CEEP: PUBLIC EMPLOYEES VIEWS ON CURRENT ISSUES.

Summary:

The European organisation of public employees, CEEP, has recently issued a series of positions on current issues. In summary, they cover energy, railway infrastructure, telecommunications, value added tax, public procurement, benchmarking, employment, and pensions.

Private pensions must not displace the statutory regime.

CEEP says that private pension funds must remain "really complementary" to statutory regimes. In its response to the European Commission's Green Paper on the subject, CEEP says the creation of a single market for private pension provision must not be a substitute for obligatory provision. It insists on the European Union's role in assuring coordination and in preserving "the European social model that CEEP is attached to". And it contests the Commission's views of reform of the current system via increased private provision: such a move could create a "two-speed" society because those on low incomes would not take out private pensions, it warns.

CEEP OPINION ON THE COMMISSION COMMUNICATION "ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN THE EC TOWARDS A STRATEGY FOR THE RATIONAL USE OF ENERGY (COM(98) 246 FINAL

The CEEP welcomes the publication of the Commission Communication "Energy Efficiency in the EC: Towards a Strategy for the Rational Use of Energy (Com(98) 246 Final) as "a first step" for the full realisation of the significant EU economic potential for improvement in energy efficiency. It says some of the measures proposed should be pursued in a more active manner.

* Activities emanating from the SAVE programme that have produced encouraging results with respect to cost-effective increases in the market shares for energy-efficient lighting, appliances, heat pumps, etc.

* Adequate monitoring and evaluation of results mechanisms; this is all the more important since this communication -together with other Commission documents in the energy field, seems to accord a rather unwarranted importance to precise, quantifiable objectives.

* Actions to promote consumer awareness on the possibilities available, actions that should be designed to reduce the information gap. In this context, the proposed enlarged system of awards and the "European Efficiency Best Practice Programme" may prove to be very efficient awareness building measures.

* Policies to "export" the energy efficiency philosophy and assist in the adoption of the relevant measures, and technologies in the rest of the world, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and the former...