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BusinessEurope Headlines No. 2020-14

Further measures needed during the COVID-19 crisis

Ahead of the European leaders’ video conference meeting on 23 April, BusinessEurope sent a letter to the Presidents of the European Council, Commission and Parliament on further measures needed during the COVID-19 emergency, as well as the exit and recovery phases. These measures include (1) a co-ordinated and well-communicated European response to the present coronavirus emergency; (2) ensuring a risk-based approach allowing economies to exit from current emergency measures; (3) and leveraging solidarity to deliver a co-ordinated EU recovery plan. “The European Union must show that it is more than the sum of its members and it must take a leading role in ensuring that the necessary coordination in global fora such as the G20 takes place”, the letter states. 

Contact: Lisa Kastner

Our comment

Real-time exchanges between businesses and EU policy makers is crucial in this crisis

By Martynas Barysas, Director, and Patrick Grant, Advisor for Internal Market

As the COVID-19 crisis broke out, a wide range of various response measures by member states has been deployed to protect citizens. They vary in terms of scope, nature (mandatory rules or recommendations, with clear validity deadlines or without), level of detail and restrictiveness, territorial application and so on. While speedy reaction to contain the virus spread is crucial, no less it is important for member states to take a well-coordinated and comprehensive approach, as maintaining the industrial and service activity requires united actions in both physical and digital domains.

Value chains of today are organised throughout the European single market and beyond, and one uncoordinated decision by authorities may cause disruptions that bring immediate damage to the people they are actually trying to help. It became very evident some weeks ago, with severe freight (including food and medical equipment) transport disruptions, and this is why a new type of cooperation between the business community and public authorities is a must during the crisis. Real-time information is necessary in order to effectively tackle problems.

At EU level, to assist the European Commission in its commendable efforts to coordinate COVID-19 response measures by member states in a way that maintains the single market as the engine of the economy and supplies of essential goods and services to Europeans, BusinessEurope opened a channel to report any single market blockages or supply disruptions to the Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). To ensure the speed of actions and enable the Commission to take informed decisions, this initiative with DG GROW is a real-time reporting of the problems whenever they occur.

BusinessEurope has provided a number of cases from the markets, to name a few: information on concrete border crossing blockages and other freight transport specific disruptions, figures on shortages of certain medical supplies including inputs for production (of disinfectants, for example), disruptions in free movement of workers which impede provision of a wide range of services, such as medical equipment installation and repairs or essential energy infrastructure maintenance, nursing and day care of the elderly or seasonal harvesting services. A new type of disruptions with negative consequences for those in need occurs when member states define what “essential goods and services” are without coordinating, and consequently a company cannot produce the “essential” medical device due to restrictions on supplies of “non-essential” parts for it from another member state.

Agencies of the European Union are also pragmatically working closer with industry to coordinate the COVID-19 response. As hostile actors continue to take advantage of this crisis through using it as a cloak to carry out a greater amount of phishing and malware activities, disrupting business functioning at this essential moment, BusinessEurope called for greater awareness raising and technical aid from the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). Real-time exchanges of information in this domain will be essential. With this in mind, BusinessEurope and ENISA are exploring potential cooperation in order to better inform businesses across the single market about the latest cyber incidents so they can better prepare protection. We are also interested in looking at specific technical assistance in areas that have become of critical importance due to COVID-19, such as teleworking.

We commend all European policy makers for their increased efforts and remain ready to assist in a number of policy areas where real-time cooperation can be seen to make a real difference.

Contact: Martynas Barysas / Patrick Grant

Export restrictions do more harm than good

On 10 April, BusinessEurope and associations representing pharma and medical devices industries, including EFPIA, Medicines for Europe, and MedTech Europe, sent a joint letter to EU Trade Ministers on supply chain and trade needs to respond to COVID-19. These business organisations expressed their concern with the increase in government restrictions affecting medical and protective equipment and medicines (from raw materials to finished pharmaceutical forms) both globally and in Europe. The letter highlights that export bans and other trade restrictions increase the risk of supply shortages. They also disrupt distribution channels and add supply chain management delays and costs. All this at a time when companies should be dedicating their time and resources to increasing global supply of critical medicines and protective equipment, as well as finding durable solutions to the current crisis. European companies invite EU governments to cooperate at EU and global level, share resources, and enhance further investments.

Contact: Eleonora Catella

Extension of Green Deal deadlines needed due to COVID-19 crisis

“BusinessEurope is calling on the European Commission to extend all non- essential environment and climate-related consultations for stakeholder engagement, as well as to extend certain deadlines to implement EU legislation”, said BusinessEurope Director General Markus J. Beyrer in a letter sent to the European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans on Friday 10 April. The letter states that the COVID-19 pandemic does not change business commitment to make the European Green Deal a true success. It will have to be deeply anchored into the future European recovery plan, making sure it secures investments for energy, environment and climate programmes. "However, facing deadlines as if nothing has happened risks making stakeholder inputs for consultations and existing EU regulations far from perfect, which should not be the foundation of the Green Deal”, it highlights.

Contact: Leon de Graaf

Amended rules on posting of workers: business calls for postponement

On 14 April 2020, BusinessEurope sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, asking the Commission to postpone the date of entry into force of Directive 2018/957 on Posting of Workers, until a time when it can be effectively implemented by business and national administrations. This will allow businesses, social partners and public authorities to focus on what is essential in overcoming the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, whilst preserving growth and employment and the integrity of the single market, as lockdown provisions are gradually lifted. Meanwhile the existing rules on posting of workers (Directive 96/71/EC) with which all operators are already familiar would remain applicable.

Contact: Rebekah Smith

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Last updated: 16 April 2020