Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

▸5 unchanged paragraphs

on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Single Market emergency instrument and repealing Council Regulation No (EC) 2679/98

(COM(2022)0459 – C90315/2022 – 2022/0278(COD))

(Ordinary legislative procedure: first reading)

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2022)0459),

Changed– having regard to Article 294(2) and Articles 114, 21 and 4546 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, pursuant to which the Commission submitted the proposal to Parliament (C90315/2022),

▸5 unchanged paragraphs

– having regard to Article 294(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the reasoned opinion submitted, within the framework of Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, by the Swedish Parliament, asserting that the draft legislative act does not comply with the principle of subsidiarity,

– having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee of 14 December 2022,

– having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions of 8 February 2023,

– having regard to Rule 59 of its Rules of Procedure,

Changed– having regard to the letters from the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Transport and Tourism,Budgets,

– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy,

Changed– having regard to the report of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (A90000/2023),(A9-0246/2023),

1. Adopts its position at first reading hereinafter set out;

2. Calls on the Commission to refer the matter to Parliament again if it replaces, substantially amends or intends to substantially amend its proposal;

3. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

Change 1

ChangedTitle: establishing ana framework of measures on emergency and resilience of the internal market (Internal market emergency and resilience actact) and repealingamending Council Regulation No (EC) No 2679/98

Change 2

ChangedRecital 1: (1) Past crises, especially the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown that the internal market and its supply chains can be severely affected by such crises,affected, and appropriate crisis management tools and coordination mechanisms are either lacking, do not cover all aspects of the internal market or do not allow for a timely and effective response to such impacts.crises.

Change 3

RemovedRecital 3: (3) Actions by the Commission were delayed by several weeks due to the lack of any Union wide contingency planning measures and of clarity as to which part of the national administration to contact to find rapid solutions to the impact on the internal market being cause by the crisis. In addition it became clear that uncoordinated restrictive actions taken by the Member States would further aggravate the impacts of the crisis on the Internal market. It emerged that there is a need for arrangements between the Member States and Union authorities as regards contingency planning, technical level coordination and cooperation and information exchange. Additionally, it became evident that a lack of coordination between Member States and other European countries, for example States of the European Free Trade Association, countries participating in the internal market or candidate countries, exacerbated the shortages of countermeasures outside the Union.

AddedRecital 2: (2) The Union was not sufficiently prepared to ensure efficient manufacturing, procurement and distribution of crisis-relevant non-medical goods such as personal protective equipment, especially in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ad-hoc measures taken by the Commission in order to re-establish the functioning of the internal market and to ensure the availability of crisis-relevant non-medical goods during the COVID-19 pandemic were necessarily reactive. The pandemic also revealed insufficient overview of manufacturing capacities across the Union as well as vulnerabilities related to the global supply chains.

RemovedRecital 9: (9) To this end, this Regulation provides the necessary means to ensure the continued functioning of the internal market, the free circulation of goods, services and persons in times of crisis and the availability of crisis-relevant goods and services to citizens, businesses and public authorities at the time of crisis. It also sets out rules for the adequate coordination, cooperation and exchange of information, and establishes digital tools to guarantee the functioning of fast lanes for critical goods and services, with the aim of accelerating authorisation, registration or declaration procedures. Furthermore, in order to enhance the involvement of all economic actors, in particular businesses and civil society in the establishment of crisis-relevant measures, this Regulation imposes an obligation on the Commission to set up a stakeholder platform to facilitate and encourage voluntary response to internal market emergencies. / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

AddedRecital 2 a (new): (2a) During the COVID-19 pandemic, uncoordinated measures restricting the free movement of persons had a particular impact on critical sectors, particularly those that rely on mobile workers, including frontier and cross-border workers, who played an essential role in keeping the Union economy going during that time.

RemovedRecital 9 a (new): (9a) In order to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market, this Regulation should set up an advisory board to advise the Commission on the appropriate measures for anticipating, preventing or responding to the impact of a crisis. The Commission should ensure that the European Parliament and Council have equal access to all information, so that the Parliament receives all documents at the same time as Member States’ representatives. The European Parliament should systematically have access to the meetings of the advisory group to which Member States' experts are invited. The participation of representatives of EFTA States as observers should be ensured in accordance with the Agreement on the European Economic Area, as well as in accordance with the bilateral agreements between the Union and the Swiss Confederation.

AddedRecital 3: (3) Actions by the Commission were delayed by several weeks due to the lack of any Union wide contingency planning measures and of clarity as to which national authority to contact to find rapid solutions to the impact on the internal market caused by the crisis. In addition, it became clear that uncoordinated restrictive actions taken by the Member States would further aggravate the impacts of the crisis on the internal market. It emerged that there is a need for arrangements between the Member States and Union authorities as regards contingency planning, technical level coordination and cooperation and information exchange. Additionally, it became evident that the lack of effective coordination between Member States exacerbated the shortages of goods and created more obstacles to the free movement of services and persons.

