European Commission Work Programme 2012

The Commission has juggled the need to respond to urgent new needs that become apparent as a result of the crisis, and the ongoing need to work on structural issues where policy-makers, investors and citizens rely on the Commission to look beyond the immediate and help shape a prosperous and sustainable Europe for the future

The focus of the Commission Work Programme lies on:

1.  Building a Europe of stability and responsibility (implement and frontload economic reform (six-pack); continuing the financial sector reform through investor protection; and measures to secure sustainable public revenue, as a modern VAT system, combatting fraud and lightening the bureaucratic burden for SMEs)

2.  Building a Union of sustainable growth and solidarity (a single market for growth, including the digital agenda and rules on collective redress; preserving the social model (measures in the area of pensions and safe retirement products); and a sustainable future).

For the European Commission, the EP and the Council it will be necessary to take a flexible approach in dealing with these initiatives. New urgencies may arise in the coming months which could not have been foreseen for this work programme. The wide ranging demands of the EU’s new economic governance will require much time and attention from all three institutions, and the previous planning and pace of negotiations may have to be swept aside to make way for urgent decisions.

Hereafter you can find a more detailed overview of the initiatives tabled in the Commission’s work programme of 2012

Forthcoming Initiatives 2012

Title / Type of initiative / Description of scope of objectives / Indicated timing
Internal Market and Services
Legislation on a framework for Bank recovery and resolution / Legislative / To harmonise crisis management and resolution tools so that all Member States could effectively
resolve ailing financial institutions without the need to call upon public funds. / 6 June 2012
Amendment of the UCITS Directive as regards rules on UCITS depositary functions, on UCITS remuneration policy / Legislative / The aim is to amend the UCITS Directive to (i) create a regulatory regime with robust investor protection, (ii) further strengthen the EU internal market efficiency in the investment fund sector and (iii) ensure that the UCITS legislative framework does not impair financial stability on the market. More concretely, on the operational level, it will aim at providing appropriate solutions for UCITS depositaries as well as for UCITS remuneration policy. / July 2012
PRIPs (precontractual disclosures of complex investment products) / Legislative / The purpose of this instrument is to ensure a high and consistent level of investor protection embodied in Community law, with a LPF for the originators and distributors of retail investment products and increased efficiency in cross-border business. / July 2012
Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) / Legislative / The aim of the review of the Directive concerning IORP is to maintain a level playing field with Solvency II and promote more cross-border activity in this field. / Dec. 2012
Revision of the Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) / Legislative / The aim of the revision is to improve harmonisation, legal certainty, and precision in definitions and at the same time avoidance of existing difficulties in the application of the current IMD. / July 2012
Securities Law Directive / Legislative / The main objective of the measure is to reduce the divergence between national substantive laws on book-entry securities and therefore to make a substantive contribution to the simplification of financial markets operations and to their legal safety. / Q4 2012
Close-out netting / Legislative / Close-out netting is an important risk mitigation tool to reduce counterparty credit risk because it gives priority over unsecured creditors to the non-defaulting counterparty in case of insolvency. The objective is to increase legal certainty and safety of bi- and multilateral netting agreements, but also, as part of an EU framework for crisis management in the financial sector, to empower national authorities to impose a temporary stay on the rights to close-out netting. / Dec. 2012
Third Anti Money Laundering
Directive / Legislative / Revision of international standards is underway and scheduled for completion by February 2012. COM's own review has also begun and a report is planned in early 2012. It will be necessary to rapidly implement international standards once adopted into EU legislation. / Oct. 2012
Amending the Financial
Conglomerates Directive (FICOD II) / Legislative / Following the FSBs (G20) decision of January 2010 to explore regulating the parent entities of financial conglomerates, the Commission commits to agreements and recommendations at the G20 level to enforce supervisors' grip on the parents of complex financial groups, today mostly non-regulated holding companies. The effectiveness of CRD and Solvency 2, as well as related regulations in the financial sector such as those for UCITS and AIFM, and most importantly the crisis management framework, could be much stronger if the parent entity would explicitly be held responsible and accountable for meeting all requirements in a consistent manner at a conglomerate wide level and across the mass of regulated entities in the group. / Dec. 2012
Proposal for a regulation on
information on the payer and the
