Brussels, 29/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Complemented by a Research Council on ITER and on public-private partnerships (PPP) for research and development (R&D) and innovation, and also by a Space Council on Copernicus and space surveillance (see other article), the second informal meeting of the Competitiveness Council under the Lithuanian Presidency will have rather a full agenda, including a debate on the coordination of economic policies in 2014, and much awaited political agreements on anti-trust and on electronic invoicing in public procurement. The Competitiveness Council will take place in Brussels on 2-3 December.
European semester 2014. Ministers will discuss the coordination of economic policies and structural reforms in 2014, focusing on the role of the internal market, industrial policy and smart regulation. The Council will adopt conclusions on each of these three areas, and the conclusions will contribute to future meetings of the European Council. (EH/transl.fl)
Antitrust. At a public session, the ministers will try to find a political agreement on a draft directive aiming to facilitate actions for damages for breaches of anti-trust law (including abuse of dominant position, and cartels). The directive aims to harmonise and ensure the effective application of often disparate national rules and compensation procedures which prevent the parties concerned from obtaining effective compensation. The directive's main arrangements are: - easier access for victims to evidence held by third parties, by allowing victims to obtain a court order for the disclosure of documents containing this evidence (confidential information remains protected); - the decisions of national and European competition authorities can constitute full proof before civil courts that the infringement occurred; - the establishment of a minimum time period of five years (which can be suspended during possibly resulting court cases) to enable victims to bring an action; - the guarantee of full compensation for victims; - the presumption that cartels cause harm, thus obliging participants in a cartel to prove otherwise; - the rebuttable presumption of harm for indirect victims (often the final consumer who is affected by the price increase brought about by the cartel); - the presumption that all participants in a cartel are responsible to victims for all the harm caused by the infringement, with the possibility of obtaining contributions from other participants for their share of responsibility (the leniency and exemption programmes are maintained for participants who cooperate in the investigation). The directive will enter into force two years after its approval by the Council and Parliament. (FG/transl.fl)
Public procurement. The ministers will come to an agreement on the proposal for a directive which should lead to the development of a European standard for electronic invoicing in public procurement (see EUROPE 10876). This standard, which will be developed by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), will improve interoperability between the 500 e-invoicing standards that currently exist. According to the text agreed upon at the technical level, the standard will have to be technologically neutral, to be compatible with international e-invoicing standards, to respect data protection rules and not be able to affect arrangements in the VAT directive. Once the standard has been defined, the member states will have to ensure that the public authorities of the country do not refuse e-invoices that are in line with the European standard. There are hopes of annual savings of over €2 billion. (MB/transl.fl)
Market surveillance and product safety. The Lithuanian Presidency will inform the Council of the continuing deadlock on this legislative package. The Council refused to open negotiations on this in trialogue with the Parliament after the vote of the internal market committee (see EUROPE 10945). It is Article 7 of the regulation on product safety (concerning the obligation of indicating the country of origin on products) which is dividing the delegations. The Council is nevertheless unanimous in not wanting to unbundle this package which comprises two proposals for regulations - one on improving the safety of all non-food consumer products on the single market, and the other on increasing market surveillance (see EUROPE 10785). (AN/transl.fl)
EU market. The Lithuanian Presidency will inform the Council of progress made on reform of the Community trademark system. The recast of the directive concerned harmonises European legislation and provides for moving closer to the Office for the Harmonisation of the Internal Market (OHIM).
Intellectual property. Lithuania's Minister Evaldas Gustas will present to his counterparts the agreement on the collective management of copyright - an agreement obtained at the beginning of the month in interinstitutional trialogue. Ministers will also be updated on progress in the work on the European unitary patent on the basis of contributions from the two committees working on the creation of this unitary patent and on the establishment of a unified system for settling disputes regarding patents (Unified Patent Court). (MD/transl.fl)