Presidency as seen by the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic

The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as SP CR) is urging the Czech Presidency to support a European Union that remains business-friendly and creates a level and fair playing field for entrepreneurs operating in the Internal Market and globally. The multiple crises: the persisting threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the related energy crisis, which has hit Central and Eastern European businesses the hardest, are key issues of the Czech Presidency. This meant that SP CR had to operationally change our priorities set for CZ PRES.

In the face of the critical situation, we have repeatedly called on the Government to push through the specific measures needed to be taken at both the European and national levels (decoupling of electricity prices from gas prices, capping of gas prices, increased liquidity, adjustments to the EU ETS system, fundamental changes to the Temporary Crisis Framework). SP CR called on to provide solutions and emergency measures for large companies, which play an essential role, and not only economically, in the Czech Republic. Thanks to CZ PRES, SP CR had the opportunity, among other things, to personally discuss issues with the leadership of BusinessEurope and to subsequently co-draft an appeal to the European Commission and the Czech Presidency. The individual points of the letter were also discussed during the BusinessEurope leadership’s visit to Prague as part of SP CR, with the EU Presidency Expert Team and are based on SP CR’s position on the Energy Council.

The aim of SP CR is to put the Single Market back at the heart of the European policymakers’ concerns. To demonstrate that the Czech Republic remains one of the core members of the like-minded core group. SP CR strongly supports the Long term action plan for better implementation and enforcement of Single Market rules. SP CR is calling for more effective functioning of SMET (Single Market Enforcement Taskforce) so that more persistent barriers can be removed. The newly introduced SMEI (Single Market Emergency Instrument) must move in the right direction, so that it is genuinely focused on and addresses the EU’s industrial dependencies, has clear definitions and does not lead to additional administration and regulation. Within the CZ PRES, SP CR expects as well that the trialogue on revising the General Product Safety Regulation on the market will be completed and the upcoming revision of the Product Liability Directive will progress successfully. In the area of the digital economy, we are dealing with several major legislative proposals, for example, in the field of artificial intelligence and data sharing, the shape of which will affect the functioning of the digital economy for decades to come. SP CR positively views and supports several exisiting initiatives in the field of education, launched before the CZ PRES, leading to strengthening of the EU learnig area: Individual Job Accounts (stressing the diversity in the national approaches), micro-certificates (entirely), the European University Cooperation Package, the Talent Pool and Skills Package.

A big challenge for employers was the area of employment and social affairs. Thanks to the stubbornness of the EP, the controversial proposal for Pay Transparency, EU regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems in connection with the enforcement directive on posting of workers, remained hanging in the trilogue. CZ has a sensitive proposal on the table to improve working conditions in platforms with the ambition to conclude a general approach by December in EPSCO.

CZ PRES also touched on two business-sensitive proposals in the area of sustainability and transparency of businesses – corporate sustainability reporting and the preparation of delegated acts and corporate sustainability due diligence with the ambition to achieve a general approach.

However, the CZ PRES does not end there, and the SP CR preliminarily evaluates it positively, as flexible in responding to the current situation and constructive in terms of the direction of the discussed proposals.

Source: SPCR