The Commission wishes to improve the pharmacovigilance rules of 2010 by amending the pharmacovigilance system. New transparency and information obligations for authorisation holders are to be introduced. The initiation of the urgent union procedure is to be automatised and the list of drugs for additional surveillance is to be extended.

The Green Paper serves for the Commission as a basis for discussion. It wishes to find out what exactly shadow banking entities are, which activities they exercise and which benefits and risks are related to them as well as what a future regulation of shadow banking could look like. 

If a motor vehicle is already registered in a Member State, e.g. cross-border workers or car-rental companies are obliged to register it again in the Member State in which the motor vehicle is used. Now, the Commission proposes to determine the Member State in which a motor vehicle must be registered, to shorten the re-registration procedures and to simplify the data exchange between national registration authorities.

The Commission has published a Directive Proposal which is to replace the existing Procurement Directive (2004/18/EC). The Commission’s proposal aims to eliminate legal uncertainty in the procurement between public entities and their cooperation. Moreover, it is to facilitate access to public procurement for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Public procurement will continue to be used in support of societal and environmental goals.

South-Europe’s creditworthiness keeps eroding as demonstrated by the latest assessment of the cepDefault Index. Italy’s erosion consolidated in 2011; as regards Greece, the negative trend did not only continue but declined even further; Spain is somewhat crumbling but – apart from the banking crisis – not doing too badly.

In Portugal, however, the vigorous structural reforms now bear fruit – an upward trend is soon to emerge. It is very likely that Portugal will regain its full creditworthiness in 2015.  

All other South-European countries need to improve their competitiveness through structural reforms too.

The Commission aims to implement a fully integrated payment market in the EU. In its Green Paper, the Commission presents action plans for the market integration.

Motor vehicles and their exhaust systems are subject to an EU-wide type-approval procedure which, among other things, prescribes noise emission limits and a uniform test method. The existing test method is to be replaced, since according to the Commission the test procedure does not reflect real world driving behaviour. At the same time it wishes to lower the noise limit values in order to ensure a high level of environmental protection and public safety.

The Commission wishes to boost competition on the audit market by the obligation to change auditors regularly (“rotation rule”). A prohibition of non-audit services (e.g. tax advice) is to strengthen the independence of auditors. 

In its Restructuring Green Paper, the Commission calls upon all Member States to make use of instruments such as short-time working schemes, working time accounts and corporate work alliances during times of crisis, as they are suitable for safeguarding jobs. Moreover, it proposes reforms of the tax and benefit schemes in order to minimize the impact of the crisis on the labour market. In the case of company restructurings due to economic changes, the Commission requests an early involvement of “all relevant stakeholders” and a harmonisation of parts of the insolvency law. Thus the chances of future adjustment measures of restructuring processes are to be improved. Moreover, “amendments” of employment termination rules are to safeguard a high level of employment and social protection.

According to the Commission, there is not enough eco-innovation in the EU. Therefore, it wishes to speed up eco-innovation and to improve its marketing. To this end, the environmental legislation is to be revised and small and, in particular, medium-sized undertakings be subsidised.