Luxembourg, 01/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council of Thursday 1 October provided an opportunity to examine the competitiveness check-up carried out by the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU. The results seem compelling for the most part, although the length of the debates meant that the second point on the agenda, Better Legislation will be postponed until the next Competitiveness Council meeting, on 30 November.
Several ministers welcomed the Luxembourg Presidency's initiative and hoped to have a similar experience at the next Competitiveness Council meeting, focusing on foreign trade, explained a European source to this newsletter.
The competitiveness check-up was proposed by the current presidency in order to set up, based on a presentation by the European Commission of current economic trends, a more flexible and informal framework dialogue among ministers, and also to extend debate on competitiveness issues to other Council formations whose sphere of influence directly covers European companies' competitiveness (see EUROPE 11363).
The Commission's presentation covered two main areas, according to a document given to this newsletter. The first is the integration of trade, where progress is very slow, and the second is changes in the legal and regulatory framework, which is described as “disappointing.” Examples of good and bad players were listed. For example, when it comes to retail trade, Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said the shining examples were the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia, with Germany, Luxembourg and Spain among the member states lagging the most behind. Likewise for professional services, where Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands come top, and Hungary, Luxembourg and Poland bring up the rear. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)