ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
39.

agrees that European initiatives to support space technologies may be, and should be, a key factor in achieving the EU's research and innovation policy goals. For example, the GMES programme and the applications it generates will primarily serve environmental and security policy, but will also make a significant contribution to the growth, innovativeness and competitiveness of Europe as a whole. Other areas, such as education, culture, communication and the energy sector, will also benefit from space-related innovations. Space technologies and their applications have become an increasingly important element of people's everyday lives;
7.

welcomes the European Commission's proposal for a directive on measures facilitating the exercise of rights conferred on workers in the context of freedom of movement for workers (COM(2013) 236) which aims at enforcing Regulation (EU) No 492/2011 of 5 April 2011 on freedom of movement for workers within the Union. Considers that the legal peculiarity of proposing a directive to enforce a regulation which in itself is in principle subject to direct effect reveals the intensity of legal and administrative challenges remaining at the level of national legislation and administration in the field of free movement of workers. Insists that article 5 of the directive be amended in order to allow member states to also designate transregional structures for the promotion, analysis, monitoring and support of equal treatment of all workers or members of their families. Requests that the CoR be included in the addressees of the report on the implementation of this Directive (Article 10);
12.

reiterates its request to the Commission, set out in its recent opinions on industrial policy (1) and regional state aid (2) to address ‘threshold effect’ issues associated with the definition of categories of enterprise and to review the definition of SMEs. In concrete terms, the Commission should enhance its powers of analysis and its support measures for businesses, by looking into the possibility of creating, as it has agreed for the agri-food industry, a new category of mid-sized enterprise somewhere between SMEs and large enterprises, employing between 250 and 750 workers and with a turnover of under EUR 200 million. Similarly, the Committee of the Regions calls for a discussion to take account of mid-cap enterprises (MCEs), employing between 250 and 5 000 workers, which have emerged from growth SMEs and which will make a major contribution to Europe's future wealth. These new categories could receive appropriate rates of aid, higher than those for large enterprises and lower than those for SMEs;
46.

recognises the importance of local and regional networks in the promotion of adaptation measures, and believes that EU funding should be used to provide appropriate financial support for such networks. However, the CoR does not recommend a new organisation or voluntary commitment for adaptation, as suggested in the SACC, as it would create duplication, be confusing to participants and could waste valuable resources. The existing Covenant of Mayors should be better resourced, and re-launched as a network focused on climate action in both its aspects, mitigation and adaptation;
48.

Notes that, due to breaches of the EU-set health-based limits for NO2, many Members State Governments potentially face infraction proceedings by the European Commission, with the possibility of substantial fines which may be passed on to local authorities and public bodies where there has been a failure to take appropriate action using the powers available to them. This nevertheless needs to be managed with caution. It has become clear in the meantime that breaches at local level are often due, amongst other things, to inadequate national and European policy for tackling problems at source. A multilevel approach is required, in which each level of government (European, national, regional and local) takes responsibility and adopts the measures which can and must be adopted by the relevant level;
18.

believes that mHealth highlights the need for legal, linguistic and technical interoperability. Effective electronic sharing of data between different care providers, and between patients and care providers, is crucial to improving quality and effectiveness and empowering patients. This includes ensuring that the mHealth solutions developed allow data to be transmitted both between different applications and between applications and the working systems used in health care. These are essential requirements, because the countries of Europe are facing the same challenges. The EU has an important role to play here in efforts to push forward to the development of common standards and specifications. At the same time, greater interoperability also entails an important balance between openness and security, as increasing interoperability must not result in an uncontrolled flood of information. It remains essential for communication to be based on informed choices in the context of applicable regulations and security requirements;
12.

points out that while the white paper states that for the sake of future prosperity it is necessary to guarantee that efficient transport is available in all regions, the European Commission increasingly sees the transport sector in the same light as any other sector of the free market, and not just when evaluating state aid. Public transport providers (or providers belonging to a public body) often find themselves in a difficult situation, as private operators cover profitable transport and connections (sometimes at dumped prices in order to establish a future monopoly), whereas public bodies and some transport operators (including entities held by public stakeholders) end up operating only the less profitable routes and connections. If we consider that the white paper analyses transport not just as a commercial sector but also as a means of guaranteeing that the EU and its regions are competitive and prosperous, a radically different approach needs to be adopted for public operators (or their equivalent) as compared to private operators. Logically, private operators see transport solely as a potential source of commercial revenue, without considering the need to guarantee that the regions and the EU as such remain competitive;
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 as regards the possibility for Member States to restrict or prohibit the use of genetically modified food and feed on their territory

