UEIL News
EU Public Affairs better regulation and borates 2015 brought a different legislative approach from the European Commission. With only 23 legislative initiatives foreseen (in 2014 the number was 83), the newly-installed Juncker Commission opted for moving away from EU overload of legislative activity. In May, the Commission announced the Better Regulation Package, to be applicable across the board.
These proposals have been generally well received by industry, but with scepticism by civil society, who have set up a Better Regulation Watchdog to ensure this doesn’t just lead to de- regulation and a pro-business agenda. They include:
• Increased transparency and consultation: stakeholders will be able to make comments throughout the legislative procedure – and beyond! This increased transparency will apply to secondary legislation (delegated and ‘important’ implementing acts) which will be made public for the first time 4 weeks before adoption by the Commission or national experts.
• New REFIT platform with experts from business, civil society, etc., which will feed ideas into the Commission on reducing red tape. REFIT itself will be more targeted and will quantify the costs and benefits of actions where possible.
• More impact assessments (IAs): There will be impact assessments throughout the legislative process and a call on the EP and Council to conduct IAs on any substantial amendments. It proposes setting up an ad hoc and independent panel made up of 3 experts (one per each institution but acting independently from them) to analyse impact and cost of such amendments.
• Independent Regulatory Scrutiny Board, to replace the Commission’s Impact Assessment Board. It will have 6 members, with 3 from outside the Commission, plus a Chairman. It will scrutinise the quality of IAs and evaluate existing legislation but will not assess policy or legislative proposals.
On the UEIL EU Affairs activity, in May an UEIL representative attended the launching meeting of the Borates Industry Coalition, aimed at agreeing on a common agenda and a cooperation path to try and get the exclusion of Boric acids from the 5th and 6th prioritisation lists introduced by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), or at least delay its inclusion.
Considering that the eventual substitutes for the use of boric acid in lubricants would be considerably more expensive, it be would better for UEIL’s members if boric acids would be excluded from these lists, and the delay would be welcome.
This coalition is working under pressure, and additional developments are expected soon.
Taxation
Since the withdrawal of the Energy Taxation Directive, the UEIL Board has decided to focus on the revision of the CN (Combined Nomenclature) codes, refining the current tracking and tracing rules and monitoring the position of Poland and Lithuania. The last European Commission Working Group on the revision of the CN codes took place on 16 and 17 April 2015 where Rod Pesch represented the interests of UEIL. Our proposals to amend the CN codes 27101971 to 27101999 and CN Code 34031910 were accepted. If the CN codes will be amended this will lead to more predictable and less problems on interpretation and therefore reduction of fraud with lubricants within the EU.
Technical/Competition Committees The Technical Committee and the Competition Committee have not issued any OEM Bulletins since the last Lube Magazine issue, although several will be issued in the next few months.
The current cases, which have been raised by the membership, are:
• Off Road Equipment, 5 cases • Passenger Cars, 4 cases • Heavy Duty Diesel, 1 case Several cases have recently been transferred from the Technical Committee to the Competition Committee.
The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Brussels on Wednesday 23 September 2015.
UEIL 2015 Annual Congress
Registrations for the UEIL 2015 Annual Congress (Malta, 21-23 October 2015) are now open! Go to
www.ueil.org and:
• See who is sponsoring, and whether you would like to sponsor one of the biggest events of our industry!
• Check out the confirmed programme! Great speakers confirmed, and a special session dedicated to biolubricants! • Book your room before the deadline!
LINK
www.ueil.org
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.128 AUGUST 2015
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