Appendix 8
(version of 24.1.17)
European Economic and Social Committee
Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society
2017 TEN Section Work Programme
(Draft)
On 25 October, the Juncker Commission presented its third annual Work Programme: Delivering a Europe that protects, empowers and defends[1]. The 2017 work programme proposes 21 key initiatives, as well as a further 18 REFIT proposals to improve the quality of existing EU legislation and ensure rules are fit for purpose. To ensure a focus on delivery, the Commission work programme identifies 34 pending priority proposals which have been made in the past two years and require swift adoption by the Parliament and Council.
The draft 2017 TEN Section work programme outlined below presents the political priorities of the TEN Section for 2017, by taking into account the Commission's work programme and the input received from TEN Section members, especially the members of the TEN Section Bureau, as discussed in a special working session which took place on 15 November 2016.
A number of follow-up and planned activities are described for each of the policy areas. The work programme will be subject to further adaptations once the Commission's legislative planning has been further clarified in early 2017 (Rolling Programme).
As seen in the appendix, a total of 35 referrals are already expected, based on the Commission's work programme. In addition, the TEN Section will be working on a limited number of own-initiative/exploratory opinions and information evaluation reports. At the same time, the TEN Section is planning to organise several events and to carry out one study.
Digital Agenda
The digital economy has become the preserve of the United States and Asia, and the European Union (EU) seems to be lagging behind. However, the EU can still make up ground with a European Digital Single Market which is likely to give a new lease of life to the sector: the creation of an EU fully integrated Digital Single Market would bring significant gains over time by generating up to EUR250billion in additional growth and providing hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
In 2017, the section's main priority in the digital field will be its contribution to completing the implementation of the Digital Single Market strategy (DSM), which is one of the major political priorities of the European Commission (EC).
In early 2017, the TEN Section will finalise the process leading to the adoption of five ongoing opinions related to the DSM strategy, namely:
• European Gigabit Society
• European Electronic Communications Code (Recast)
• Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC)
• Internet connectivity in local communities
• 5G for Europe.
As announced in last year's Commission's work programme and in the rolling programme, the remaining proposals of the strategy will be presented in the next few months. These include:
• Initiative on e-commerce
• Initiative on e-publications and e-books
• Legislative proposal on free flow of data in the DSM (tbc)
• Communication on EU Catalogue on ICT Standards
• Revision of the European Interoperability Strategy (EIS) and the European Interoperability Framework (EIF).
• Mid-term review of DSM implementation
• REFIT initiative on ENISA mandate
• REFIT initiative on modernisation of the regulation establishing top-level domain names
Owing to the crosscutting nature of some of these initiatives, the TEN Section will act in close cooperation with the INT Section, the Single Market Observatory and the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change. In addition, cooperation among sections within the EESC will be reinforced using the Digital Agenda team site, set up by the TEN Section's secretariat.
Regarding the TEN Section's efforts to seek out direct contacts with the civil society stakeholders, a Smart Cities and Smart Islands conference is due to be organised in order to present the best practices identified during the study visits. Building on the Smart Cities and Smart Islands project reports, the Section will also be very active in drawing up two information reports on smart cities and islands, to comply with the Commission's request to consult the EESC on the Mid-term evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility. In particular, the Section's contribution will complement the Commission's policy evaluations and fitness checks by providing a qualitative review of civil society organisations' and Member States' practices.
Cybersecurity will continue to be a primary concern for the TEN Section in 2017. Every day, cybersecurity incidents cause major economic damage to European businesses and the economy at large and undermine the trust of citizens and enterprises in the digital society. To follow up on the opinion on "Strengthening Europe's Cyber Resilience System and Fostering a Competitive and Innovative Cybersecurity Industry", the TEN Section envisages to organise an event in cooperation with other sections concerned and the groups, which will aim to identify and discuss the measures needed to further address the cybersecurity issue, including the question of cybersecurity industrial capacities in the EU.
