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

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

12

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Returning Home - interview Croatian CoR Member Nikola Dobroslavić

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.

Continue on page 4

Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Arnoldas Abramavičius explains

Lithuanian PresidencyLithuanian Presidency

Th e second half of 2013, when Lithuania for the fi rst 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 fi nish legislative work with European Commission fi nishing its term, the Presidency will face the challenge of mediating the search for best way of the economic crisis and, most likely, - fi nishing the negotiations on new fi nancial perspective. Th at is why Lithuanian Presidency has set a goal to act as honest broker, contributing to the overall good of European integration.

Continue on page 5

Vienna: EPP leaders Vienna: EPP leaders

approve declaration on approve declaration on

“New Growth and Jobs “New Growth and Jobs

for Europe”, prepare for for Europe”, prepare for

2014 European elections2014 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, ap-

proved an important declaration on

“New Growth and Jobs in Europe”, in

view of the upcoming 2014 European

elections. The EPP leaders also dis-

cussed 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 lead-

ers discussed the preparations for the

2014 EPP electoral campaign, which

are currently in progress, and decid-

ed on the exact dates for the Dublin

Congress where the EPP will launch

its campaign: 6-7 March. Finally, in ad-

dition to the EPP Summit, a meeting

of Secretary Generals of EPP mem-

ber parties took place in order to co-

ordinate actions between the EU-level

and national campaigns for the 2014

European elections.

“Hrvatska,“Hrvatska, Dobro nam došla Dobro nam došla

u Europsku obitelj!”

2

Members on the field

Members of the Commission for Sustainable

Development (SUDEV) of the Euro-

Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly

(ARLEM) met in Bethlehem on 15 June to

debate sustainable urban mobility and the lo-

cal and regional dimension of water manage-

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 show-

cased for inspiration the urban mobility strat-

egy 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 opportu-

nity to local and regional representatives from

the EU and the Mediterranean partner coun-

tries to share concerns and exchange practice.

On 4 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 present-

ed 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 manage-

ment. On 27 June he also spoke at a workshop “Proposals for the energy transition of cities and towns” organised by the Energy Cities in

b h fi ldb h fi ld

Message from the President 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 for-

ward to see it in practice during our EPP External Seminar in Kaunas this October, following the invitation from our Members: Vice-

President 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 pos-

sibility 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 transi-

tion to the next budgetary period.

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.

On 4 June Michel Lebrun Member of

M b f h C i i f S i bl

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

the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy

Week 2013.

Luc Van den Brande, Chairman of the

Flemish-European Liaison Agency (Belgium)

opened a forum “Eff ective Cooperation in Europe. Regional development in the global perspective. EU-Russian interaction” that

took place on 27 May in Brussels. The ob-

jective of the forum was to demonstrate and

discuss the most effective recent coopera-

tion models and see how they can be adopt-

ed 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, or-

ganised 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 gov-

ernance and the role of regions and munici-

palities under the Lisbon Treaty. The study

tour touched additionally the subject of de-

centralisation.

On 6 June Ugo Cappellacci, President of

Region Sardinia (Italy), moderated a session

on “Urban air quality – challenges and oppor-tunities 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 bet-

ter 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 demonstrat-

ing how consumers and businesses that make

sustainable choices can contribute to saving

the environment and climate, while boosting

green growth and jobs in Europe.

On 27 June, Jose Macário Correia, Mayor

of Faro (Portugal) chaired a session entitled “Local and regional renewable energy invest-ment 2020 and beyond: the need for a level playing fi eld” which was a part of the High-

Level 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 of the Municipal

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) par-

ticipated 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 confer-

ence in January 2014 the latest. Beside the

EU - Serbia negotiation talks the meeting of

the WG on Western Balkans focused on de-

centralisation process in Serbia and the role

of local and regional authorities in the pro-

motion 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.

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 discus-

sion on Working with Civil Society against

Trafficking in Human Beings.

On 6 June Cor Lamers, Mayor of Schiedam

(Netherlands), who is the CoR rappor-

teur 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 im-

prove 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-emis-

sions 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.

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4

Returning Home – interview with Nikola Dobroslavić…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 pur-

sued. 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 ben-

efit your Dubrovnik-Neretva County?

What challenges do you see ahead?

I am convinced that Croatia will have mul-

tiple 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

our region is a territorial separation from the

rest of the Croatia, and also from the rest of

the EU, because there is territorial disconti-

nuity of Dubrovnik area. This problem we

have to solve, as soon as possible, by build-

ing 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 co-

chaired 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 ad-

ministration, 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 con-

tribute 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 manage-

ment, fisheries, protection of natural and cul-

tural 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 posi-

tive changes, providing the f low 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 ac-

cession will be a positive boost for the whole

European Union, because it will confirm also

to the old member states that the EU is de-

sirable and that countries from outside could

see better all the benefits of this community.

Also, I believe that the predominantly tradi-

tional approach to values such as patriotism,

religion, family as the foundation of commu-

nity 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

R i H i i i h Nik l D b l ićR i H i i i h Nik l D b l ić

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

Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Arnoldas Abramavičius explains Lithuanian PresidencyLithuanian Presidency

…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 finan-

cial 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 impor-

tance. 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 dai-

ly life easier.

Lithuanian presidency is following similar

principle of continuing, and what is more

important – finishing already started initia-

tives and pushing forward questions, previ-

ously having received less attention. Focusing

on the incremental approach Lithuania seeks

to promote continuous economic growth and

competitiveness through fostering employ-

ment, financial sustainability and energy se-

curity as the top priorities of the European

Union.

