Participation in meetings of EC working bodies

Working bodies of the European Commission

ÚNMZ provides representation of the Czech Republic in the working bodies of the European Commission - comitology committees and expert groups established by European legislation which fall within the remit of the Office. A list of these working bodies, including contact persons, is given in the table below.

More detailed information on the agenda of the EC working bodies can be obtained at radaeu@unmz.cz.

Membership and priorities of the European Commission

The current European Commission was approved by the European Parliament on 27 November 2019 and took up its mandate on 1 December 2019, thus starting its five-year term. College President Ursula von der Leyen has made changes to the EC's organisational structure, appointing individual Commissioners as heads of project teams responsible for a specific thematic portfolio. Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia) is the Commission's head of trade affairs, Paolo Gentiloni (Italy) heads economic affairs, Kadri Simson (Estonia) heads energy policy and Margrethe Vestager (Denmark) is the Executive Vice-President for the digital age and competition. The Internal Market Agency is led by Thierry Breton of France. The Czech Commissioner, Věra Jourová, who is Vice-President of the EC, is responsible for the values and transparency agenda. Details of the EC's staffing, its working methods and the distribution of portfolios among Commissioners are described at the EC website.

The European Commission's main priorities for 2019-2024 are as follows (more here):

- A green deal for Europe - to become the world's first climate-neutral continent,

- An economy that works for people - to promote social justice and prosperity,

- A Europe fit for the digital age - empowering citizens with the next generation of technologies,

- Promoting the European way of life - protecting our citizens and our values,

- A stronger Europe in the world - consolidating our responsible leadership in the world.

- A new impetus for European democracy - to develop, protect and deepen our democracy.

The European Commission has defined its main objectives and priorities for 2024 in its Work Programme of 17 October 2023 entitled "Delivering on our objectives and preparing for the future", which, among other things, puts a strong emphasis on simplifying rules for citizens and businesses across the European Union and presents important initiatives aimed at reducing administrative burdens and improving implementation and enforcement of EU law. Given the end of the legislative cycle, the European Commission is primarily planning only a limited number of new initiatives that are needed to meet the remaining commitments of the European Commission or to respond to new challenges such as maintaining European sovereignty in key technologies, enhancing Europe's economic security, etc. Longer-term initiatives will include the Commission's continued pursuit of the objectives of the Green Deal for Europe, developments in digitisation or artificial intelligence, and more recently, for example, the preparation of space regulation.

The Work Programme consists of a policy note and four annexes listing (I) new EC policies and legislative initiatives for 2024; (II) major proposals and initiatives to streamline reporting requirements, evaluation and fitness check; (III) priority proposals currently under discussion; and (IV) pending legislative proposals that the EC intends to withdraw in the next 6 months.

The European Commission's Work Programme for 2024 includes the following proposals and initiatives within the remit of the IOM:

• a proposal to amend Directive 2000/14/EC concerning noise emissions into the ambient environment from equipment intended for use outdoors, with the aim of removing the obligation to provide noise information for outdoor equipment already labelled;
• Evaluation of the functioning of Directive 2014/32/EU on measuring instruments and Directive 2014/31 on non-automatic weighing instruments, which will focus on the scope of the Directives, the technical requirements and the essential requirements in the light of technological progress and the state of the art, including digitisation, and the assessment of the possibility of simplifying the reporting obligations under the Directive for Member States;
• Evaluation of the functioning of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European Standardization to assess in particular the ability of the European standardisation system to deliver standards in a timely manner to support the EU's green, digital and single market, the involvement of SMEs in standardisation, the procedural rules governing requests for standardisation, the extent of EU financial support, the potential for simplification and reduction of administrative burden, the costs of standardisation at different stages of the process and for different stakeholders, etc.