Quote of the Week: "Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." -
Alexander Hamilton
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ESBA WEEKLY of Friday 20 July 2001 - VOL 3 - N° 32
Headlines of WEEK 29:
- INTERNAL MARKET: EU-wide contract law ?
- COMPETITION: European Commission to increase pressure on cartels
- CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Green Paper launched
- STATE AID: Overall level of state aid decreased
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EU / INTERNAL MARKET
Brussels 13/07/2001: EU-wide contract law ?
The European Commission launched a Green Paper to explore the
possibilities in introducing an EU-wide contract law. The consultation
should start a debate on the problems that result from divergence between
national contract laws impeding free trade within the internal market. For
example, a lack of knowledge of other contract law regimes might be a
disincentive against cross-border transactions for SMEs and consumers.
The Green Paper suggests four options to be discussed further in detail:
- to let market forces deal with any problems that may exist;
- guidelines for national legislators based on common elements in national
contract law rules;
- to review, simplify and improve all relevant legislation; and
- to create a new legal instrument at EU level which could be an voluntary
model chosen by the contractual parties or a safety net of fallback
provisions in case parties have not foreseen a possible problem in the
contract.
The public consultation lasts until 15 October 2001. The European Council
in Laeken is expected to take a decision as to the follow-up of the Green
Paper.
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/consumers/policy/developments/contract_law/i
ndex_en.html
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EU / COMPETITION
Brussels 18/07/2001: European Commission to increase pressure on cartels
As no company so far came forward to the Commission with information on
undetected cartels, the European Commission has proposed a complete
immunity from fines on a party that co-operates in the prosecution of a
cartel. The proposed rules, which will replace the so-called Leniency
Notice of 1996 (reduced fines for co-operating parties), should improve
the detection and eradication of price-fixing and other cartels, harming
consumer and business interests. Comments on the draft notice can be made
until 20 September 2001, after which a final version of the notice should
be adopted before the end of 2001. More info:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/antitrust/leniency
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EU / CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Brussels 18/07/2001: Green Paper launched
The Green Paper should promote the debate to create a European framework
for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), whereby companies combine
business profitability with sustainability and accountability. The
European framework should compliment existing CSR programmes in the
business community and the Member States. Enterprises would voluntarily
take on board social and environmental concerns besides their economic
ones, leading to more productive and profitable business according the
Green Paper. It does not plan to call for any binding CSR rules in Europe.
Several topics, issues and situations are referred to as being relevant in
the context of the Green Paper on CSR:
- management of change, e.g. responsible downsizing in corporate
restructuring and mergers and acquisitions
- human resource management, optimising the relations with employees via
lifelong learning, health and safety, diversity, balance between work and
private life, profit-sharing, etceteras.
- relationship management and social responsibility, optimising relations
with third parties via networks (e.g. coaching start-ups and SMEs),
lasting relationships with consumers (e.g. providing products efficiently
and ethically), and codes of conduct in the supply chain management
covering working conditions, human rights and environmental aspects.
- social accounting, reporting and auditing
- more effective ethical labelling
- sustainable development, integrating and balancing economic growth,
social cohesion and environmental protection.
The aim of the Green Paper is to trigger debate on all these aspects of
CSR. The consultation is open until December 31st 2001. More info:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/soc-dial/csr/csr_index.htm
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EU / STATE AID
Brussels 19/07/2001: Overall level of state aid decreased
The Commission made available the state aid register on the web,
indicating all Commission's state aid decisions. It shows that the overall
level of aid has decreased to an annual average of 90 billion Euro for the
period 1997-1999 compared with 102 billion Euro in the previous reporting
period 1995-1997.
Other elements of the scoreboard include: an overview of state aid in the
EU over the last ten years, a forum for Member States to present their own
state aid policy, the Member States' compliance with state aid rules,
trends in current state aid policy and the effects of State aid on the
Internal Market. The register follows previous initiatives by the
Commission in the field of state aid related matters (scoreboard,
exemptions to SMEs).
The Stockholm European Council has asked Member States to demonstrate a
downward trend of State aid in relation to GDP by 2003 and to redirect aid
to horizontal objectives. The scoreboard should contribute to further
reach these objectives.
More info (copy/paste full link):
http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&do
c=IP/01/1033|0|RAPID&lg=EN
http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/state_aid/scoreboard/
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The ESBA Weekly is now sent to an increasing amount of persons with a
direct interest in SMEs.
This bulletin is made in co-operation with LOGOS
(http://www.logos-eu.com).