RemovedRecital 10: (10) Resilience is key to ensuring that the internal market delivers on its ultimate goal of supporting the Union’s economy. This Regulation should allow for anticipation of events and crises, building on on-going analysis concerning critically important areas of the internal market economy and the Union’s continuous foresight work. In order to ensure the crisis-preparedness of all actors, it is necessary to set out rules on biennial stress tests, trainings and crisis protocols involving not only all relevant national authorities, but also stakeholders such as businesses, social partners and experts.

AddedRecital 4: (4) Yet, despite the initial lack of coordination, the internal market rules played a key role in mitigating the negative impact of the crisis and in ensuring a swift recovery of the economy of the Union, namely by precluding unjustified and disproportionate national restrictions contained in the unilateral responses by the Member States and by providing a strong incentive to find common solutions, thus promoting solidarity.

RemovedRecital 17: (17) Article 21 TFEU lays down the right of EU citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in the Treaties and the measures adopted to give them effect. The detailed conditions and limitations are laid down in Directive 2004/38/EC. This Directive sets out the general principles applicable to these limitations and the grounds that may be used to justify such measures. These grounds are public policy, public security or public health. In this context, decisions to restrict freedom of movement can be justified if they are proportionate and non-discriminatory. This Regulation is not intended to provide for additional grounds for the limitation of the right to free movement of persons beyond those provided for in Chapter VI of Directive 2004/38/EC. Any such decisions to restrict the freedom of movement of persons are without prejudice to the possibility for the Commission to adopt measures at a later stage, including the launching of infringement proceedings.

AddedRecital 5: (5) These recent events have also highlighted the need for the Union to be better prepared for possible future crises, in particular considering the continuing effects of climate change and resulting natural disasters as well as global economic and geopolitical instabilities. Given the fact that it is not known which kind of future crises could occur and have a severe impact on the internal market and its supply chains, it is necessary to provide for an instrument that would apply in the event of the occurrence of a wide range of crises that have an impact on the internal market and have a cross border effect.

RemovedRecital 34 a (new): (34a) In order to safeguard the freedom of movement, the Commission should develop interoperable digital tools to guarantee the functioning of so-called ‘fast lanes’ for critical goods and services. The Commission should set up and maintain a digital portal, covering all registration or authorisation forms for cross-border activities, especially for crisis-relevant declarations similar to EU Digital Covid Certificates, and for crisis-relevant professional services to accelerate authorisation, registration or declaration procedures. That portal should also be usable for the administration of social security forms in the context of posting crisis-relevant workers, in particular to administer the A1 forms. Furthermore, to enable the involvement of all economic actors, in particular businesses and civil society, the Commission should set up a stakeholder platform to facilitate and encourage a voluntary response to internal market emergencies.

AddedRecital 6: (6) The impact of a crisis on the internal market can lead to obstacles to free movement within the internal market, thus disrupting its normal functioning. A crisis can exacerbate shortages of crisis-relevant goods and services on the internal market. This Regulation should address the detrimental impact on the free movement of goods, services or persons in the internal market.

RemovedRecital 35: (35) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards the possibility to adopt supportive measures for facilitating free movement of persons. Furthermore, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards activating the vigilance mode and vigilance measures in order to carefully monitor the strategic supply chains and coordinate the building up of strategic reserves for goods and services of strategic importance. Moreover, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards activation of specific emergency response measures at the time of an internal market emergency, to allow for a rapid and coordinated response. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council

AddedRecital 7: (7) Since any specific aspects of future crises that would impact the internal market and its supply chains are hard to predict, this Regulation should provide for a general framework for anticipating, preparing for, mitigating and minimising the negative impacts which any crisis may cause on the internal market and its supply chains and for strengthening their resilience.

RemovedRecital 36: (36) This Regulation respects fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’). In particular, it respects the right to privacy of the economic operators enshrined in Article 7 of the Charter, right to data protection set out in Article 8 of the Charter, the freedom to conduct business and the freedom of contract, which are protected by Article 16 of the Charter, the right to property, protected by Article 17 of the Charter, the right to collective bargaining and action, including the right to strike, protected by Article 28 of the Charter and the right to an effective judicial remedy and to a fair trial as provided for in Article 47 of the Charter. Since the objective of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective. The Regulation should not affect the autonomy of the social partners as recognised by the TFEU.

AddedRecital 8: (8) The measures set out in this Regulation should be deployed in a coherent, transparent, efficient, proportionate and timely manner, having due regard to the need to maintain vital societal functions, including public security, safety, public order, or public health, respecting the responsibility of the Member States to safeguard national security and their power to safeguard other essential state functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the state and maintaining law and order. This Regulation should therefore be without prejudice to matters related to national security and defence.