The Permanent Study Group on the Digital Agenda (PSG DA) will keep playing a central role in shaping the TEN Section's position on most of the files relating to the DSM and provide its extensive expertise in drawing up opinions on digital agenda topics.
In early 2017, the PSG DA will address the main features of the study on the ethics of Big Data commissioned in June 2016 with the aim of finding out how to balance the fundamental human values of European society with the uses of Big Data for economic gains. Given the importance of this topic, the presentation of the study will be complemented with different follow-up activities. Among other things, a Big Data conference is due to be organised in Brussels with the participation of civil society players (social dialogue partners, academics and business) who have direct, hands-on experience. The conclusions of this event will be actively disseminated to all stakeholders, ensuring a structured follow-up for a topic of high interest for civil society.
As a pool of expertise, the PSG DA will strive to approach several issues in a crosscutting manner cooperating closely both with its counterparts in the European Commission (DG-CONNECT) and the European Parliament (EP-ITRE Committee) as well as with other EESC sections and bodies such as the Single Market Observatory.
One of the topics the PSG DA will seek to address is the taxation practices of large digital international companies and platforms. This is a very timely topic as the European Commission and several Member States are trying to tackle the inconsistency between generating income in one country while paying taxes in fiscal administrations with the most advantageous conditions. Besides working on an opinion on this subject, the PSG DA might propose organising an event with a broad range of stakeholders affected by this practice, with the purpose of searching for alternatives to the current taxation model.
The prospects of digital start-ups set up by young people are another topic the PSG DA would like to explore through transversal cooperation, in line with its crosscutting nature. The opportunities that the digital market offers to young people are already broadly known, but nevertheless this is still a field where young people can find huge opportunities for their professional development. Two other topics that the PSG DA would like to address both in opinions as well as through direct contacts with stakeholders are: the attractiveness of the digital field for women and consequences of digitalisation on working conditions.
Energy
Energy and climate policy remain one of the Juncker Commission's priority areas, overseen by one of the six Vice-Presidents of the Commission, Maroš Šefčovič (Vice-President responsible for the Energy Union) and MiguelArias Cañete as the Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy. It is also expected to feature as an important policy area under the forthcoming Council presidencies.
In general, the drivers behind the prominence of energy and climate among EU policies are concerns about political tensions in the neighbourhood of the European Union and the impetus provided by the Paris Climate Agreement (COP21) in which the global commitment towards decarbonising economies was formalised. In a recent communication on the implications of COP21, the Commission highlighted the importance of the Energy Union programme and stressed the significance of fast-tracking legislative proposals linked to energy and climate policy.
Specifically, this policy area is driven forward by the strategic framework of the European Energy Union, which defined the objectives of the EU's energy and climate policy and set out an ambitious roadmap for EU-level policy-making in this field in February 2015. In this context, the year 2016 was – according to the European Commission – the Energy Union's 'Year of Delivery'. However, the EU's energy policy agenda for 2017 remains busy, particularly since some of the policies expected for late 2016 are likely to spill over into 2017. As a result, the TEN Section's energy agenda will include a number of key Commission referrals in the first half of the year.
In practical terms, the TEN Section expects the following files to be discussed among EU institutions in late-2016/early 2017 in the energy field:
• Security of Electricity Supply, including the 15% electricity interconnection target
• Electricity Market Design, including the review of the role of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER)
• Governance of the Energy Union, including national energy/climate policy plans for 2020-2030
• Renewable Energy Package, including bioenergy sustainability policy
• Energy efficiency
• Energy Performance of Buildings , including the "Smart finance for smart buildings" initiatives
• Energy Union Strategy on Research, Innovation and Technology
• European Energy Security Strategy
• Analysis of prices and costs (including taxes and subsidies)
• State of the Energy Union
Some of these forthcoming proposals, particularly those on market design, the governance package, and the renewables package, are related directly to priority work areas of the TEN Section, as reflected in the output in 2016.
