News

For many years, farmers and agro-food industry have been criticising the commerce sector and especially retailers for putting an overwhelming financial pressure on them.



Several politicians, particularly the Greens supporting farmers and also those elected from rural areas have been promoting the idea that the retail sector is making huge benefits at their expenses.



Other lobbying firms and NGOs have attacked the commerce sector on the clothing sub-sector too by denouncing poor working conditions in the supply chain.



As a response to this pressure, several European Parliament Members have requested action from the European Commission.



The commerce companies and their federations and efficient lobbyist officials have rejected these accusations stating that they suffer from taxes, unfair competition, “must have” providers and wholesalers. They are determined to improve their image.

1 Actions taken by EU institutions and role of UNI Europa Commerce

a) Communication on food prices in EuropeHuge food prices increases have led to dramatic actions from farmers across Europe. In 2008 the Commission adopted a communication that led to the monitoring of the retail sector. The Commission has set up a High Level Forum on the better functioning of the food supply chain in which EuroCommerce and EFFAT are represented. UNI Europa has not been included in the process despite EFFAT’s support.

b) In 2009, DG Markt (internal market services) launched a “retail market monitoring” in view of investigating the allegations described above. The conclusions are the following:

· Malfunctioning of commercial property markets (for example varying commercial planning rules), limited take-off of e-commerce (it represents more than 2% of total retail service sales in just 4 Member States), insufficient development of commercial communications (for example sales promotions) and independent services providing information on prices and quality (for example internet price comparison sites, or comparative tests of products and services), which give rise to a lack of accessibility by the consumers to a sufficient choice of shops. Proximity of shops is of key importance to some groups of consumers, for example the elderly (17% of the EU population is now 64 or older), the disabled (15% of the EU population) or those who cannot afford a car (9% of EU citizens). But the report highlights that the number of small local grocery shops fell by 3.7% between 2004 and 2009.

· Lack of rules or their insufficient enforcement addressing unfair commercial practices between various actors in the supply chain and lack of transparency in quality schemes (for example, labels) and difficulties in their cross-border use because of varying rules (for example language requirements) which may undermine the capacity to invest in innovation.

· Negative impact of the informal economy on working conditions, lack of information to consumers as regards social performance of businesses in the retail sector and mismatch between the needs of businesses and the skills of employees in the retail sector that can all impact negatively on working conditions.

· High energy consumption, high production of waste, significant contribution to the volume of traffic and congestion due to transport of goods, insufficient account taken of environmental costs in the supply chain (logistics, energy efficiency shops, marketing and communication) and lack of incentives to address these issues, lack of a common method to evaluate environmental impact of products and services sold which give rise to sustainability, efficiency and fairness issues.

UNI Europa Commerce met several times with DG Markt to secure that workers’ interest be taken into consideration. The Commission decided to visit on the ground social partners in 13 countries. Their views were successfully taken into consideration (see annexe).



On 27 October 2010, the Commission organised a conference called “towards a fairer and more efficient retail sector in 2020” to present its final report. A delegation of 10 trade unionists participated in the debates. The UNI Europa Commerce President Jörgen Hoppe presented the position of the trade union movement.





c) European own initiative report, Mrs Corraza-Bildt, Rapporteur



On 25 January 2011 the Committee on the internal market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) of the European Parliament held a public roundtable to launch its activities called “a more efficient and fairer retail market for business and consumers”. Despite the fact that no worker representatives had been invited to speak at the conference, UNI Europa was represented by a delegation of 12 trade unionists that raised questions at every stage of the debates. In the end, despite the Rapporteur’s orientation in favour of business, and thanks to the common work of the European commerce social partners, the report recognises the importance of workforce development in the sector and names and supports UNI Europa and EuroCommerce to continue their work against mismatches between workers and employers skills needs.



d) Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on E.P. Report (Rapporteur: Almeida Freire, CESE 63/2011)



The Committee calls on the European social partners in commerce to reinforce social dialogue at national level and to discuss the issue of franchising and skills needs at European level. It also raises concerns on the lack of carrier development for women in the sector.

2 A European Retail Action Plan

We are now back to the field of initiative of the EU Commission DG Markt. In response to the E.P. report, and in accordance with Commissioner M. Barnier’s initiative for the single market Act, the Commission has set up a working group that met on 3 occasions.





The objective of this exercise is to prepare the drafting of a Commission Communication on retail that will present the European retail action plan. We can contribute until 15 April 2012 via written contributions. The final document will be published in Autumn and UNI Europa will have to defend workers' interests.



UNI Europa has sent several contributions that are accessible in attachement.