BusinessEurope Headlines No. 2018-02
Plastics Strategy – ambitious targets with a balanced approach
The European Commission took an important step forward in the Circular Economy Action Plan with a publication of the Plastics Strategy on Tuesday 16 January 2018. Though the Commission has set ambitious targets for 2030, BusinessEurope welcomes the fact that it will enter into a close dialogue with stakeholders before immediately jumping to regulatory actions.
Contact: Leon de Graaf
BusinessEurope provides stakeholders inputs on EU Emissions Trading System
“We welcome the agreement in the sense that we want the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to the main policy tool to reduce emissions cost effectively in Europe through a meaningful carbon price”, BusinessEurope adviser Leon de Graaf said at a stakeholder event organized by the European Policy Center (EPC) on 11 January 2018. The event discussed the aftermath of the reform on the EU ETS and was attended by Julie Girling, Rapporteur on the EU ETS reform at the European Parliament, and Peter Zapfel, Head of Unit at the European Commission Department for Climate Action (DG CLIMA). De Graaf added that “the deal does not go far enough in securing sufficient free allowances for industries exposed to investment leakage. We still find it difficult to understand why negotiators didn’t go for a 5% shift from auctioned to free allowances. If it turns out that the 3% is not enough, then there will be no other safeguard to ensure that the best performers receive enough free allowances”.
Contact: Leon de Graaf
Education Package can help foster education and skills for a more competitive Europe
BusinessEurope highlighted the importance of ensuring a better alignment between learning outcomes and labour market needs, which includes the need for digital skills, following the publication of the European Commission’s Education Package on Wednesday, 17 January 2018. The Digital Education Action Plan that was published as part of the package can play a role in addressing the structural challenge of improving digital skills while advancing the use of digital learning methods in education and training. The Package consists of three elements: a proposal for revising the EU’s Key Competences Framework; a Digital Education Action Plan; and a Council Recommendation on common values, inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching.
Contact: Robert Plummer
Simplify the accounting and disclosures for goodwill
BusinessEurope responded to the “Discussion Paper Goodwill Impairment Test: Can it be improved?” of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG). Although it is positive that the Discussion Paper is intended to provide suggestions for ways of simplifying the accounting and disclosures for goodwill, businesses preparing financial reports believe that several of the suggestions will lead to increased complexity and burdens. The proposed “accretion approach” may begin to trigger repeated annual impairments, and therefore it is questionable whether the amortisation of goodwill would be a simpler approach. Some of the proposed disclosures will be very onerous to produce and should be required only if they can be demonstrated to be essential for users.
Contact: Erik Berggren
Calendar 
- 23-26 January: World Economic Forum annual meeting 2018, Davos
- 24 January: European Commission guidance on General Data Protection Regulation
- 26 January: EU industrial strategy: what headline indicators for a long-term vision?, Brussels