Agenda Raad Concurrentievermogen: rapport-Kok, vereenvoudiging wetgeving, ontwerp-richtlijn voor chemicaliën (REACH) en dienstenrichtlijn (en)
(Gregor Kreuzhuber, Oliver Drewes, Antonia Mochan, Jonathan Todd)
The EU's Council of Ministers responsible for competitiveness will meet in Brussels on Thursday 25th November at 09.30 under the chairmanship of Mr Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst, Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs. The European Commission will be represented by Vice President Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry, Competitiveness co-ordination and Space, Charlie McCreevey Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Janez Potocnik, Commissioner for Science and Research and Laslo Kovacs Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union.
Economic and competitiveness situation (GK)
The Dutch Presidency decided to schedule this agenda item during the informal pre-Council dinner. Prepared by the high-level formation (Directors-General level) of the Council working group on competitiveness and growth, discussion will be based on the Commission's annual competitiveness analysis package, which consists of the 2004 Competitiveness Report, the Enterprise Scoreboard and the European Innovation Scoreboard. Commission Vice-President Verheugen will present his views on ways of tackling the challenges for a more efficient, more productive, more innovative and more competitive environment in the EU.
Mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy - Kok report (GK)
The second part of the dinner discussion will focus on the role of the Competitiveness Council with regard to the Lisbon mid-term review with Commissioner Verheugen giving his first impressions of his new coordinating role for the Group of Competitiveness Commissioners. The contents of the Kok report and issues relating to the substance of the Lisbon mid-term review will also be subject of the lunch debate on 25 November, in which the Presidency will seek to assess support for the contention that a focus on growth and employment is the appropriate way forward and ascertain Ministers' reactions to the policy priorities recommended in the report.
Better regulation - Simplification of legislation (GK)
Following up on work done under the Irish Presidency, the Dutch Presidency is focusing attention on the simplification of existing EU legislation and the competitiveness dimension of the Commission's integrated impact assessment system. Commissioner Verheugen will underline the critical importance of Better Regulation in achieving progress towards the Lisbon goals, referring to the Commission's report on next steps for Impact Assessment and its reiteration of the need to enhance the competitiveness dimension, and welcome the Member States contribution to the Commission's rolling exercise of simplification of existing EU legislation
REACH (GK)
Further to the progress achieved under The Irish Presidency and its own examination of the REACH proposal, the Dutch Presidency will present a draft report that summarises the work done and identifies a number of issues, which have been raised in the Council working group and are critical in terms of moving the legislative process forward. These include impact assessment, submission of data and information requirements for low volume substances. Six Member States (Denmark, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain and the UK) will act as lead speakers in the debate followed by Commissioner Verheugen
Proposed Directive on Services (OD)
The Council will hold a debate on the proposed Directive on Services (see
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/services/services/index.htm)
Commissioner Mc Creevy will congratulate the Dutch Presidency for its work so far, including the study by the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy, which showed that the Directive could increase trade in services by 15 % to 35 %. He will urge the Council to deliver this key item of the Lisbon agenda and thus contribute to improving the competitiveness of the EU economy.
He will seek Member States support for the country of origin principle - already a cornerstone of the single market and operating successfully in many areas. The proposal will make the Single Market for services a reality and will encourage companies and consumers to trade across borders whilst ensuring that safety, public health and consumers are protected.
The Commission is proposing that the Member State experts be mandated to continue discussions on the country of origin approach on the basis of the work carried out under the Irish and Dutch Presidencies. It will argue that it will be vital to avoid too wide an extension of the exceptions. This would empty the Directive of its content, deny opportunities to businesses and consumers and squander the potential for improving growth and competitiveness.
Mr Mc Creevy will explain to the Council that there is no realistic alternative to applying the country of origin principle if the EU is to unleash the economic potential of an integrated services market in the foreseeable future. Launching a large scale process to introduce common, detailed European rules for each of the services covered by the proposed Directive would be unnecessary, unrealistic and inconsistent with the EU's policy on better regulation.
The Commissioner will also ask Ministers for a strong commitment to administrative simplification and to ensure effective co-operation between their national administrations in support of a better-functioning single market in services and to improve protection of the health, safety and financial wellbeing of service users.
On the application of the Directive to health services, Member States' positions vary widely. The Commission appreciates the sensitivity of this issue and propose to continue the discussion to find appropriate solutions. The Directive will not change the way Member States choose to organise health and social security systems. It will remain Member States' responsibility to decide to what extent and under what conditions private operators, for example private hospitals, may provide services funded by the social security system.
The Commission's 2002 report on services (see IP/02/1180, MEMO/02/178) showed clearly that there are numerous administrative and legal obstacles hampering the posting of workers, rendering cross-border services provision more costly or even impossible to carry out. The proposed Directive therefore aims at eliminating a number of administrative requirements which are not only burdensome but have also proved ineffective in ensuring better compliance.
The Commission insists that there can, however, be no doubt that the rules applying to employment conditions, including health and safety and minimum wages, should be those of the Member State where the posted workers are providing the service. Inspections will continue to be carried out by the authorities in that "host" Member State.
