Check against delivery!
If one were to give today’s Competitiveness Council conference a motto, I would say, “Strengthening Europe’s position against the global competition for the benefit of citizens and companies”. It is also with this intention that the Competitiveness Council will be contributing to the European Council of Heads of State and Government on 8/9 March 2007. That is why the cornerstones upon which we decided today and which we will deliver to the European Council were entitled “Strengthening Europe’s Competitiveness.”
This paper provides answers to the key issues currently facing the EU in the economic sector, namely: strengthening the internal market, Better Regulation, research and innovation, unlocking the potential of key sectors and of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and strengthening external competitiveness.
We will have to discuss these subjects intensively in the course of the year when the Commission presents its new internal market strategy. I would like to make the following comments concerning the content of the compromises found:
You know how controversial the liberalisation of postal markets is. Nevertheless, we managed to highlight the significance of this question for strengthening the internal market against the global competition. At the same time, a satisfactory solution has to be guaranteed for financing universal services.
The Council also emphasised the importance of lower roaming charges and an efficient internal market for gas and electricity as essential elements for strengthening Europe against the global competition. All Member States recognised the significance of speedily and punctually transposing directives into national law and have successfully removed existing deficits. We therefore decided to propose to the European Council that the level of deficits be gradually reduced from 1.5 per cent hitherto to 1 per cent in 2009.
We addressed the question of Better Regulation in detail. This is a key element for the future of the internal market and a subject that will be a focal area of the Spring Summit alongside energy and climate protection. The Competitiveness Council had the task of preparing the ground for this subject for the Spring Summit. Likewise, the Energy Council had the task of preparing the Energy Efficiency Action Plan last week. We have been successful.
The Council has approved in principle the Commission’s ambitious Action Plan for Reducing Administrative Burden presented by Vice-President Günter Verheugen on 24 January 2007. Thus, the conditions have been fulfilled for us to be able to begin implementation immediately after the Spring Summit.
A central element is the target of reducing administrative burdens stemming from EU legislation by 25 per cent, including implementation into national law. We are aiming to achieve initial relief that will produce quick, short-term results, if possible already under the German Presidency, through a first package of measures that the Commission plans to present in early March.
For their part, the Member States, too, are planning to set themselves ambitious targets to cut bureaucracy on their own responsibility by 2008. There were many reservations, but in the end, we were able to agree on this important additional element too.
The Commission plans to examine its current system of assessing the consequences of Community legislation. On this basis, the Council will consider further options in 2008. These also include involving independent experts to a greater extent.
That is an important step in the direction of the German Regulatory Impact Unit. On the subject of research and innovation, we concentrated on the recruitment of young academics and their mobility within Europe, the development of a European strategy plan for energy technology, joint technology initiatives, the European Institute of Technology and the protection of intellectual property.
How we can better unlock the potential of key industrial sectors, especially SMEs, is another important question. We had already discussed the problems of the automotive industry before and I will say something else on that in a moment. SMEs are of special significance on account of their function as an engine for employment and innovation. That is why we particularly underlined the significance of accelerated and simplified proceedings in business start-ups and improved access to risk capital in this industrial sector.
We pointed out that we hope for a major impetus for handicrafts from the Fourth European Conference on Craft and Small Enterprise to be held in Stuttgart in April and for tourism from the EU Tourism Conference in May.
In the context of strengthening external competitiveness, the Council calls upon the major partners in connection with the WTO’s Doha Round to cooperate constructively in order to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
At the same time, however, mandates for bilateral or regional free trade agreements should be fulfilled quickly so that relevant negotiations can begin. We are also awaiting with interest the Commission’s revised Market Access Strategy so that we can examine what additional measures the EU may have to take so that our enterprises can position themselves even better in third markets.
Finally, we encouraged the Commission to support the better protection of intellectual property and to do more to combat product piracy world-wide. In addition, we also plan to review our instruments of protection against unfair commercial practices.The Commission presented us with a paper for discussion on this subject last December.
Now just a few remarks on the other agenda items:
I have already mentioned the automotive industry. On the basis of preliminary work by a high-level group, the Commission issued the communication “A Competitive Automotive Regulatory Framework for the 21st Century – the Commission’s Position on the High Level Group Final Report CARS 21” on 7 February 2007 In the discussion on this point, we also included the Commission’s communication on reviewing the Community’s strategy to reduce the CO2 emissions of cars and light utility vehicles.
All Member States were of the opinion that in view of the major significance of the automotive industry, Community law must be drafted so that international competitiveness is also secured in the future. The Ministers of Economics are of the opinion that we require an “integrated approach” to deal with the problem of CO2 emissions that also includes, among other things, the use of bio fuels and improved tyres, for example.
Under my chairmanship, Vice-President Günter Verheugen provided the Council with important information on the free movement of goods under the item “Other business”.
The relevant individual dossiers “Mutual Recognition” and “New Approach” are important projects for the German Presidency and we will begin consultations in the Council working committees without delay.
It is important for me to make special mention of the fact that the new proposals on the free movement of goods will not influence the high level of consumer and environmental protection within the Community. The Commission’s presentation of the internal market indicators showed that the average deficit in the implementation of directives into national law has now fallen to 1.2 per cent, a pleasing result. However, we must proceed ambitiously. Thus, we have now proposed to the European Council that a deficit limit of 1 per cent be set instead of the 1.5 per cent hitherto.
Commissioner Meglena Kuneva presented the Green Paper on the revision of Community acquis in the area of consumer protection. Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries made clear that we welcome the Commission’s work in connection with the overall project “European Contract Law” also to review systematically the consumer acquis. The Member States will certainly give detailed statements on this subject at the upcoming consultations.
Today, Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries, too, was able to report that the European Parliament approved the proposal for a directive on 15 February that had been approved by the Council in January on a directive concerning the exercise of voting rights by shareholders of companies having their registered office in a Member State and whose shares are permitted for trade in a regulated market.
In future, shareholders of listed stock companies will be able to vote electronically at annual general meetings in EU countries. The directive removes the obstacles that shareholders previously had to overcome if they had a stake in companies in other EU countries and wished to exercise their rights.
At lunch, we held an exchange of views on a coherent approach to competitiveness, climate change and a secure energy supply.
We were broadly in agreement that climate protection policy cannot be pursued by the Community on its own, but that globally equal conditions of competition have to be achieved, that other industrialised countries have to be encouraged to pull their weight regarding emissions trading and that the price development of CO2 has to be kept within an acceptable framework for the international competitiveness of our European economy.