beneficiary accompanying transfers of funds / Legislative / The Fund Transfer regulation dates back to 2006, and implements into EU legislation the Financial Action Task Force's Special (FATF) Recommendation VII – aimed at ensuring full traceability of transfers of funds with the objective of combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In February 2012, FATF updated its standards – including SRVII. At the end of 2011, the Commission
tasked external consultants to conduct a review of the fund transfer regulation. / Oct. 2012
Bank accounts legislative package / Legislative / An initiative aiming at increasing the transparency and comparability of bank account fees, as well as to render bank account switching easier for consumers. / Nov. 2012
Insurance – Solvency II (Directive
2009/138/EC)Level2/implementing
measures / Legislative / Introduce the calculation of the new Solvency II risk sensitive capital requirement
as well as the level 2 technical measures. / Nov. 2012
Commission Delegated Act specifying certain elements of the Regulation on short selling and certain aspects of CDS / Legislative / Delegated act specifying: certain definitions; the method of calculation of short positions; what constitutes an uncovered CDS; notification thresholds for short positions in sovereign debt; the threshold for suspending restrictions on uncovered short selling of sovereign debt; what constitutes a significant price fall for financial instruments other than shares; and what constitutes an adverse event or development. / June 2012
Commission Implementing Regulation laying down implementing technical standards according to the Regulation on
short selling and CDS / Legislative / Implementing technical standard with regard to: the means for public disclosure of net short positions in shares; the format of the information to be provided to ESMA on net short positions; the types of agreements, arrangements and measures to adequately ensure settlement of shares and sovereign debt; and the date and period for the determination of the principal venue for a share. / June 2012
Commission Delegated Regulation
supplementing the Reg. on short selling and CDS with regard to regulatory technical standards / Legislative / Regulatory technical standard specifying: notification and disclosure requirements for net short positions, details of information to be provided to ESMA on net short positions and the method for calculating the turnover to determine exempted shares / June 2012
Implementing measures under Directive 2010/61/EC on AIFMD / Legislative / The AIFMD comprises about 50 so-called level 2 measures calling on the Commission to specify certain provisions of the Directive. These empowerments cover almost all areas of the Directive with the exemption of the scope and a specific chapter on managers of a certain type of fund. / July 2012
Commission Regulation on limitation period and further procedures for fining CRAs (Delegated act) / Legislative / Oct. 2012
Initiative on disclosure of non- financial information by companies / Legislative/Non-legislative / The proposal aims at improving transparency of non-financial information by companies, while avoiding unduly increasing the administrative burden. / Oct. 2012
Commission consultation on possible initiatives to strengthen the recovery and resolution
arrangements applicable to financial institutions other than banks and large investment firms / Non-Legislative / The objective should be to ensure a coherent framework so that any systemically relevant financial institutions in difficulties could be resolved in a way that corresponds with the principles established by the Financial Stability Board and endorsed by the G20. / July 2012
On-line gambling in the Internal Market / Non-Legislative / The Communication is a follow-up to the Green paper on on-line gambling, providing a substantial evaluation of the responses to the consultation, and subsequently identifying 1) key challenges for the co-existence of national regulatory models within the Internal Market and 2) initiatives to be taken at national and EU level. / Sept. 2012
Endorsement of new IFRS accounting standards and interpretations / Non-Legislative / Endorse high quality international accounting standards (several times during the year) / Dec. 2012
Action plan on the EU corporate
governance and company law / Non-legislative / Taking the lessons of the crisis as regards listed companies beyond financial institutions, i.e. effective functioning of boards, protection of minority shareholders, shareholder/investor engagement, and general issues concerning the operation of the "comply or explain" system and monitoring across the Member States. / Oct. 2012
Communication and proposal for a
legislative instrument to improve the gender balance in the boards of companies listed on stock exchanges (soft law) / Non-Legislative / Following the gender equality strategy, a Recommendation would aim to improve gender balance in company boards. As well as being a fundamental right, gender equality is crucial for the EU’s growth and competitiveness. / Q3 2012
Communication "Towards an EU Cloud Computing Strategy" / Non-Legislative / The Communication will address several aspects of the current regulatory framework, which was conceived considering less demanding applications. The aspects of interoperability, standardisation and portability of data and applications will also be addressed. / June 2012
