108. Believes that the development of renewable energy sources is essential to the Energy Union, taking into consideration energy costs; underlines the crucial role of renewables in the EU in attaining energy security and political and economic independence by reducing the need for energy imports; underlines the crucial role of renewables in improving air quality and creating jobs and growth; believes that renewables deliver secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy and play an important role in pursuing Europe's leadership in a green economy and in developing new industries and technologies; underlines that, in this reg ...[+++]ard, the current power market design should be more dynamic and flexible in order to integrate variable energy sources into the market; draws attention to the fact that the production costs of renewables have considerably dropped in recent years; stresses the importance of developing cross-border infrastructure and of enhancing research and innovation in developing smarter energy grids and new energy storage solutions as well as flexible generation technologies for the integration of renewables;

4. Reminds that the underlying factors of the crisis relate, for example, to the deregulation of key industries, current account imbalances and related diverging inflation rates coming from uneven unit labour cost dynamics as well as the failure of many Member States to effectively tax wealth and large enterprises;

In exercising its implementing powers, the Commission should respect the following principles: the need to ensure confidence in financial markets among investors by promoting high standards of transparency in those markets; the need to provide investors with a wide range of competing investments and a level of disclosure and protection tailored to their circumstances; the need to ensure that independent regulatory authorities enforce the rules consistently, especially as regards the fight against economic crime; the need for high levels of transparency and consultation with all market participants and with the European Parliament and the Council; the need to encourage innovation in financial markets if they are to be ...[+++]dynamic and efficient; the need to ensure market integrity by close and reactive monitoring of financial innovation; the importance of reducing the cost of, and increasing access to, capital; the balance of costs and benefits to market participants on a long-term basis (including small and medium-sized businesses and small investors) in any implementing measures; the need to foster the international competitiveness of EU financial markets without prejudice to a much-needed extension of international cooperation; the need to achieve a level playing field for all market participants by establishing EU-wide regulations every time it is appropriate; the need to respect differences in national markets where these do not unduly impinge on the cohesion of the single market; and the need to ensure coherence with other Community legislation in this area, as imbalances in information and a lack of transparency may jeopardise the operation of the markets and above all harm consumers and small investors.

If it is important to have a correct idea of the costs of environmental regulation for companies, for the latter, what counts are the effects of these costs on innovation capacity, profitability, prices and demand dynamics.

What is more, the relevant cost dynamic is completely under control.

This states that a set of statistics, of which the labour cost indexes form an essential part, is an aspect that is crucial to understanding inflationist processes and the dynamic of the labour market.