COM(2015) 177 final

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Reviewing the decision-making process on genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

COM(2015) 176 final
7.

has drawn up this opinion on its own initiative with the aim of offering direction to EU measures aimed at providing refugees with better protection in their regions of origin, i.e. in the country of first asylum, mostly countries neighbouring the one from which they are fleeing. The opinion shows that local and regional authorities can make a significant contribution to achieving EU objectives in this context and sets out the instruments needed for that to happen. It emphasises the way that the strategies and possibilities of the various tiers of government can complement each other in order to achieve better coordination and results, while upholding the fundamental rights and values that are at the heart of the EU. In that regard, it should be noted for the sake of completeness that improving accommodation conditions in the region should in no way detract from recognition of the right to international protection within the EU (3);
22.

stresses the importance of encouraging the creation and adoption of new, more diverse and possibly cheaper products insuring against the economic risks incurred by agricultural holdings, inspired for example by insurance schemes available in the United States. These new products could, for example, comprise: (i) turnover insurance, guaranteeing the crop receipts forecast at the time of sowing based on the holding’s historic yield and the prices seen on the futures markets, but where only the yield component would be subsidised to comply with the World Trade Organisation’s green box rules; (ii) index insurance, based on the average yield, turnover or gross margin in the region where the holding is located (but where only the yield component would be subsidised), bearing in mind that such insurance is significantly cheaper to administer than insurance based on the individual farmer’s yield; (iii) insurance covering a holding’s overall revenue, which could be reserved for small and medium-sized diversified or mixed crops/livestock holdings, or those that produce fruit, vegetables or specialist crops for which there are few or no subsidies and no harvest insurance; and (iv) specific insurance for organic farmers, which would take account of the generally lower yields, higher production costs and higher market prices for organic products. These measures should be subject to a feasibility study assessing, in particular, their potential costs in terms of state reinsurance;
5.

draws attention to the enormous economic, social, fiscal and environmental impact — at national, regional and local level — of demographic change. It affects the sustainability of pension systems and health systems and dictates the evolution of the welfare state, most powerfully due to the pressure on health care systems and social care services for the elderly and dependent persons. It also affects the development of the various regions of the EU and the maintenance of traditional ecosystems and infrastructure. The Committee points to the risks of depopulation of certain areas of the EU. Remote areas, for example, face specific geographic and demographic challenges due to mobility limitations. And while the characteristics of some areas or regions will mean that these changes will affect them later or to a lesser extent, it is indisputable that the effects will be felt across the entire EU;
11.

notes that the health systems of the EU are facing several major challenges — some of which are more pronounced in some Member States than others: a. inequalities in health and access to healthcare — differences which often have socio-economic and geographical causes; b. a new disease profile in which chronic diseases represent a very large proportion of healthcare costs. According to the WHO, 86 % of deaths in the European Region are caused by the five most common types of chronic non-communicable disease (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, mental illness) which are often the result of an unhealthy lifestyle — smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor eating habits and a lack of physical activity. These factors are also behind the growing problem of overweight and obesity, especially amongst children and young people; c. an ageing population, with many older people suffering from one or more chronic diseases (multimorbidity); d. communicable diseases and ongoing fears of global pandemics. Our increasingly globalised world means there is a higher risk that various types of health threat may spread; e. a significant number of patients are harmed as a consequence of inadequate patient safety, including through healthcare-associated infections; f. antibiotic resistance is a growing public health issue — one which causes increased morbidity and mortality, but also entails significant healthcare costs; g. a lack of health and care workers — in many parts of Europe there are problems training/recruiting/retaining sufficient numbers of qualified staff; h. increased public expectations and requirements in terms of patient-centred care; i. pressure on health systems to reduce costs and become more cost effective, since health spending is high and is expected to rise; j. new welfare technology can contribute to improving the health of many people — innovations reduce the cost of certain health problems, but these increased possibilities for treating certain illnesses and conditions can also lead to increased costs; k. an increase in migration, especially of in many cases traumatised refugees, which requires an increase in the availability of appropriate psychiatric, psychotherapeutic and psychosomatic treatments, amongst other things; l. changes to our environment and climate that have a negative impact on our health and well-being; m. mental and physical ill-health as a result of the demands of professional life and a poor work-life balance.
16.