Commission Report to the on the Review of Directive 2007/64/EC on payment services in the internal market ('PSD') / Non-legislative / Dec. 2012
Report from the Com.on the application of Directive2006/48/EC relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions to microcredit finance / Non-Legislative / June 2012
Report from the Commission to the EP, the Council, the EESC and the Committee of the Regions. Operation of Directive 2004/25/EC on takeover bids. / Non-Legislative / The Report will review the operation of the Takeover Bids Directive. / June 2012
Report from the Commission to the EP and Council on the application of Directive2007/44/EC
as regards procedural rules and
evaluation criteria for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increase of holdings in the financial sector / Non-Legislative / Directive 2007/44/EC specified identical procedural rules and evaluation criteria for the prudential assessment of acquisitions and increases of holdings in the financial sector.
According to Article 6 of the Directive, the Commission has to review the application of the Directive and submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council, together with any appropriate proposals to review the directive. / Sept. 2012
Taxation and customs union
A Quick Reaction Mechanism against VAT fraud / Legislative / Recent experience has demonstrated that the Union's capacity to react is not quick enough when
confronted with sudden and massive VAT fraud phenomena in certain Member States. Until now,
derogations have been granted to individual Member States to stop this type of fraud in the affected sectors, but the procedure for granting derogations is not flexible enough to ensure a prompt and suitable reaction. The proposed new mechanism for adopting derogatory measures - quick reaction mechanism - would considerably increase the speed to deal with these problems. / Q3 2012
Eliminating double taxation on cross-border dividend payments to portfolio investors / Non-Legislative / Solutions to the double taxation problems raised by the levying of withholding taxes on cross-border dividends paid to portfolio investors. (Commission Communication) / Q2 2012
Good governance in relation to tax havens / Non-legislative / This initiative will develop a reinforced strategy to protect the EU against the challenges of
uncooperative jurisdictions outside the EU (including tax havens and aggressive tax planning). / 4Q 2012
Justice
Insolvency proceedings / Legislative / Revision of the Insolvency Regulation, including the question of insolvency of groups and enterprises, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cross-border insolvency proceedings. / Dec. 2012
An EU framework for collective
redress / Legislative / This initiative would follow up on the full range of previous Commission work on collective redress at the EU level. It will be a horizontal initiative covering several policy areas. / Dec. 2012
Directive on reinforcing the protection of the euro against counterfeiting with criminal law sanctions / Legislative / It will aim to increase protection of the euro by providing more efficient criminal legislation and procedures; and to a stronger monitoring of the EU rules in Member States. The citizens should be sufficiently protected against euro-fraud and counterfeiting by means of criminal sanctions. / June 2012
Communication on the Directive
2006/114/EC on Misleading and
Comparative Advertising / Non-Legislative / The Communication will identify and examine areas for possible revision of the
Directive. / June 2012
Green Paper on and evaluation of revision of Regulation 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings / Non Legislative / Verification of the application of the Regulation by the Member States in view of
improving the coordination of insolvency proceedings in the EU. / Nov. 2012
Competition
Actions for damages for breaches of antitrust law / Legislative / The objective of this legislative initiative would be to ensure effective damages actions before
national courts for breaches of EU antitrust rules and to clarify the interrelation of such private actions with public enforcement by the Commission and the national competition authorities. / Q4 2012
Review of the State aid rescue and restructuring guidelines / Non-legislative / The current Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines are applicable until October 2012. Although the
financial crisis led to a prolongation of the current R&R guidelines, preparatory work for their
revision had already started in 2007. / Q4 2012
Revision of the Communication on
shortterm export credit insurance / Non-Legislative / The current Communication is applicable until 31.12.2012 at the latest. / Q4 2012
Employment and social affairs
Protection of supplementary pension rights of people who change jobs / Legislative / The aim is to conclude the negotiations on the 2005 Commission proposal modified in 2007. In
particular, the proposal would aim to address the issue of vesting periods (duration of employment before pension rights are irrevocably granted). / Q4 2012
Green Paper on Restructuring and
Economic Adjustment / Non-legislative / The Green Paper will identify successful practices and policies in the field of restructuring and
adaptation to change in order to promote employment, growth and competitiveness. The goal is to look afresh at this policy debate in the light of the lessons learned from the economic downturn / Q3 2012

Forthcoming Initiatives 2013