affect the right to mobilise.
See the 20 April compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/6o5 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)