PROACTIVE SECTORAL LOBBYING IN FULL SWING AT EU LEVEL
Submitted by christian on Fri, 05/01/2020 - 11:49
- Car makers and parts producers: They oppose environmental standards. They say they won't be able to comply with existing and future EU laws and regulations within the applicable deadlines set in the regulations. Some of these regulations include the much-discussed new standards for CO2 emissions.
- Airline industry: Wishes for upcoming environmental taxation e.g. fuel taxes to be put on hold. Seeking governmental bailouts. Also seeking to counter obligations to refund passengers whose flights have been cancelled but the EU Commission is sticking to the EU passenger rights legislation which forces airlines to refund consumers with cancelled flights.
- Agribusiness and chemicals: Want to delay environmental and sustainability standards and sustainability strategy for food production e.g. Farm To Fork .
- Plastics Producers: Want to delay implementation of the EU’s ban on specific single use plastics, agreed in 2019. The European Commission holds the view that good hygiene practices should be applied to all products, including substitutes of banned SUPs [Single Use Plastics].
- Finance: Representatives of the banking industry have been asking central banks (including the European Central Bank) to relax or delay rules that were put in place after the financial crisis to limit potential new crises. The measures cover everything from capital and liquidity to accounting and climate change. At the European level, a key concern seems to the new BASEL IV, a requirement for banks to build up capital levels to be able to absorb shocks without collapsing, due to be implemented by 2027.
- Defence and civil aeronautics: Seeking financial aid from governments and the EU Institutions as well as relief on various technical/regulatory issues.
- Big Tech: Calls for more public funds towards digitisation of different sectors but also to speed up measures to: allow deployment of technology like 5G networks; speeding up the creation of a European health data space to facilitate sharing of data between public sector, researchers, and the private sector; and boost investment of artificial intelligence (AI) in the health sector. Wishes for the European Commission to re-consider some of the requirements it has set out in its White Paper for AI, specifically when it comes down to testing and the use of European data.
- Medical Technology Industry: Asking governments and the EU Institutions to delay the implementation of new Medical Devices Regulation (MDR). These standards were agreed in 2017 to increase oversight, market surveillance, and transparency on medical devices. Also asking that In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR) be delayed (they are due to be implemented in May 2022). The European Commission is now decided to postpone the Medical Devices Regulation implementation by a full year. So far, the May 2022 deadline for In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation has been kept.
- Pharma: Asking for public subsidies with no affordability conditions. Wants to ensure that financing is as easy-going as possible while preserving the most industry-friendly intellectual property (IP) rules. i.e. an IP framework with a faster research and development process in order to compensate the financial risk. But one way of ensuring affordability is by attaching conditionality to public research funding. Nonexclusive licensing can help achieve broader access to health technologies. When exclusive licenses are negotiated, adequate safeguards should be in place to prevent abuses. Grant agreements can also include specific commitments on affordability. It seems that the position of industry and civil society are far apart.
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