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The Council's plenary session considers that the strategic importance of the telecommunications sector entails that the regulations applicable to it should seek to configure a sustainable model based on effective competition between infrastructures and investment in new networks, with a high level of legal certainty and a capacity to consolidate service quality and increase the scope of universal services, thereby narrowing the digital divide.The opinion remarks upon various positive aspects of the bill:The predisposition (at least as a principle) for innovation and investment, with a legal framework that encourages operators to deploy new networks.The broader treatment of disabilities, though the stated principles and objectives are not adequately reflected in the bill's articles.And also several negative aspects: A restriction of the capacity of public authorities to act in the provision of general-interest services. An imbalanced treatment of procedures for resolving possible conflicts of competence between spheres of government. An insufficient improvement in guarantees concerning the preservation of personal data and rights regarding freedom of content and access to information. The complexity and legal uncertainty generated by the range of issues left for subsequent regulatory implementation.

Opinion 02/2013 on the Draft Bill transposing to Spanish Law Directives 2010/84/EU of the European Parliament and Council of 15 December 2010 on Pharmacovigilance and 2011/62/EU of the European Parliament and Council of 8 June 2011 on the prevention of the entry into the legal supply chain of falsified medicinal products, and amending Law 29/2006 of 26 July on guarantees and rational use of medical and health products The Council deems that the transposition made is suitably in line with the directives. It welcomes the bill, for it enhances the control of quality and safety in the manufacture and supply of medicinal products, which may involve health risks arising from irresponsible consumer behaviour and also risks linked to product quality. Furthermore, it takes a favourable view of the bill given the cases of falsified medicinal products entering the legal supply chain in other countries, which have shown the urgent need for harmonised preventive legislation.But the Council regards as unrealistic the Health Ministry's intention, stated in the bill's cost projections, of not increasing budgetary spending despite the need for greater administrative oversight. Thus it would be recommendable to review the financial and organisational projections linked to its implementation so as to ensure that procedures are effectively resolved. The Council takes a positive view of the extension of some procedures allowing for tacit assent, though it considers that these should be exceptional. The opinion regards the system of penalties as in keeping with the principles of legality, prior definition, responsibility and proportionality, and remarks that the provisions currently contained in various legal texts are here included in a single bill.Along the same lines the opinion notes that the successive legal reforms have resulted in legislation that has increasingly less in common with the text adopted in 2006, and that this is detrimental to legal certainty. For this reason the Council calls for a properly consolidated text to be provided and considers that the principles of clarity, consistency and continuity underlying policy on the rational use of medicinal products should be given form in a more stable regulatory framework.Regarding the regulation of sales over the internet, which is left for subsequent implementing legislation, the Council calls for diligence in this respect with a view to establishing all the necessary guarantees and providing a secure regulatory framework.

The opinion's considerations on the government's text notably include the following: It would have been advisable to process this bill alongside the Judicial Charges Act, as it would have been for the latter to have been submitted to the Council for consultation. The bill lays stress on the financial and budgetary perspective. But the Council believes that an exclusively economic approach may affect the constitutional dimension of what is part of the fundamental right to effective legal protection, reducing this to a mere service subject to fiscal vagaries. The Council is highly critical of the change in the legal aid model in the labour sphere, according to which workers and social security beneficiaries must demonstrate they have insufficient resources in order to receive legal aid for proceedings in further judicial stages (duplicating and cassation appeals and appeals against decisions in bankruptcy proceedings). The Council regards the budgetary argument for the measure as incomprehensible given that in the legal aid system the labour sphere accounts for no more than 2% of the total budget. The Council notes the disparity of treatment in various cases apparently without objective reason and mentions inter alia the non-inclusion in the partial exemption from charges for social security beneficiaries, whereas this right is recognised for workers in labour courts. Other disparities concern civil servants in administrative proceedings, for whom the right to legal aid is not recognised in occupational claims whereas it is recognised for private-sector workers in the labour courts. Or the fact that treatment similar to that given to social security beneficiaries is not given in claims regarding the personal autonomy and dependent care system. Or that the right to legal aid is recognised for trade unions pursuing collective interests in the labour sphere but does not apply in the administrative courts or in bankruptcy proceedings. The bill grants the right to legal aid to a range of non-profit entities where they demonstrate that their resources are insufficient. The Council proposes that the right be extended to other associations or organisations representing social, economic and professional interests when defending such specific interests. Likewise the Council deems that the entities entitled to legal aid should include small firms, in keeping with corporate tax regulations. The Council notes the restrictive change made as regards disabled people's right to legal aid. It finds this disproportionate and unjustified. The Council believes that the bill should indicate a deadline for the establishment of legal aid committees. The bill provides that lawyers' associations should offer advice to legal aid applicants, which will be free only for those for whom the right to aid is recognised. The Council believes that free initial advice should be available to all such applicants. As to the provisions concerning abuse of the right to aid, the Council questions whether this presumption should apply where the service is used more than three times in a year. It recommends introducing other criteria than merely quantitive ones. The Council regards the change in the bill to allow previously exempt entities such as trade unions to be ordered to pay legal costs as unjustified, in line with the Labour Jurisdiction Act.

The year 2012 was marked by a number of striking changes in and around theCouncil, with potentially far-reaching consequences. By that, I do not just mean thechange that is significant for me personally, namely my acceptance of thepresidency of the Council, as successor to Alexander Rinnooy Kan. Far moredecisive for the Council and the climate “in the polder” were the changes within theunion movement and the advent of the second government led by Mark Rutte. Atthe end of 2012, the media referred to a revival of the “polder model” (i.e. theconsensus model).

The year 2012 was marked by a number of striking changes in and around theCouncil, with potentially far-reaching consequences. By that, I do not just mean thechange that is significant for me personally, namely my acceptance of thepresidency of the Council, as successor to Alexander Rinnooy Kan. Far moredecisive for the Council and the climate “in the polder” were the changes within theunion movement and the advent of the second government led by Mark Rutte. Atthe end of 2012, the media referred to a revival of the “polder model” (i.e. theconsensus model).

The year 2012 was marked by a number of striking changes in and around theCouncil, with potentially far-reaching consequences. By that, I do not just mean thechange that is significant for me personally, namely my acceptance of thepresidency of the Council, as successor to Alexander Rinnooy Kan. Far moredecisive for the Council and the climate “in the polder” were the changes within theunion movement and the advent of the second government led by Mark Rutte. Atthe end of 2012, the media referred to a revival of the “polder model” (i.e. theconsensus model).

The year 2012 was marked by a number of striking changes in and around theCouncil, with potentially far-reaching consequences. By that, I do not just mean thechange that is significant for me personally, namely my acceptance of thepresidency of the Council, as successor to Alexander Rinnooy Kan. Far moredecisive for the Council and the climate “in the polder” were the changes within theunion movement and the advent of the second government led by Mark Rutte. Atthe end of 2012, the media referred to a revival of the “polder model” (i.e. theconsensus model).

The year 2012 was marked by a number of striking changes in and around theCouncil, with potentially far-reaching consequences. By that, I do not just mean thechange that is significant for me personally, namely my acceptance of thepresidency of the Council, as successor to Alexander Rinnooy Kan. Far moredecisive for the Council and the climate “in the polder” were the changes within theunion movement and the advent of the second government led by Mark Rutte. Atthe end of 2012, the media referred to a revival of the “polder model” (i.e. theconsensus model).

The NESC Secretariat, at the request of the The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has undertaken analysis to inform the development of Irish climate change policy. The NESC Climate Change project includes the development of potential policies and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, transport, heat in buildings and renewable energy supply; and, a basis for a national transition to a low-carbon future by 2050.