Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Under the chairmanship of Marcin Korolec, the deputy minister for the economy of Poland, the European ministers with responsibility for competitiveness affairs, meeting in Brussels this Thursday 29 September, will adopt conclusions on the challenges to the industrial sector, discuss the standardisation package and the draft agreement aiming to create a unified dispute settlement system in the field of patents. The Commission will present its Green Paper entitled Modernising the professional qualifications directive.
On Friday 30 September, the research ministers will discuss, amongst other things, the Euratom package (see next article). On Thursday, the ministers' working lunch will focus on the European Research Council, the EU body which aims to stimulate scientific excellence.
Industrial competitiveness. The Council is expected to adopt conclusions on A competitive European economy: industrial competitiveness on the basis of an efficient use of resources. The draft conclusions, a sort of political response of the Council to a number of initiatives under the umbrella of the EUROPE 2020 strategy, has attracted attention on a number of issues related to the efficient use of resources.
Standardisation strategy. In its public deliberations, the Council will carry out an exchange of views on the overall strategy to modernise the European standardisation system. The Commission has presented a list of 29 legislative and non-legislative measures and an action based on five axes: industrial policy and innovation, inclusive creation of standards, standards in the field of services, standards for fora and consortia for ICT (information and communication technologies) and European standards on the global market. The draft regulation brings together three major issues in the current regulatory framework.
Patent. The Council will discuss a draft agreement aiming to establish a unified system for patent dispute settlement. The result of the debate will provide the Presidency with a political orientation to lead the Council, by the end of the year, to a political agreement on all of the measures concerning patents (obtaining European patents with unitary effect, applicable terms and conditions for translation and the creation of a unified patent dispute settlement system). (L.C./transl.fl)