Annexes to COM(2008)800 - A European Economic Recovery Plan - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2008)800 - A European Economic Recovery Plan. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2008)800  |
| date | November 26, 2008 |
- Continue to support the economic and social consolidation of the candidate countries and the Western Balkans in the mutual interest of the EU and the region. To this end the Commission will put in place a € 120 million "Crisis Response Package" leveraging an amount of € 500 million in loans from International Financial Institutions;
- Create a network of deep and comprehensive free trade agreements in its neighbourhood as a step towards a more integrated regional market. Working through its neighbourhood policy, the EU can build on the Union for the Mediterranean and its plans for a new Eastern Partnership;
- Step up efforts to secure new and ambitious Free Trade Agreements with other trade partners;
- Build a close working relationship with the new US administration, including through the Transatlantic Economic Council . More effective regulatory cooperation could also be pursued with other key industrialised countries, such as Canada and Japan;
- Continue dialogues with key bilateral partners such as China, India, Brazil and Russia and use them to address public procurement, competition and intellectual property issues.
Tackling Climate change
The crisis is occurring on the eve of a major structural shift towards the low carbon economy. The goal of fighting climate change can be combined with major new economic opportunities to develop new technologies and create jobs and enhance energy security.
Agreement in the December European Council and with the European Parliament on the EU's internal climate change strategy will strengthen the leading role the EU must seek to play in securing an ambitious international agreement on climate change at the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
Supporting developing countries
The current crisis will further add to existing pressures on developing countries, which are often least well positioned to cope. So it is all the more important that the EU, and others, maintain their commitments to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). It may also be necessary for developed countries and regions, like the EU, to come up with new, flexible and innovative instruments to help developing countries face the rapid impact of the crisis such as the EU's recent food aid facility.
Continuing to help emerging and developing countries on the path to sustainable growth is particularly relevant in the run up to the International Conference on Financing for Development, which will take place in Doha from 29 November – 2 December. At this meeting, the EU – which in 2007 continued to be the largest donor of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) - will reaffirm its commitment to arriving at ODA target levels of 0.56% of GNP by 2010 and 0.7% by 2015. It will also invite other donors to continue to work towards these goals.
Supporting sustainable development, inter alia through delivering on ODA targets and MDG goals, but also through addressing overall governance challenges, is all the more important in times of economic crisis. Sharing the benefits of sustainable growth, tackling climate change, energy and food security and good governance, are interlinked challenges, where international financial institutions, like other international bodies, also have an important role to play.
4. CONCLUSIONS
It is clear that the EU faces a difficult time in the coming months as the effects of the world and European economic slow down puts pressure on jobs and demand. But, acting together, Member States and European Institutions can take action to restore consumer and business confidence, to restart lending and stimulate investment in our economies, creating jobs and helping the unemployed to find new jobs. The European Economic Recovery Plan set out in this Communication is designed to create a basis for rapid agreement between Member States to get Europe's economy moving again.
The European Commission calls on the European Parliament to lend its full support to this European Economic Recovery Plan.
It calls on Heads of State and Government, at their meeting on 11 and 12 December 2008, to:
1. Endorse this European Economic Recovery Plan;
2. Request the European Commission and the Council to work together to ensure that combined national and EU level measures amount to at least 1.5% of GDP;
3. Ensure that updated Stability and Convergence Programmes including the national impulse measures, are assessed in accordance with the procedures laid down in the Stability and Growth Pact, while making use of the flexibility it offers;
4. Endorse the 10 actions outlined in the European Economic Recovery Plan; urge the Council and Parliament to accelerate any legislative activity needed to implement these measures;
5. Agree, on the basis of a Commission contribution before the 2009 Spring European Council assessing progress made with the implementation of the Plan, to identify any further measures necessary at EU and Member State level to stimulate the recovery;
6. Continue to work closely with international partners to implement global solutions to strengthen global governance and promote the economic recovery.
[1] Communication of 29 October - COM(2008) 706.
[2] The general recommendations and the specific actions related to the priority areas set out in this document are subject to compliance with internal market and competition rules, notably for State aid.
[3] This will be done by raising the current ¬ 1.5 M safe harbour thresThis will be done by raising the current €1.5 M safe harbour threshold for risk capital to € 2.5M, and by allowing, subject to certain conditions and maximum amounts, (a) to grant aid for guarantees for loans for certain companies having difficulties to obtain loans ; and (b) to grant aid of up to 50% (for SMEs and 25% (for large companies) of the Reference Rate, for loans for investments in the manufacture of products complying earlier with, or going beyond, new Community standards which increase the level of environmental protection and are not yet in force.
[4] COM(2008) 755, 13.11.2008.
[5] Buildings currently account for 40% of energy consumption.