Reach Impact On SMEs In Chemical Industry Must Be Mitigated
Regulation on registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals (REACH) scored among the ten most burdensome EU legislations by European SMEs last year. According to the Czech chemical industry representatives, REACH increases costs of business in the EU and reduces its competitiveness in the world. Review of the regulation issued by the European Commission (EC) in early February admitted that REACH is burdensome and has negative impact on SMEs. The EC thus agreed to reduce fees for SMEs and increase those for large companies in a way that there would be no loss in revenue of European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
The EC does not consider overall revision necessary at this time. Impact of REACH regulation that improved the protection of human health and environment in the EU was the topic of the discussion at European House in Prague on April 29th among representatives of the European Commission, Czech government, private sector and general public. Gustaaf Borchardt, Member of ECHA Board, believes that REACH has contributed to the rise in innovation in the chemical industry. Studies by the European Commission show that 40% of chemical companies have focused on innovation in the field of health, safety and environmental protection. He also says it is too early for an
overall evaluation of benefits, since registration is underway until 2018 and not all companies have registered their substances yet. The smallest companies will be integrated in the third phase. » read more «
E-Invoicing Revision Should Focus More On SMEs Needs
Currently, there are several e-invoicing systems in EU Member States that very often use national standards and are therefore impractical. As a result, e-invoicing often creates an additional burden for companies, especially SMEs that want to enter into public procurement contract with public authorities from different EU country.
The main objectives of one of the EC initiatives under the Single Market Act II are to propose and provide common standards for e-invoicing and pave the way for a fully harmonized and interoperable EU system. A study made for the European Commission on this topic shows that e-invoicing has a potential of huge cost savings, not only for large companies, but SMEs as well. While large companies quite often have
enough resources to implement e-invoicing, that is not the case for SMEs. Standardization still seems to be the biggest bottleneck of proper take-up of e-invoicing. Not only the standards vary from State to State, but each sector has different billing » read more «
EU-US Relations: Biggest Free Trade Agreement Ever Coming In Sight
Economic relations between the European Union and the United States are one of the most important ones in the world. Altogether, both partners account for almost half of the world’s GDP and trades in goods and services reach almost 2 billion EUR every day. Despite these facts there are still barriers to trade on both sides of the Atlantic and therefore the announcement to start negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was welcomed especially by the business community. » read more «
EESC CORNER: The Single European Sky II+
A single European airspace will not emerge without greater leadership from the European Commission and a better enforcement of EU legislation, said the European Economic and Social Committee during its April plenary session. The warning came in the form of an opinion on the Single European Sky II +, which was adopted at the EESC’s plenary session following a request from the European Commission.
December 2012 was the deadline for creating nine cross-border functional airspace blocks (FABs), intended to
replace the current 27 separate national air traffic control areas, thus paving the way » read more «
CZECH NATIONAL REFORM PROGRAMME 2013
Czech government sent its National Reform Programme for 2013 to Brussels on April 17th, focusing on consolidation of public finances, more efficient public sector, better business environment and labour market as well as education system, including support for R&D.
PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL HERMAN VAN ROMPUY VISITED THE CZECH REPUBLIC
The president of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy discussed with representatives of the Czech Republic economic issues, single currency Euro and youth unemployment during his official visit in Prague on 25th April.
THE CZECH REPUBLIC AGREES WITH THE INCREASE OF EU BUDGET FOR 2013
The Czech Republic supports the proposal of the European Commission from March 27th to increase the EU budget for this year by 11.2 billion EUR, although it means to contribute with additional 3 billion CZK. “Additional” money should mostly support cohesion policy.
CZECH PRESIDENT WANTS TO INCREASE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS’ PARTICIPATION
Czech President Miloš Zeman wants to change the low participation in the European Parliament ́s elections by unifying the dates of elections in the EP with those in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament.
