Introduction to EU Policies

1
Introduction to EU Policies Institutional
Architecture

• IX.
• EC policies

2
The objectives of the EU

• Article 3 of the EC Treaty
• Article 2 of the EC Treaty
• The main one achievment of the internal market
• EC Treaty gives to the EC additional competencies

3
Horizontal policies(have to be taken into
account while attaining internal market aims)

• Consumer protection (article 153)
• European Union now more than 456 million
  consumers
• Consumer policy first emerged in the mid-1970s.
  The Treaty of Rome did not provide for such a
  policy and it was not until the Paris Summit in
  1972 that the Heads of State and Government first
  called for political action in this area. The
  Single Act introduced the notion of the consumer
  into the Treaty
• Projects/mechanisms
• e.g. RAPEX rapid alert system for dangerous
  consumer products (with the exception of food,
  pharmaceutical and medical devices, which are
  covered by other mechanisms). It facilitates the
  rapid exchange of information between Member
  States and the Commission on measures taken to
  prevent or restrict the marketing or use of
  products posing a serious risk to the health and
  safety of consumers. Both measures ordered by
  national authorities and measures taken
  voluntarily by producers and distributors are
  reported by RAPEX.
• Legislation EC shall take into account the
  consumer protection issues while adopting
  harmonisation measures
• E.g. Directive on the approximation of the laws,
  regulations and administrative provisions of the
  Member States concerning misleading advertising,
• Directive concerning unfair business-to-consumer
  commercial practices
• or The Product Liability Directive
• principle of the producers liability (Maria
  Victoria Gonzales vs. Medicina Asturiana
  (C-103/00))

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• Minimal standards of protections of workers
• Legal base concerning e.g. improvement of the
  working environment, protection of workers
  health and safety, working conditions, protection
  of workers where their employment contract is
  terminated, conditions of employment of the third
  country nationals (article 137 of the EC Treaty)
• E.g Protection of employees in the event of the
  insolvency of the employer (Andrea Francovich and
  Danila Bonifaci and others vs. Italian Republic)
• Or Directive on organization of working time
  (Problems in Poland)
• Or Directive requires employers to inform
  employees of the conditions applicable to the
  contract or employment relationship
• Directive on the approximation of the laws of the
  Member States relating to the safeguarding of
  employees' rights in the event of transfers of
  undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings
  or businesses.
• Promotion of coroprate social responsibility , a
  concept whereby companies integrate social and
  environmental concerns in their business
  operations and in their interaction with their
  stakeholders on a voluntary basis (? LS)
• Additionally EC coordinate the cooperation
  between member states in the social policy and
  employment
• European Foundation for the Improvement of Living
  and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND), Dublin, a
  tripartite body of the Union, created in 1975
  with the aim of assisting in the planning and
  introduction of better living and working
  conditions in Europe
• EURES website providing information, advice and
  recruitment/placement (job-matching) services for
  the benefit of workers and employers as well as
  any citizen wishing to benefit from the principle
  of the free movement of persons.

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• Gender Equality (article 141)
• Principle of equal pay for equal work or work of
  equal value
• Legal base to adopt measures to promote equality
• Case law of the ECJ (Defrenne, Kreil, Colson and
  Kamman, Marschall)
• E.g 2006 gender equality directive (Directive on
  the implementation of the principle of equal
  opportunities and equal treatment of men and
  women in matters of employment and occupation )
• access to employment, including promotion, and to
  vocational training
• working conditions, including pay
• occupational social security schemes.
• See article 13 of the EC Treaty (fight with all
  forms of discrimination)
• 2007 is the European Year of Equal Opportunities
  for All
• European Institute for Gender Equality will
  assist the European institutions and the Member
  States in the promotion of gender equality in all
  Community policies and resulting national
  policies and in the fight against discrimination
  based on sex. The Institute will also raise the
  profile of such issues among Union citizens. It
  should be operational on 19 January 2008 at the
  latest.
• PROGRESS - financial support, 743 million for
  analysis, mutual learning, awareness-raising and
  dissemination activities, as well as assistance
  for the main players over the period 2007-2013
  divided into five sections corresponding to five
  main fields of activity employment, social
  protection and inclusion, working conditions,
  diversity and combating discrimination, and
  equality between women and men