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 contrib-

ute 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 in-

ternal energy market and strengthening the

external EU energy policy. Pushing for effec-

tive implementation of the European Union

strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, would

not only further contribute to the improve-

ment of living, working and studying condi-

tions, infrastructure and communications

around the Baltic Sea, but also will better

present this already highly successful initia-

tive 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, fol-

lowed by the priority to assure physical secu-

rity along external borders by their effective

management, including closer cooperation of

border protection institutions while intensi-

fying 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 pro-

moting 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 re-

gional 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 employ-

ment in our regions, assuring full-f ledged 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 pro-

ducing higher added value can be a perfect

example of synergy between different sec-

tors. At the same time the size and flexibil-

ity 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 au-

thorities can also become key contributors

to the EU external policies. This is particu-

larly 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 co-

operation. 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 mu-

tual 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 pe-

riod, 7 will be directly linked to the CoR ac-

tivities. 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 ru-

ral policies in Kaunas, on July 18-19, while

ENVE Commission will focus on one of

the Lithuanian presidency priorities dur-

ing 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.

6

Eastern Partnership of local authorities – key component Eastern Partnership of local authorities – key component of safe, secure and prosperous Europeof 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 al-

though 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 im-

migration and diminishing other soft secu-

rity 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 con-

sequences.

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 genu-

ine friendship – the real people and contri-

bution 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 neigh-

bourhood, its local level, usually highly trust-

ed 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 co-

operation 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 sev-

eral years it is actively developing in two out

of four of its thematic platforms – democra-

cy, good governance and stability and human

connections. The recent CORLEAP meet-

ing in Chisinau started to put more focus on

one more remaining field – the economic in-

tegration and convergence with EU sectorial

policies. On its hand Lithuania, facing seri-

ous 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 direc-

tion, 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 geo-

graphical 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 ad-

dressed 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 ele-

ments, contributing to the Lithuanian ambi-

tion to shift from the border of the European

Union into the geographical centre of free,

safe and prosperous Europe.

Łódź hosted an ENVE commission seminarŁódź 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 develop-

ment” 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 practi-

cal 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 en-

ergy policy and visited the sites in the Lodzkie

Region where the key investments in the area

of renewable energy are implemented: biomass

7 The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the RegionsTh i i f h EPP G i h C i f h R i

Plenary Highlights 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 Brod-

Posavina County and Bruno Hranić - Mayor of Vidovec, EPP. The plenary will addi-

tionally 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.

boiler station in Daszyna and solar installa-

tions in Poddębice. As José Macário Correia, Vice-Chairman of the ENVE Commission

remarked “The seminar is a significant contri-

bution 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 im-

prove 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 gen-

erate heating and electricity using the biomass,

wind and sun energy. Construction of the pow-

er 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 point-

ed out that it is crucial that the new EU finan-

cial framework for 2014-2020 regulations con-

cerning 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, environmen-

tal and legal aspects, equipping the participants

with the knowledge necessary for achieving

those objectives.

Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural

Development on the future Common Agricultural Policy

Dacian Cioloş

8

EPP opinions at PlenaryEPP 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”

In his opinion, president of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

Michael Schneider recommends that the European Commission should pay

more attention to assessing territorial impacts in its efforts to deepen territo-

rial cohesion. He sees it as a way to improve EU financial instruments and

implementation of cohesion policy - it will make it more flexible and gear

it more effectively to the relevant territorial level – he suggests. Moreover,

Schneider calls for the European spatial development policy to be updated

and 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 po-

tential 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 prag-

matic 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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9 The activity report of the EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions

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”

Establishment of the eHealth Network as ordered by the Directive on the

Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Healthcare marks a fur-

ther step towards formal cooperation on eHealth, with the aim to max-

imise social and economic benefits through interoperability and the imple-

mentation of eHealth systems. Despite the substantial progress, barriers

continue to exist that need to be addressed in order to reap all the benefits

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 2012-

2020, 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 citi-

zen’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 implementa-

tion as a result. The rapporteur considers improving people’s knowledge concerning their health to be an impor-

tant 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.

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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 be-

lieve 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 import-

ers 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.

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 legisla-

tion, 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 au-

thorities (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 big-

gest 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 proportional-

ity. Specifically in reference to the Waste Framework Directive he advocates them to be decoupled and set separate-

ly. 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 encom-

passing 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.

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 /EPPGroupCoR | follow us on /EPP_CoR

Ongoing OpinionsOngoing Opinions

Your Agenda Your Agenda 8, 9 July Italy CIVEX external seminar Bolzano-Bozen

11, 12 July COTER external meeting and seminar Dunkirk, France

15 July PMG CoR – EESC Brussels

18, 19 July 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

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

CIVEXMigrant researchers, students,

volunteers and other groupsDimitrios Kalogeropoulos (Egaleo, Greece) November 2013

COTER 4th Rail Package Pascal Mangin (Alsace, France) October 2013

COTERBetter spending of local and regional authori-

ties in the new financial perspective 2014-2020Alberto 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

ENVEPolicy: Releasing the Potential for

Growth in the Space SectorAdam Struzik (Mazowieckie, Poland) October 2013

ENVEGreen Paper on A 2030 framework for

climate and energy policies Sirpa Hertell (Espoo, Finland)

January/

February 2014

NATStrategic Guidelines for the sustain-

able development of EU aquacultureMarialuisa Coppola (Cerignola, Italy) November 2013

JCC Montenegro

Increasing absorption capacity of EU

pre-accession funds and improving administra-

tive capacity at the local level in Montenegro

Witold Stepien Łódzkie voivodeship (Poland) &

Aleksandar Bogdanović (Cetinje, Montenegro)November 2013