In 2017, further work on energy priorities will be carried out. First, the TEN Section will expand its activities related to the European Energy Dialogue. Beyond the work on the aforementioned opinions and discussions with numerous stakeholders in this context, the EESC's response to the State of the Energy Union 2016 report will provide a unique opportunity to gather and voice an alternative, civil society view on the State of the Energy Union – through a public hearing, discussions among members and with stakeholders, and through this specific opinion. Recognising the wide variety of Energy Union-related dossiers, the Section will organise – together with other Sections – a “stocktaking” event in the context of the preparation/launch of the opinion on the State of the Energy Union 2016. In addition, EESC members will continue to conduct the Energy Dialogue by participating in conferences (such as the 2017 European Sustainability Week, Citizen's Energy Forum, European Nuclear Energy Forum and Energy Infrastructure Forum) and 'go local' missions across the Member States. The issues, concerns and information obtained through these activities in 2017 will be summarised in an information report to be adopted in early-2018.
Second, in the context of the market design and renewable package proposals, the TEN Section will continue its work on the changing nature and role of consumers in energy markets, reflecting the Energy Union's objective to put consumers at its heart. Specifically, the TEN Section will organise an energy workshop on the 'evolving role of consumers in energy markets' in order to identify the opportunities and risks faced by consumers in the transition to a low-carbon society. In addition, on the basis of the feedback of stakeholders, the TEN Section plans to produce a follow-up study to the EESC study "Changing the future of energy: civil society as a main player in renewable energy generation" (2015), with a stronger focus on the barriers faced by energy prosumers and prosumer cooperatives across a limited number of Member States.
The TEN Section recognises the importance of looking beyond the borders of Europe, particularly with a view to ensuring the security of the energy supply. One of the key tools in this area is the Energy Community which aims to extend the EU internal energy market to South East Europe and beyond, on the basis of alegally binding framework. The TEN Section will seek to actively engage with the Energy Community process in 2017.
In 2016, the Permanent Study Group "Towards a European Energy Community" focused on strengthening the evidence base of the TEN Section's engagement with the Energy Union process, especially by inviting leading external experts to discuss the governance and economics of the European Energy Union. In 2017, this process is to be continued – for instance through the meeting on the "Politics of the Energy Union" scheduled for January – in order to enrich the scope and depth of the expertise of the PSG members.
To follow up on the opinion on the nuclear illustrative programmes (PINC), the Section will organise a "going local" event in Bucharest, which will examine the prospects of the nuclear energy sector in Eastern Europe. The event will take place in the second part of the year, in cooperation with local civil society organisations.
In 2017, the TEN Section will also produce two position papers, the first one summing up the key viewpoints of the EESC on the Energy Union initiative and the second one bringing together the EESC's views on the evolving role of consumers in energy markets.
Transport
In line with the priorities of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU and in the framework of the European maritime year, the EESC will provide a follow-up to the European Commission's planned evaluations and fitness checks of maritime legislation and its proposal on Port Reception Facilities. In its work, the TEN Section will draw on its members' vast experience and knowledge of maritime transport policy and its challenges, as demonstrated in numerous previous opinions. The TEN Section will also participate in the planned events for "European Shipping Week", which will take place in Brussels in February/March 2017 and will cover topics such as global trade developments, maritime careers, digitalisation and decarbonisation of the shipping industry.
The European Commission has announced in its annual work programme that one of its priorities in 2017 is the implementation of the strategy on low-emission mobility. With regard to the global importance of emissions reduction, in particular decarbonisation of transport as one of the most polluting sectors, the TEN Section welcomes this initiative and will closely follow this subject with a view to increasing the efficiency and sustainability of transport by promoting lower emissions, building on its recent opinions on the COP 21 conclusions and decarbonisation of transport. In this context, a gradual shift to zero emission vehicles, particularly through electrification of transport, will be a key topic. Bearing in mind the need for a worldwide coherent approach to emissions reduction, the Section will – within its remit – take greater account of developments in other parts of the world (e.g. USA) too.