FIEC Newsletter – 14 Δεκεμβρίου 2021

After a lengthy and highly politicized process, the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act was published in the Official Journal on 9 December. This is a game changer: It is now legally defined which economic activities are considered sustainable for the purpose of investments.

With many construction activities covered by the legal act, companies will be affected in several ways.
1. Large companies eventually have to disclose their taxonomy alignment in their non-financial reporting.
2. If required, companies will have to comply with the criteria through bank loan conditions or clients’ project specifications.
3. Sustainably operating companies will see their order books grow if the Taxonomy succeeds in directing financial flows to sustainable activities.

The Taxonomy has high potential to drive change but the next years should be considered a trial period. The framework still needs to be improved and finetuned. This is why some adjustments are foreseen and expected.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the creation of the European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP) – with whom FIEC works in close cooperation – and in the context of its participation to the 2021 European Retirement Week, the AEIP published a comprehensive research paper with a focus on “The added value of the paritarian model”.This research paper brings together an analysis on the concept and main characteristics of paritarism as well as a detailed historical examination of the development and current functioning of paritarian institutions in a number of countries, including Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany and Italy. The paper also casts light in the relevance of social dialogue for collective social protection schemes and looks back at the development of the European Social Dialogue model. Finally, it brings forward several policy recommendations to support paritarian institutions of social protection.

The Committee on International Trade (INTA) of the European Parliament has recently published its report that is tabled for the plenary session. This report includes the amendments that were approved by vote on the 29th November 2021. The approved provisions constitute a significant improvement in relation to the Commission’s 2016 proposal. Significantly, among these, is the possibility to exclude bidders from procurement procedures and the introduction of a score adjustment mechanism. Moreover, exceptions allowing for clients not to apply IPI measures to a procurement procedure have been limited.Discussions on the IPI are set to advance quickly. The proposal will be voted today in the plenary session and trialogues are expected to follow. FIEC is staying tuned for further updates and developments.