JURI Report 11 (PDF

JURI REPORT November II 2013 Issue No 11 At this meeting Important dates November 25-26 – JURI This meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs will commence on the afternoon of 25 November meeting 2013 with an exchange of views with the Lithuanian Presidency on the proposal for a Common European Sales Law. Parliament’s first-reading position on this flagship project is to be adopted in November 28 – Workshop on the December plenary, on the basis of the report prepared by co-rapporteurs Klaus-Heiner Lehne the training of legal and Luigi Berlinguer. practitioners: teaching EU law and judgecraft Later on in the afternoon, from 16.00, there will be an exchange of views with Commissioner Michel December 16-17 – JURI Barnier as part of the structured dialogue between Parliament and the Commission. António meeting Campinos, the President of OHIM, will then present a study entitled ‘European citizens and intellectual property: perception, awareness and behaviour’ which looks at the way citizens perceive major intellectual property issues. Subscription to JURI The morning of 26 November 2013 will start with a joint debate on the so-called omnibus package Report which concerns the use of the comitology procedure. In view of the end of the transitional period If you wish to receive the JURI conceded by the Lisbon Treaty, all remaining primary law which provides for the use of the newsletter, please send an regulatory procedure with scrutiny for the adoption of secondary legislation must be adapted to the email with your contact details new system of delegated and implementing acts under Articles 290 and 291 TFEU. József Szájer will and subject 'newsletter' to: be leading the first debate on all three proposals. juri- [email protected] Voting time will begin at 10.00 and include major votes on the trade mark package (Cecilia u Wikström) and on three own-initiative reports on delegated and implementing powers (József Szájer), the EU Justice Scoreboard (Tadeusz Zwiefka) and private copying levies (Françoise Castex), respectively. The committee will also hold a vote to confirm the result of negotiations with the Council on the very important file on the collective management of copyright and related rights and Subscription to JURI press the multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market (Marielle releases Gallo). lega- [email protected] Following the votes, there will be debates on Alexandra Thein’s report on the proposal to increase the number of judges at the General Court and on Raffaele Baldassarre’s draft report on the disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large companies and groups. Raffaele Credits and Baldassarre, who presided over the committee’s delegation to China in October, will report back on acknowledgements the meetings held with Chinese officials and institutions. European Parliament On the afternoon of 26 November, there will be an exchange of views on Eva Lichtenberger’s own- Committee on Legal Affairs initiative report on monitoring the application of EU law, following which the committee will meet in camera to consider disputes, the verification of credentials and immunity requests. Head of Unit: Robert Bray Responsible Administrator: Exchange of views with Michel Barnier Alexander Keys At this meeting, the committee will welcome Commissioner Barnier. This invitation is part of the annual JURI website structured dialogue with the European Commission on its work programme. Commissioner Barnier is responsible for two of the most important areas of competence in the JURI committee: company law and intellectual property rights. Watch LIVE Disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large companies and groups Watch the JURI Committee meetings live on the EP Procedure 2013/0110(COD) website or on EuroparlTV Basic doc COM(2013)0207 Rapporteur Raffaelle Baldassarre Administrator Leticia Zuleta de RE-Watch respons. Reales Past meetings are available via PRELIMINARY TIMETABLE EP multimedia library Consideration 25.-26.11.2013 of amend. Adoption JURI 17.12.2013 It is estimated that only a limited number of large companies (2 500 out of the total of 42 000 in Library news the EU) regularly publish non-financial information. The quality of the information disclosed varies, making it difficult for investors and stakeholders to understand and compare companies’ position The library website provides and performance. Furthermore, national requirements are significantly diverse, which adds to the direct access to many lack of clarity for companies and investors who operate across the Internal Market. documents and sources related The need to improve the transparency of the social and environmental information provided by to the work of the JURI companies in all sectors, in order to ensure a level playing field, has been acknowledged by the committee: Commission in the Single Market Act and was reiterated in the Communication ‘‘A renewed strategy 2011 – 2014 for Corporate Social Responsibility’’. Legal affairs policy area page The European Parliament, in its two resolutions on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility: accountable, transparent and responsible business behaviour and sustainable growth’ and ‘Corporate Social Case law portal Responsibility: promoting society’s interests and a route to sustainable and inclusive recovery’, acknowledged the need to increase transparency in this field and called the Commission to bring forward a legislative proposal. Upcoming conferences and seminars Against this background, the legislative proposal presented by the Commission focuses on the following points: Useful databases 1) Non-financial information: the proposal will require certain large companies to include a statement in their Annual Report including material information relating to at least environmental, To learn more about the use of social, and employee-related matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery these pages and databases, matters. register for training. The obligation will only apply to those companies where the average number of employees exceeds 500, and either a balance sheet total in excess of EUR 20 million or a net turnover of over In addition a team of EUR 40 million. information specialists is 2) Diversity: the amendment will require large listed companies to provide information on their always available to help you diversity policy, including aspects concerning age, gender, geographical diversity, and educational with specific requests. Do not and professional background. The information will be included in the corporate governance hesitate to ask the library. statement. After the presentation of the Commission proposal, Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC were repealed by Directive 2013/34/EC. In his draft report, Raffaele Baldassarre has tabled a series of technical amendments aimed at adapting the text to the Accounting Directive. The rapporteur essentially shares the orientation given by the Commission to the text. However, he goes beyond the proposal by specifying the information to be included in the non-financial statement. He has included a grandfather clause giving the members of the administrative, management, and supervisory bodies the possibility to decide whether or not to disclose such information if disclosure would be seriously prejudicial to the interests of the undertaking. Finally, and following the echoes of the Council conclusions of 22 May 2013, the rapporteur proposes to ask the Commission to consider, in the report referred to in Article 48 of Directive 2013/34/EC, whether to introduce an obligation for large undertakings and public-interest entities to publicly disclose, on an annual basis, a country-by-country report for each Member State and third country in which they operate, containing information on, as a minimum, the profit or loss before tax, the tax on profit or loss and public subsidies received. 172 amendments have been tabled. The committee will discuss them at this meeting. 2 The EU Justice Scoreboard – civil and administrative justice in the Member States Procedure 2013/2117(INI) Basic doc COM(2013)0160 Legal basis Rule 48 RoP Rapporteur Tadeusz Zwiefka Administrator respons. Alexander Keys PRELIMINARY TIMETABLE Consideration of 4.11.2013 amendments Adoption JURI 26.11.2013 Adoption Plenary January 2014 For the first time, the European Commission has issued a report which looks at the performance of national civil and administrative justice systems. The purpose of the exercise is to compare national justice systems, with a view to establishing where there may be shortcomings and where Member States may benefit from a transfer of best practices. As this is a sensitive area and national prerogatives must be respected, the Committee on Legal Affairs has decided to issue an implementation report concerning the Justice Scoreboard. As the goal of the exercise is to assess the quality, independence and efficiency of national justice systems, it is to be welcomed. Nevertheless, in his draft report, the rapporteur draws attention to certain considerations and limitations which should be borne in mind. The amendments tabled to the draft report are largely positively disposed towards the Commission initiative, but many seek to stress the importance of national differences in the justice field. At this meeting, the committee will vote on the report. The implementation of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC The Committee should adopt the

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