In the case of cross-border links, it can take longer for market demand to develop. Higher costs also create a delicate cost/benefit balance, particularly during the start-up period. This must be taken into consideration in the financial engineering of projects. The financial engineering of projects is also of paramount importance in terms of return on investment and because of the impact on economic activity of the infrastructure investments carried out under cross-border cooperation and transport development programmes. The varied composition of the funding sources, the amount of own contribution, the rate of funding for activities and the costs for consortium members are also determining factors when it comes to projects. With all these factors in mind, the Committee advocates that — where the work on transport infrastructure is considerable for both countries involved — guidelines be adopted for each border area, together with a single set of rules, common to the Member States, for even more effective financial eligibility for projects.
23.

considers that a large carnivore, regardless of whether it lives within or outside a protection site under the Natura 2000 network, should be protected outside human settlements, in line with its protection level; is of the view, however, that if a large carnivore is entering human settlements regularly rather than occasionally, then this constitutes a pattern of behaviour that poses a risk to humans (particularly for children, the elderly and people with reduced mobility) and that such behaviour cannot be seen as natural for the ‘conflict individual’ of the species concerned; considers that in such cases, every effort must be made to reduce the risk, and, if unavoidable, to remove the ‘conflict individual’ in an appropriate way open to monitoring, or to take other necessary measures; such measures must be taken in accordance with the relevant management plans where they exist. The aim is to ensure that management plans are in place everywhere to govern both conservation and conflicts. In any case, measures against ‘conflict individuals’ must remain exceptional and should not affect the future and viability of the population;
16.

notes that the experience in several Member States — such as Italy — suggests little willingness to invest in work among older or second home owners; it would therefore seem worth introducing measures to inform such categories, together with incentives that are not limited to first homes. Acknowledges the need to adjust measures for analysing and upgrading existing buildings, not least on the basis of studies and practical experience of placing individual buildings in the context of a vulnerability assessment of the whole urban area or agglomeration, thereby recognising potential weaknesses in the actual conditions of use of the buildings;
11.

points out that many of the Partnership themes are themselves closely tied into other themes and that, in the spirit of integrated thinking, these should not be treated in isolation; insists on the need for very enhanced coordination between the action plans as their activities could have significant impacts on each other, for example (i) the Partnerships on Sustainable Use of Land and Nature-based Solutions, on Housing, and on Climate Adaptation; (ii) the Partnerships on Climate Adaptation, on Energy Transition and on Air Quality; (iii) the Partnerships on Urban Poverty, on Housing and on Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees;
39.

points out that Bisphenol A (BPA) is often replaced with Bisphenol S (BPS), Bisphenol F (BPF) and Bisphenol HPF (BHPF), which are less studied but appear to have similar hormone-disrupting effects; is therefore of the opinion that co-legislators should regulate groups of related chemicals, rather than taking a substance by substance approach. In the absence of good data to the contrary, chemicals with a similar structure should be assumed to have toxicological properties as harmful as those of the most toxic known substance in the group;
13.

flags up the many positive effects of LRA support for stepping up generation, storage and use of active, primarily renewable, energy. As an example, the CoR would point out that in the transport sector, especially both in and between urban areas, it is especially important to step up the use of sustainable biofuels as an interim solution and – in the medium term – battery electric and hydrogen e-mobility, as well as taking steps to address CO 2 emissions from transport in an integrated way, including measures to promote public transport, car sharing and other innovative solutions, as traffic volume is expected to grow and combustion engines will continue to play a significant role. An example of a sustainable bio-fuel used as an interim solution could be bioethanol, as an active energy which is generated, used and easily stored locally, which produces usable by-products (such as animal feed), reduces dependence on imports and could create a significant number of jobs. It is very important to ensure that the review of state aid rules and the Energy Taxation Directive does not make it impossible to promote sustainable bioenergy;
22.

