FIEC Newsletter – 2 Μαρτίου 2021

As the interinstitutional negotiations on the coordination of social security systems resume under the Portuguese Presidency, FIEC stressed in a press release published on 1st March that it is opposed to any form of temporary exemption to the prior notification of the A1 form for the construction industry.Moreover, FIEC advocated that the existing exemption to the prior notification for “business trips” must not cover the provision of construction services, as indicated in the Annex of the Posting of Workers Directive (Directive 96/71/EC, amended by Directive (EU) 2018/957).

Indeed, FIEC considers that such exemptions would open Pandora’s box in terms of fraud, with regard to the posting of workers.

On the other hand, FIEC considers that, instead of considering short-time exemptions for “administrative simplification” purposes, Member States should further develop simple digital tools and procedures for notifying posting. Full digitalisation would render the current discussions around exemptions to prior notification obsolete.

On 25 February, in a public event organised by the Nordic Banking Associations, the former co-rapporteurs on the Taxonomy Regulation, Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP) and Bas Eickhout (Greens), called for broader use of the EU Taxonomy. The classification scheme should be used in upcoming financial legislation such as MiFID or Solvency but also in public funding.

We will learn more about its further use once the renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy is published. However, it is already foreseeable that its application will go beyond the Taxonomy Regulation and become a key reference for sustainable financing and funding.

Last week the European Commission published its Inception Impact Assessment on the revision of the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU.  This Directive was last revised in 2018, but another revision is seen to be necessary in order to meet the more recent and more ambition climate targets. The document is open for comments until mid-March.  Early signs are that the Commission wants to be ambitious with the revision, in order to at least double the annual energy renovation rate of buildings by 2030.  The Inception Impact Assessment and link to the feedback website can be found by following the link below.