Luxembourg, 20/07/2015 (Agence Europe) -European ministers for the economy officially took note of the new role of the Competitiveness Council presented by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU on Monday 20 July, during an informal meeting in Luxembourg.
At the opening of the press conference, the Luxembourg vice-prime minister for the economy, Étienne Schneider, explained “this meeting was particularly productive, open and politically opportune”. He explained that the decision taken that day would enable the Council to increase its power with regard to the other groupings and play a more proactive and dynamic role.
The reform will be introduced at the next Competitiveness Council meeting planned for 1 October and will be based around two innovations. The first involves the strengthening of “mainstreaming”, namely, cooperation between the different sectoral groupings at the Council, in an effort to better predict decisions that could have a negative impact on business competitiveness.
In the same perspective, the Commissioners with their respective portfolios that are not directly related to competitiveness but whose decisions could have an impact on industrial activity, will be regularly invited to meetings upstream of any new initiatives. One European source informed EUROPE that this would be likely to involve “the environmental impact on competitiveness”. According to this source, “Directorate General Environment (at the European Commission, Ed) would essentially like to set out the lowest possible CO2 emissions quota but it is uncertain whether such a decision would provoke a 'carbon leak'” or, in other words, see companies leaving to countries where binding standards on emissions are less strict.
The other point focuses on the competitiveness check-up announced by the Luxembourg Minister to the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11361). At the next Competitiveness Council, the European Commission will draw up a systematic inventory regarding the competitiveness and economic situation in each country. On the basis of this presentation, the different ministers will be asked to freely “interact”. Another source at the Council informed EUROPE “the Luxembourg Presidency wants to put a stop to the precooked announcements and lectures” and “introduce a 'brainstorming' exercise in its place”.
According to Schneider, this new approach will help enhance collaboration between the ministers and the Commission and on this basis, help to implement the “better regulation” agreement between the institutions, as well as implementation of the REFIT programme (see EUROPE 11103).
One source close to the institutions explained “The Competitiveness Council has always been rather hemmed in by the other groups, particularly the Ecofin Council”. All budgetary questions are validated by the finance ministers, which effectively means that the “Competitiveness Council is the little brother” of the Ecofin Council. The same source said that this means that this situation “is the subject of many complaints and that the reforms undertaken have never really been carried through”.
The Luxembourg Vice-Prime Minister said that Luxembourg was aware that finding a crisis exit strategy, based on recovery, growth and job creation, would require a genuine industrial policy anchored to the real economy and that this would require a leading role to be played by the Competitiveness Council in institutional proceedings. (Pascal Hansens)