European Union News - Internal Market

Due to the the rapid build-up of the surplus of emissions allowances, the European Commission presented a formal proposal to revise the auction time profile and delay ("back-load") the auctioning of 900 million allowances in the third phase of the EU ETS starting next year. In addition, it adopted a report on the state of the European carbon market which sets out a range of possible structural measures that can be taken to tackle the surplus.

The new legislation proposed by the European Commission supposes attaining a 40% objective of the under-represented sex in non-executive board-member positions in publicly listed companies, with the exception of small and medium enterprises. The Directive will establish that companies which have a lower share of the under-represented sex among the non-executive directors will be required to make appointments to those positions on the basis of a comparative analysis of the qualifications of each candidate, by applying clear, gender-neutral and unambiguous criteria.

The Europe-China Standardization Information Platform (CESIP) was launched as a one-stop-shop for market access information to help businesses internationalize and ultimately strengthen SME trade between Europe and China.

A new assessment from the European Environment Agency (EEA) confirms that waste is increasingly moving across EU borders, for recovery or disposal, and trade in hazardous waste is also expected to increase. The report recommends encouraging new technologies and business models that generate less waste, or waste that is less hazardous.

The International Trade Committee in the European Parliament approved two safeguard measures to preserve the interests of vulnerable EU banana producers in forthcoming EU trade deals with Central America and Peru and Columbia. In particular, the two measures seek to establish a general safety-net for all EU producers to help them adapt to liberalisation of trade.

The European Commission published its autumn forecast 2012-14 that shows, on annual basis, that GDP is set to contract by 0.3% in the EU and 0.4% in the euro area in 2012. GDP growth for 2013 is projected at 0.4% in the EU and 0.1% in the euro area. With regard to the government deficits, those are expected to fall to 3.6% in the EU and 3.3% in the euro area in 2012.

The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament commented on one of the three key building blocks for establishing an EU banking union that its bank crisis resolution plans focus too closely on individual troubled banks, and must do more to address crises that could infect an entire banking sector.

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2012 presented by the European Commission and that compares 190 European regions shows that there is considerable diversity in regional innovation performance not only across Europe but also within the Member States. Most of the European countries have regions at different levels of innovation performance. The report also shows how in almost all European countries capital regions are the national innovation leaders.

Compared with August 2012, the industrial producer price index rose by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU in September 2012. However, decreases were recorded in Greece (-0.6%), Spain and Italy (both -0.1%). Compared with September 2011, industrial producer prices gained 2.7% in the euro area and 2.6% in the EU.

Vítor Caldeira, President of the European Court of Auditors, presented in the European Parliament the 2011 Annual Report on the implementation of the 2011 EU budget. According to Mr Caldeira, although revenue and commitments for payments were free from material error, payments were affected by material error. Thus, the Court found too many cases of EU money not hitting the target or being used sub-optimally.

The European Commission published a decision that makes mandatory for Member States to open the radio spectrum by 30 June 2014 at the latest, and lays down harmonised technical conditions to allow coexistence between different technologies. On this basis the EU will enjoy up to twice the amount of spectrum for high speed wireless broadband as in the United States, namely around 1000 MHz.

The European Central Bank's bank lending survey shows the changed on the credit situation in the euro area. The survey was developed by the Eurosystem to bring a better understanding of the behaviour of bank lending for companies, consumers and households. The last issue of the survey includes for the first time a question regarding the impact of financial turmoil in access to retail and wholesale credit and another one regarding the impact of the sovereign debt crisis on banks’ funding conditions and credit standards.