RemovedRecital 37: (37) Any actions under this Regulation should be consistent with the Union’s obligations under the relevant international law. The Union remains fully committed to international solidarity and strongly supports the principle that any measures deemed necessary taken under this Regulation, including those necessary to prevent or relieve critical shortages, are implemented in a manner that is targeted, transparent, proportionate, temporary and consistent with WTO obligations.

AddedRecital 9: (9) To this end, this Regulation provides the necessary means to ensure the continued functioning of the internal market, the free circulation of goods, services and persons, including workers, and the availability of crisis-relevant goods and services to citizens, businesses and public authorities in times of crisis. / (deleted) / (deleted) / (deleted)

RemovedMoved from Art. 2.7 because it only restates the hierarchy of norms.

AddedRecital 10: deleted

RemovedArticle 1 – paragraph 1: 1. The aim of this Regulation is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market by setting out a framework of harmonised rules to strengthen its resilience, to ensure an effective response to crisis and to facilitate the free movement of goods, services and persons.

AddedRecital 11: (11) This Regulation should not duplicate the existing framework for medicinal products, medical devices or other medical counter-measures under the EU Health Security Framework, including Regulation (EU) 2022/123 and Regulation (EU) 2022/2371. Therefore, medicinal products, medical devices or other medical counter-measures, falling under their remit, shall be excluded from the scope of this Regulation, except in relation to the provisions relating to free movement during an internal market emergency, and in particular those designed to re-establish and facilitate free movement as well as the notification mechanism.

AddedRecital 12: (12) This Regulation should complement the Integrated Political Crisis Response arrangements operated by the Council under Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1993 as regards its work on internal market impacts of cross-sectoral crises that require political decision-making.

AddedRecital 16: (16) This Regulation should be without prejudice to labour law or working conditions, including health and safety at work, and to collective bargaining rights and the autonomy of the social partners.

AddedRecital 17: (17) Where the activities to be carried out pursuant to this Regulation involve the processing of personal data, such processing should comply with the relevant Union legislation on personal data protection, namely Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council1a and Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council1b. / 1a Regulation (EU) 2016/769 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1). / 1b Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39).

AddedRecital 18: (18) This Regulation lays down rights and obligations for economic operators, in particular natural or legal persons, including any temporary association of undertakings, which offer products or services of critical importance on the market. Furthermore, it defines critically important areas which are of systemic and vital importance for the functioning of the internal market, in particular areas related to the cross-border free movement of goods, services or persons, for example in the areas of food, transport, maintenance, health, or information technologies.

AddedRecital 19: (19) In order to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market, this Regulation should set up an Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Board (‘the Board’) to advise the Commission on the appropriate measures for anticipating, preventing or responding to the impact of a crisis. The European Parliament should be able to appoint an expert as a member of the Board. The Commission should invite representatives of other crisis-relevant bodies at Union level as observers to the relevant meetings of the Board, including, where appropriate, representatives of Committee of the Regions and of the European Economic and Social Committee. The Commission should ensure that the European Parliament receives all documents at the same time as Member States’ representatives. The European Parliament should also systematically have access to the meetings of the Board to which Member States' experts are invited. The participation of representatives of EFTA States as observers should be ensured in accordance with the Agreement on the European Economic Area, as well as with the bilateral agreements between the Union and the Swiss Confederation. The Board should in particular assist and advise the Commission regarding measures that have an impact on the free movement of goods, services and persons, including workers, with a special focus on mobile workers, including frontier and cross-border workers.

AddedRecital 20: (20) It is essential to guarantee greater transparency and accountability, particularly in times of crises, in line with the values on which the Union is based. The European Parliament plays a key role in ensuring democratic accountability. This Regulation should therefore lay down rules to enhance the emergency and resilience dialogue between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council.

AddedRecital 21: (21) To ensure effective coordination and information exchange in cases of emergency, this Regulation lays down an obligation for Member States to designate central liaison offices, responsible for contact with the Union level central liaison office designated by the Commission and with the central liaison offices of other Member States.

AddedRecital 22: (22) Resilience is key to ensuring that the internal market delivers on one of its ultimate goal of supporting the Union’s economy. This Regulation should allow for anticipation of events and crises, building on ongoing analysis concerning critically important areas of the internal market economy and the Union’s continuous foresight work. In order to ensure the crisis-preparedness of all actors, it is necessary to set out rules on stress tests to be conducted at least every two years, and on trainings and crisis protocols involving not only relevant national authorities, but also stakeholders such as businesses, social partners and experts. It is also essential to lay down rules on strategic reserves of goods of critical importance, in order to ensure a proper exchange of information and provide support to Member States in order to assist them in coordinating and streamlining their efforts.