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• Environment (article 174- 176)
• EC has to take into account the environmental
  issues while adopting harmonization measures
  (chemicals, products components, Eco-label ect)
• Measures to protect air, water, soil, natural
  habitats
• Directive on environmental liability ("polluter
  pays" principle)
• Directive on the assessment of the effects of
  certain plans and programs on the environment
• EC signed the international agreements e.g.
• European Council in Barcelona decision on
  integration of the environmental policy in the
  external policies of the General Affairs Council
• Århus Convention on information, public
  participation and access to justice in
  environmental matters
• Stockholm Elimination and minimization of
  production, use and release of persistent organic
  pollutants (POPs)
• Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework
  Convention on Climate Change signed in 2002
• emissions of six greenhouse gases quotas system
• Actions and programs (Nature 2000, LIFE )
• Policy making
• Main problem global warming
• Energy issues
• Sustainable development
• European Environmental Agency

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• Public health (article 152)
• The "mad cow " and "dioxin" crises and the
  emergence or re-emergence of certain diseases
  such as tuberculosis or SARS (Severe Acute
  Respiratory Syndrome), have highlighted the need
  for a genuine Community-level health policy.
• A high level of human health protection shall be
  ensured in the definition and implementation of
  all Community policies and activities
• Actions of the EC directed towards improving
  public health, preventing human illness and
  diseases, and obviating sources of danger to
  human health, promoting research, health
  information and education
• European strategy against cancer
• Action plan to combat AIDS (network of
  epidiological surveillance)
• Acrtion plan to combat drugs (spects directly
  linked to public health, information campagnes)
• Community actions concerning mental health
• Rules of safety for the blood and human tissue
  exchange
• Any harmonization of the national health
  protection systems is explicitly excluded

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Sectoral policies

• Transport
• EC transport policy covers in principle the rail,
  road, waterway transport but Council has decided
  that also air transport and maritime transport
• EC adopts common rules applicable to
  international transport to or from the territory
  of a Member State or passing across the territory
  of one or more Member States the conditions
  under which non-resident carriers may operate
  transport services within a Member State
  measures to improve transport safety ect
• Agencies
• European Railway Agency
• European amritime Safety Agency
• European Aviation Agency
• Projects, action plans
• Galileo (new generation of satellite navigation
  services, alternative to GPS and GLONASS)
• SESAR (new generation European air traffic
  management system)
• i2010 (promotion of the use of new technologies
  in order to make cars safer, cleaner and more
  efficient)

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• Agriculture (and fisheries)
• Exception to the rule of free market of goods
• Special measures to protect the European
  agriculture
• EC Treaty gives the EC, et not to MS, right to
  intervene in the free market of agricultural
  products by creating the common organisations of
  agricultural markets
• The market organisations seek primarily to
  achieve the objectives of the CAP, in particular
  market stabilisation, a fair standard of living
  for farmers and increased productivity in
  agriculture. They cover about 90 of final
  agricultural production in the Community.
• They fix single prices for agricultural products
  on all European markets, granting aid to
  producers or operators in the sector,
  establishing mechanisms to control production and
  organising trade with non-member countries. It
  also encourages farmers to form producer
  organisations.
• Now objectives of the CAP have changed - more
  cohesion than intervention on markets
• Since 2005 European Agricultural Guarantee Fund
  (EAGF) to finance the CAP (before, since 1962,
  there was European Agricultural Guidance and
  Guarantee Fund)
• Common commercial policy

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Auxiliary policies

• Research and development
• Role of the EC as one of the biggest sponsor of
  the research and development
• Idea of the European Research Area
• Framework Programmes
• Vocational training
• European Centre for the Development of Vocational
  Training, Thessaloniki
• Youth
• Article 149 of the ECT
• Youth Programme - opportunities for mobility and
  active participation in the construction of the
  Europe and contributes to the development of
  youth policy, based on non-formal education,
  promote exchanges and discussion meetings between
  young people, voluntary work, participation and
  active citizenship, and the innovation and
  improvement of international training and
  cooperation skills in the youth field.