commends the EU pilot programme, implemented through the TAIEX-REGIO PEER 2 PEER mechanism, for public administrators in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine; based on the principle of job-shadowing, this allows experience to be acquired in the EU Member States and that knowledge and expertise then to be passed on to participants’ own authorities in the EaP countries. The Committee suggests increasing the participation of administrators from local and regional authorities in this programme and advocates opening it up to all the EaP countries. We welcome the launch of the European Commission programme seconding national experts in professional training (NEPT), which was designed for the EaP countries, as well as the announcement of a new phase of the programme for young professionals (EU4Youth) for those countries. Another way of improving administrative skills in the EaP countries could be for them to take part in the JASPERS initiative, which provides help in preparing EU projects;
38.

has a series of more specific recommendations: — believes that efficiency and effectiveness should be considered. For example, a region that invests vast amounts of resources to improve its innovation system can be identified as inefficient (in terms of the use of resources). The Committee points out that it might be the case that regions with fewer resources dedicated to innovation can reach very high levels of efficiency; — notes that the RIS shows that densely populated areas are more likely to be more innovative but does not indicate which measures or tools the EU provides to make less densely populated areas more innovative; — points out that there are other factors that the RIS does not measure that may be important for regions, such as the brain drain and responsible innovation; — recommends including a section in the 2021 RIS on the impact of Brexit on EU innovation indicators; — suggests addressing the issue of building regional resilience through innovation in the 2021 RIS, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, it would be useful to assess the vulnerability of regional smart specialisation strategies in times of crisis; — recommends that the RIS take into account the heterogeneity of European regions and the room for manoeuvre of data, and that it encourage the regional (and national) statistics offices to adopt a uniform set of criteria (and indicators) at European level;
23.

agrees that the starting point for providing the Youth Guarantee to a young person should be their registration with an employment service, but for those NEETs who are not easily reached and are not likely to register with an employment service, the proposal should consider the possibility of defining other entry points to deliver the Youth Guarantee within the same four-month timeframe. It is equally important to reduce the administrative burden on young job-seekers and to keep the number of contact points to the absolute minimum. For this purpose, the proposal should recommend that online registration through specific Youth Guarantee e-platforms be the standard procedure. Meanwhile, the authorities have to ensure that those groups which are not accessible through digital channels get the appropriate support and efforts should be made to pro-actively register eligible young people for the Youth Guarantee. Awareness of the scheme should also be promoted among young people already in education or training. In the same vein, in order to make it easier for young people to take advantage of what the Youth Guarantee has to offer, education and training personnel should be able to signal to public employment services vulnerable young people who may require additional support to access employment after leaving education, in addition to more automatic information sharing between education services and public employment services to pro-actively refer and register young people leaving education or training to the Youth Guarantee;
10.

stresses the need to do everything possible in terms of international cooperation to ensure that the Arctic remains safe, stable and peaceful, and stresses the importance of maintaining, supporting and promoting peaceful cooperation in the Arctic region through a number of existing cooperation structures, first and foremost the Arctic Council as the pre-eminent format for circumpolar Arctic cooperation, at both people-to-people and intergovernmental level. With a view to stability, the EU must also recognise the role and potential of international non-governmental cooperation frameworks at local and regional level, such as the Arctic Mayors Forum, the NSPA, the Northern Forum the Arctic Economic Council and UArctic, in promoting dialogue in support of stability; these subnational frameworks can bring significant added value by providing results on tangible projects and bringing together partners less constrained by high-level political developments; calls on the EU institutions to partner and work with them;
63.

notes that the increasing prevalence of large predators and the associated increase in the killing of farm animals on mountain pastures are causing growing problems for mountain farming, and that in many cases mountain pasture farming is being abandoned, which in mountainous regions plays an important role in ensuring that entire regions do not become overrun with forests and thus makes a significant contribution to environmental protection and erosion control and to the priceless capital of landscape protection in rural areas; therefore calls on the European Commission to: — establish a common European wolf and large carnivores, especially bears management system; — explore an amendment to the annexes to the Habitats Directive in order to adapt more rapidly to the development of particular populations and to relax or strengthen the protection status by country or territorial unit where justified by a positive or negative development of the populations of the protected species and the threat to pastoral activities; — broaden the scope for adapting European legislation and the necessary measures to local conditions so that populations of predators, in particular those of wolves and bears, can be better managed;