Brussels, 21/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The internal market section of the Competitiveness Council on Thursday 20 February examined the Annual Growth Review for 2014, the starting point of the European Semester, ahead of the European summit on 20 and 21 March. The ministers gave their backing to the review, stressing the importance of integration of the single market. Greek Development and Competitiveness Minister Kostas Hatzidakis said after the debate that the key word was reforms, plural. This is the only way to go, he said, and to solve all the problems, even though there is a political cost, as people in Greece are well aware. Hatzidakis said that one idea discussed by the ministers was a scoreboard system to focus on results rather than theory. The ministers examined progress in the reform process to date, such as in the service sector, and found that they needed to be more proactive in introducing the EU services directive.
European foundations. The Greek Presidency gave a progress report on negotiations on the draft regulation to create European foundations. These have been treading water over the past two years because delegations have been unable to agree on the question, but progress may now be possible because the section on tax provisions was scrapped in November and 17 delegations are reported to have expressed comments since then. EU Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier regretted the dropping of the tax measures, but said he understood that this made it easier to make progress. Hatzidakis said that the Greek Presidency would be making compromise proposals next week and hoped rapid progress would be achieved.
European Patent. The European Commission briefed ministers on progress in introducing a unified dispute settlement system for the European Patent. The Commission pointed out that Spain, Poland and Croatia have not yet signed the international agreement to this effect, and so far only Austria and Malta have ratified it. (MD/transl.fl)