AddedRecital 23: (23) In order to determine critical sectors, a methodology should be established taking into account specific criteria, namely the trade flows, demand and supply, concentration of supply, Union and global production and production capacities at different stages of the value chain and the interdependencies between economic operators.

AddedRecital 24: (24) It is important to identify and monitor the supply chains of goods, services of critical importance during the vigilance mode, as well as the free movement of categories of workers of critical importance, preceding an internal market emergency. In order to account for the activation of the vigilance mode and the potential consequences for the proper functioning of the internal market that it triggers, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission for the activation of that mode pursuant to Article 291(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The vigilance mode should be activated for a maximum duration of six months with the possibility of an extension of the same duration, taking into due consideration the opinion provided by the Board. The Commission should present a report to the European Parliament and the Council of its findings concerning the monitoring, carried out during the vigilance mode, of the supply chains of goods, services of critical importance, the free movement of categories of workers of critical importance and the inventory of the most relevant economic operators.

AddedRecital 25: (25) The Commission should carefully assess the severity of disruptions to the functioning of the internal market and the impact of a crisis on the basis of concrete and reliable evidence, and duly taking into account the criteria laid down in this Regulation.

AddedRecital 26: (26) In order to account for the exceptional nature of and potential far-reaching consequences of the activation of the internal market emergency mode, which could negatively affect the free movement of goods, services and persons, and in order to ensure appropriate public scrutiny, the internal market emergency mode should only be activated by a legislative act in the form of a decision on a proposal made by the Commission and promptly adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council. To address the need for quick decision-making in times of crisis, decisions to activate the internal market emergency mode could be adopted by making use of urgency procedures, as these procedures have already been successfully used in the past.

AddedRecital 27: (27) The activation of the emergency procedures should be conditional upon the activation of the internal market emergency mode and should be limited to the products designated as crisis-relevant goods. Therefore the activation of the internal market emergency mode, where necessary, should also trigger the application of certain crisis-response procedures governing the design, manufacture, conformity assessment and placing on the market of goods subject to Union harmonised rules or falling under the general safety framework rules, limited to the products designated as crisis-relevant goods.

AddedRecital 28: (28) Restrictions on the free movement of goods, services and persons imposed by Member States should be prohibited, unless they are non-discriminatory, justified and proportionate. It should not be possible to suspend the fundamental freedoms laid down in the Treaty in times of crisis and Member States should not use the emergency situation as a pretext for adopting restrictions going beyond the rules of Treaty. Any response to an internal market emergency should strictly comply with such rules, as well as with the rules laid down in this Regulation. If Member States adopt measures affecting the free movement of goods or persons, or the freedom to provide services in preparation for and during internal market emergencies, they should limit such measures to what is necessary and remove them as soon as the emergency mode is deactivated or earlier, when they are no longer needed. Such measures should respect the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination and should take into consideration the particular situation of border regions.

AddedRecital 29: (29) Representative organisations of economic operators have suggested that economic operators did not have sufficient information on the crisis response measures of the Member States during the pandemics, partly due to not knowing where to obtain such information, partly due to language constraints and the administrative burden implied in making repeated inquiries in all the Member States, especially in a constantly changing regulatory environment. This prevented them from making informed business decisions as to what extent they may rely on their free movement rights or continue cross-border business operations during the crisis. It is necessary to improve the availability of information on national and Union level crisis response measures.

AddedRecital 30: (30) Article 21 TFEU lays down the right of Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in the Treaties and the measures adopted to give them effect. The detailed conditions and limitations are laid down in Directive 2004/38/EC. That Directive sets out the general principles applicable to those limitations and the grounds that may be used to justify such measures. Those grounds are public policy, public security or public health. In this context, restrictions to the freedom of movement can be justified if they are proportionate and non-discriminatory. This Regulation is not intended to provide for additional grounds for the limitation of the right to free movement of persons beyond those provided for in Chapter VI of Directive 2004/38/EC.

AddedRecital 31: (31) The measures for facilitating the free movement of persons and any other measures affecting the free movement of persons provided under this Regulation are based on Article 21 TFEU and complement Directive 2004/38/EC, without affecting its application in the event of internal market emergencies. Such measures should not result in authorising or justifying restrictions to free movement contrary to the Treaties or other provisions of Union law.

AddedRecital 32: (32) Article 45 TFEU lays down the right to free movement of workers, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in the Treaties and the measures adopted to give them effect. This Regulation contains provisions which complement the existing measures in order to facilitate the free movement of persons, increase transparency and provide administrative assistance during internal market emergencies. Such measures include setting up the single points of contact and making them available to workers and their representatives in the Member States and at Union level during the internal market vigilance and emergency modes under this Regulation. Member States and the Commission are encouraged to use existing instruments for the set up and operation of these contact points. Such contact points should be active outside the emergency mode and should serve to help communication between the Member States and with the Board.