According to the Commission, the EU needs to invest in energy infrastructure in order to achieve its energy and climate policy targets by 2020. To this end, the guidelines, which are proposed in the form of a Regulation, streamline and better coordinate national permit granting procedures for projects of common interest (PCIs).

The Commission presents three options for the implementation of Eurobonds and puts up for discussion the related pros and cons. With regard to the pros it mentions in particular the alleviation of the current debt crisis, the stabilisation of the banking system and the increased liquidity of the government bonds market. With regard to the cons it mentions the reduced incentives for budgetary discipline. For instance, Member States can run up debts at the expense of the budgetary discipline of other Member States, without this having an affect on their financing costs.

The Commission announces to draw up together with enterprises and other stakeholder a code of conduct in 2012. All enterprises are to commit to comply with CSR approaches on a voluntary basis. In addition, enterprises with more than 1000 employees are to adhere to the internationally recognized ISO 26000 Guidance Standards. In order to establish such self-commitments, the Commission wishes to revise the legal framework, in particular in the field of public procurement and thus put enterprises under pressure.

The Commission is initiating a consultation with the aim to (at first) adopt a non-binding recommendation. The recommendation is to serve as guidance to national regulatory authorities for fixing access prices during the transition phase between copper networks and fibre glass networks.  This approach is to create incentives for investments in ultra-fast NGA networks.

The Commission proposes to introduce EU-wide minimum rules regarding criminal sanctions for insider dealing and market manipulation. It wishes to harmonise the offences yet not the levels of penalties. To date, there are only administrative sanctions. The Commission’s aim is to increase the deterrent effect of national sanctions. 

The EU wishes to establish a “complete and integrated trans-European transport network” (TEN-T) which includes all transport modes and a “dual-layer structure”. To this end, the Commission wishes to enhance coordination in planning and the design of a sound governance structure. TEN-T is to meet the mobility and transport needs within the EU and third countries, guarantee the “accessibility“ of all regions of  the EU and remove bottlenecks in transport.

The tax is to apply to transactions with financial instruments, both in the organised markets and over-the-counter trading. It is to generate revenues for the public purse and to increase the stability of financial markets. The Commission expects EU-wide tax revenues of roughly 57 billion Euros a year. They are to flow wholly or partly into the EU budget through an own resources system of the European Union.

The Proposal provides for an introduction of a European Account Preservation Order. Such order is to be issued if the existence of a debt claim is made credible. For the enforcement of a decision, Member States must appoint enforcement authorities which must approve the order without any further examination and preserve the debtor’s bank account. If the creditor does not know the debtors’ bank accounts, banks are obliged to disclose them or authorities are entitled to search for them in national registers. Debtors are not being notified until after the preservation of their accounts.

Additional own funds buffers are to strengthen the banking sector’s resistance to losses and to smooth credit lending to economic cycles. The introduction of a binding leverage ratio and stricter liquidity requirements is to be examined. Infringements of rules are to be subjected to EU-wide sanctions. 

Additional own funds buffers are to strengthen the banking sector’s resistance to losses and to smooth credit lending to economic cycles. The introduction of a binding leverage ratio and stricter liquidity requirements is to be examined. Infringements of rules are to be subjected to EU-wide sanctions.

Driving times and rest periods in road transport are subject to rules in order to improve road transport safety, improve drivers‘ working conditions and ensure fair competition between road transport companies.  By applying technically modernised “smart” tachgraphs, the Commission wishes to better enforce the rules on driving time and rest periods and reduce the administrative burdens for road transport companies and control authorities.

The Commission wishes to create a unitary European protection law for intellectual properties including digital business models. The Commission’s plans mainly focus on the introduction of an EU unitary patent protection including a European patent litigation system, a modernised EU framework for copyrights and an improved fight against counterfeiting and piracy. 

 “Implementing acts” serve to implement a legally binding EU legal act. Implementing binding legal EU acts according to national law is in principle the duty of Member States. If an EU-wide implementation is required, the basic legal act serves to delegate implementing powers to the Commission. The Member States control the exercise of the implementing powers by the Commission through committees. The Regulation rules such committee procedures.

The Commission wishes to adjust the European Neighbourhood Policy to its transport policy. To this end, it proposes measures to facilitate international goods and passengers transport affecting the EU transport markets and their European neighbours as well as the development of transport infrastructure in the neighbouring EU countries. 

As a reaction to serious tension on the financial market, on 21. July 2011, the heads of states and governments of the euro zone decided to amend the existing EFSF. The objective of the amendments is to increase the operative volume of the EFSF and to provide it with new legal instruments.

The main causes of the Euro crisis lie in the irresponsible indebtedness policy of the affected Euro states and in the real economy structures which threaten not only the creditworthiness of those states but of entire economies.

The MFF sets the legally binding ceilings for the annual budgets in advance and thus serves to maintain the budgetary discipline and the transparency of the budgetary procedure. The Commission proposes an EU financial volume to the amount of 1.11% of GNI (1,083 bn Euro). It is to consist of the actual MFF to the amount of 1.05% of GNI (1,025 bn Euro) and ), and further “possible“ expenditures outside the MFF to the amount of 0.06% of GNI (58 bn Euro) which are increased compared to the volume of 2007-2013.

The Commission proposes a Regulation in order to reform the legal framework for European standardisation to establish an efficient and technically up-to-date European standardisation system. European standardisation means defining technical and quality-related specifications through recognised European standardisation bodies. The legal framework is to be extended to services.