https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_5443
"The COVID-19 crisis made it clear: we must make our Single Market operational at all times, including in times of crisis. We must make it stronger,”
The executive body of the European Union (EU) laid out a new emergency tool to secure supply chains in times of crisis that would give it sweeping new powers to block member countries from adopting restrictions to the free movement of crisis-relevant goods or force businesses to break contracts and stockpile key products.
Details of the plan—called the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI)—were unveiled on Sept. 19 by the European Commission (EC), which would be granted the power to declare an emergency and trigger a range of market interventions.
The new crisis management tool establishes a new mechanism to monitor the EU single market, identify different risk levels, and coordinate a response in three modes: contingency, vigilance, and emergency.
In contingency mode, the EC and EU member states establish a communication and coordination framework to boost preparedness.
When a threat has been identified, the EC can trigger vigilance mode, which would focus on monitoring supply chains of critical goods and focus on building up strategic reserves of such products.
In case of a full-blown crisis, the EC would initiate emergency mode, which would see such measures as a blacklist of prohibited restrictions to ensure free movement of critical supplies within the EU single market.
In the emergency stage, EC could also recommend that member countries distribute the strategic reserves in a targeted manner and demand that businesses accept priority rated orders for key supplies. Businesses would be forced to comply with such demands or explain “the grave reasons justifying refusal,” the EC said.
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Nothing like a funeral to literally bury bad news