Cross-border mergers of companies with share capital (OD)
Directive on Cross Border Mergers
The Council will also seek to agree a general political approach on the Commission's proposal for a 10th Company Law Directive on cross-border mergers, a key measure in the 2003 Action Plan on Modernising Company Law and enhancing Corporate Governance in the European Union. The Commission presented its proposal in November 2003 (see IP/03/1564 and MEMO/03/233).
The proposal aims at enabling limited liability companies to carry out mergers on a cross-border basis, which today are either impossible or only possible at prohibitive cost. The Directive sets up a simple legal framework avoiding the winding up of the acquired company. The proposal is also important for small to medium sized companies that want to operate in more than one Member State, but not throughout Europe, and thus are not likely to seek incorporation under the European Company Statute.
The proposed Directive sets up a cross-border merger procedure whereby mergers would be governed in each Member State by the principles and rules applicable to "domestic" mergers. This would make a significant contribution to completing the single market and to boosting competitiveness.
At the same time, the proposal ensures that there are safeguards to prevent the abuse of cross-border mergers as a means for companies to circumvent worker participation obligations at national level.
Where the merger implies a loss of employee participation, the Commission proposal requires that the system applying to companies incorporated under a European Company Statute should apply to protect the acquired rights of the employees.
Thus, a special negotiating body should be established in order to agree on participation arrangements. In case of failure, standard rules on employee involvement would apply, stipulating that the higher standard of workers participation existing among the merging companies will apply to the merged entity if at least 25% of the total number of employees before the merger were covered by a workers' participation scheme.
Discussion at the Council is likely to focus on the details of the details of the above safeguards for worker participation and on the scope of the Directive, in particular its application to cooperatives and to mutual investment funds (UCITS). The Commission is working with the Presidency in order to help Member States to agree an acceptable compromise text.
The European Parliament is expected to adopt its first reading opinion on the proposal in early 2005.
Drug precursors (JT)
The Council is expected to reach a political agreement on the Commission's proposal of April 2004 for a Regulation to strengthen controls on the import of chemicals that are used to manufacture illicit narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, in particular ecstasy. The Regulation would introduce EU-wide procedures for individual import authorisations to allow the monitoring of consignments imported into the European Union. In recent years the EU has become one of the world's leading ecstasy manufacturers and exporters, using imported drug precursors. One litre of some of these key drug precursor chemicals can produce drugs with a street value of more than €600.000.
Textiles and Clothing after 2005 - Recommendations of the High Level Group (GK)
The High Level Group on textile and clothing was established in February 2004 by Commissioners Liikanen and Lamy, with the mandate to formulate recommendations on initiatives to improve the competitiveness of the European textile and clothing industry as a response to the increasing challenges the sector faces in particular in international trade with the abolition of quotas on 1 January 2005. The Group presented its report and conclusions to the Commission in July. The Commission's Communication in response to these recommendations was adopted in mid-October. Ministers are expected to adopt Council conclusions identifying measures and actions on both Member States and Commission levels covering the areas of research and innovation, employment and education, regional aspects and trade policy measures.
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) (AM).
The Council will consider the Commission's proposal to amending the existing negotiating Directives, to allow the Commission to continue negotiations towards an international project to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor. The six parties to these negotiations are EU, US, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China. The Commission proposed new negotiating directives on 16 November (see IP/04/1369).
Science and technology, the key to Europe's future: Guidelines for future European Union policy to support research
Following a Communication from the Commission in June 2004 (see IP/04/750) and a wide consultation on future European research policy, Ministers will debate a number of orientations for the Commission's proposal for a Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development. Discussion will centre on such issues as ways to optimise trans-national collaboration in science; the potential for public -private partnerships in key technology areas; mechanisms for funding basic research at European level; actions to make Europe more attractive to the world's best researchers; and approaches for developing competitive research infrastructures of European interest.
First ever "Space Council" (GK)
The first ever European "Space Council" will be held on 25th November. The 27 European Union (EU) and/or European Space Agency (ESA) Member States will have the first opportunity to jointly discuss the development of a coherent overall European space programme. The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, signed by the Heads of State or Government of the European Union on 29 October and defined for the first time "space" as a shared competence of the Union. Vice President Verheugen will represent the Commission.
Other issues
Shipbuilding
In response to the invitation from the Competitiveness Council of November 2003 to "inform the Council regularly of the results of the LeaderSHIP 2015 initiative and to report on the implementation of its recommendations before the end of 2004", the Commission was to report to this year's Council on all areas of progress. However, as Member States' interest may focus on specific issues rather than the entire file, the Presidency accepted an oral update by the Commission at this point of time.
Centres of Enterprise award scheme
The Council conclusions on entrepreneurship adopted on 11 March invite the Commission to look into the feasibility of establishing a Centres of Enterprise award scheme. The UK will request information from the Commission on the status of this study.
Results of Dutch Presidency conferences
The Presidency will inform the Council about the results of the 5th Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Industry in Caserta (3 + 4 October 2004) and the Conference on the Biotechnology Strategy (2 November 2004