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• Education
• Bolognia Process
• E.g. Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci,
  Grundtvig, Jean Monnet, Minerva, Erasmus Mundus
  programs
• Employment (without some aspect of minimal
  standards of protection of workers)
• Open method of coordination
• See also cohesion policy
• Culture
• EC contribute to the flowering of the cultures,
  while respecting their diversity. EC supports
  efforts of MS and coordinates cooperation on 
• improvement of the knowledge and dissemination of
  the culture and history of the European peoples,
• conservation and safeguarding of cultural
  heritage of European significance,
• non-commercial cultural exchanges,
• artistic and literary creation, including in the
  audiovisual sector.
• E.g Culture 2000
• European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008)

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Structural policy ?concept of European Union
integration can only be considered credible if
these States maintain a sufficient level of
economic and social cohesion?Harmonious
development
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Structural policy(economic definition)

• it is a generic term for the whole of the
  politico-economic measures for the organization
  of the structure of the national economy.
• A goal of the structural policy is the avoidance
  and/or overcoming of structure crises, which
  disturb the overall economic equilibrium.
• With structural policy changes in the economy,
  which are caused by new products, globalization
  or structural change, are weakened or arranged
  socially compatible.

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Agenda 2000 (objectives of the structural policy
of the EU) two challenges- to improve the
effectiveness of the structural policy
instruments so that economic and social cohesion
can be achieved- to ensure that structural
policy plays a continuing role in the Union's
future enlargement, bringing in the countries of
central and eastern Europe.
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• European Union (EU) cohesion policy aims to
  increase economic and social cohesion between the
  Member States and reduce regional disparities in
  development.
• With enlargement, social and economic disparities
  between the regions of the EU have widened and
  these present new challenges for cohesion policy.
  Effective means of reducing economic, social and
  regional inequalities are therefore needed.
• The EU channels support to the Member States
  through Objective programmes prepared by the
  Member States and approved by the Commission. The
  programmes are approved for a fixed term. The
  next programming period will run from 2007 to
  2013.
•  

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Financial support is essentialEuropean Cohesion
and Structural Funds

• European Regional Development fund
• European Social Fund
• European Rural Development fund
• European Cohesion Fund

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• Structural funds
• the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is
  currently the largest. Since 1975 it has provided
  support for the creation of infrastructure and
  productive job-creating investment, mainly for
  businesses
• the European Social Fund (ESF), set up in 1958,
  contributes to the integration into working life
  of the unemployed and disadvantaged sections of
  the population
• Cohesion
• It is intended for countries whose per capita GDP
  is below 90 of the Community average. The
  purpose of the Cohesion Fund is to grant
  financing to environment and transport
  infrastructure projects. However, aid under the
  Cohesion Fund is subject to certain conditions.
  If the public deficit of a beneficiary Member
  State exceeds 3 of national GDP (EMU convergence
  criteria), no new project will be approved until
  the deficit has been brought under control.

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2005 European Agricultural Fund for Rural
Development (EAFRD)

• The Fund will contribute to achieving the three
  objectives linked to the three headings of rural
  development defined at Community level, namely
• improving the competitiveness of agriculture and
  forestry by means of support for restructuring
• improving the environment and the countryside by
  means of support for land management
• improving the quality of life in rural areas and
  encouraging diversification of economic activity.
  
• The Fund complements national, regional and
  local actions and contributes to the priorities
  of the Community. The Commission and the Member
  States must also ensure that support from the
  Fund and from the Member States is compliant with
  the actions, policies and priorities of the
  Commission and with the measures financed under
  the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF).

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These Funds will be used to finance cohesion and
regional policy between 2007 and 2013 in the
framework of the three objectives, namely

• the "convergence" objective to accelerate the
  convergence of the least developed EU Member
  States and regions by improving growth and
  employment conditions. This objective is financed
  by the ERDF, the ESF and the Cohesion Fund. It
  represents 81.5 of the total resources
  allocated. The co-financing ceilings for public
  expenditure amount to 75 for the ERDF and the
  ESF and 85 for the Cohesion Fund
• the "regional competitiveness and employment"
  objective to anticipate economic and social
  change, promote innovation, entrepreneurship,
  environmental protection and the development of
  labour markets which include regions not covered
  by the Convergence objective. It is financed by
  the ERDF and the ESF and accounts for 16 of the
  total allocated resources. Measures under this
  objective can receive co-financing of up to 50
  of public expenditure
• the "European territorial cooperation" objective
  to strengthen cooperation at cross-border,
  transnational and interregional levels in the
  fields of urban, rural and coastal development,
  and foster the development of economic relations
  and networking between small and medium-sized
  enterprises (SMEs). This objective is financed by
  the ERDF and represents 2.5 of the total
  allocated resources. Measures under the
  Territorial Cooperation objective can receive
  co-financing of up to 75 of public expenditure.

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Seminar

• Andrea Francovich and Danila Bonifaci and others
  vs. Italian Republic
• Gender equality a case
• Open Method of coordination