Citizens’ initiative: the right to water The first civic initiative to complete the last leap is for a “public good”, water. Only ten months after the entry into force of the regulation on citizens’ initiative (introduced with the Lisbon Treaty), Europeans seized the opportunity offered by institutions to voice their claims. For the first time in the story of the EU, on February 11 the NGO “Right2water” collected one million signatures for the liberalization of supply services of drinking water, contained in a draft directive on services. In a statement the Commission made known the outcome of the signature collection, that will continue for fifteen different issues that include “One of Us”, aimed to include the defence of the embryo and human life in all community policies. “Right2water” “invites the European Commission to ‘propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all”. “Water is a public good, not a commodity – signatories recalled -. The EU legislation should require governments to ensure and to provide all citizens with sufficient and clean drinking water and sanitation”. The Commission will have three months to examine the initiative and decide how to act on it. Commission: bioeconomy observarotyStarting next March the Commission will set up an observatory “to monitor the progress and assess the impact of the development of bioeconomy” in the EU. With the term “bioeconomy” the college of commissioners refer to sustainable development in social and environmental realms “based on a smart use of biological and renewable resources from the land and sea, as inputs to food and feed, industrial and energy production”; “that covers the use of biowaste”. According to estimates by the Commission, the bioeconomy in Europe is worth an estimated 2 trillion and 22 million jobs”. The Observatory, coordinated by the EU Joint Research Centre, “will gather data to follow the evolution of markets, to map EU, national and regional bioeconomy policies, research and innovation capacities, and the scale of related public and private investments”. Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn said: “It’s now one year since we launched our bioeconomy strategy. We are now seeing Member States seize the opportunity offered by the transition to a post-petroleum economy based on smart use of resources from land and sea”. “It will be good for our environment, our food and energy security, and for Europe’s competitiveness in the future”.Go-ahead to the financial transaction tax The financial transaction tax makes it way through. On February 14 the EU Commission set out the technical details of the tax, which is the result of “enhanced cooperation” of 11 Member States (France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, Estonia). The proposed Directive mirrors the scope and objectives of the original FTT proposal put forward by the Commission in September 2011. The Commission affirms in a release: “The approach of taxing all transactions with an established link to the FTT-zone is maintained, as are the rates of 0.1% for shares and bonds and 0.01% for derivatives”. The FTT will not apply to day-to-day financial activities of citizens and businesses (e.g. “loans, payments, insurance, deposits etc”.), nor will it apply to the traditional investment banking activities; “The proposal also ring-fences refinancing activities, monetary policy and public debt management”. “When applied by the 11 Member States, this Financial Transaction Tax is expected to deliver revenues of 30-35 billion euros a year”.Single market and consumer protection “To improve the safety of consumer products circulating in the Single Market” and “to step-up market surveillance concerning all non-food products, including those imported from 3rd countries”. These are the two main tasks of the Commission for the regulations advanced over the past days for internal market safety. “This initiative will contribute both to strengthening consumer protection and to creating a level playing field for businesses”. “Their improved identification and traceability will be a key improvement that will help to take them quickly out of the market”. The two legislative proposals will be submitted to EU Council and Parliament, and if adopted in due time, could become operative starting in 2015. The two legislative proposals are complemented by a “multi-annual plan for market surveillance” setting out 20 concrete actions “to improve market surveillance under the current regulatory framework”.
