Brussels, 05/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU has set itself the prime task of removing the obstacles to the proper operation of the internal market by ensuring that the services directive is correctly implemented.
In line with the strategy for the single market in goods and services presented on 28 October 2015 (see EUROPE 11420), the main goal of which is better implementation of existing legislation, the Dutch Presidency will strive to ensure that the services directive is properly implemented, particularly in sectors with high economic potential, such as construction, business services and retail services. In these same sectors, the Presidency will also focus on respect for the principle of mutual recognition and will ensure that the recommendations made to each member state as part of the European semester are fully implemented.
The Presidency also hopes to make progress on the single market strategy as a whole. According to the preliminary timetable published by the Presidency, this strategy will be discussed at the Competitiveness Council on 29 February “to allow the Council to set the political direction for the development of the main initiatives announced and to contribute to European Council debates”. On this specific issue, “the Dutch Presidency would like to have an agreement adopted on draft conclusions but will not seek an agreement at all costs”, a European source told EUROPE.
The new format to Competitiveness Councils, introduced by the Luxembourg Presidency, which contains a competitiveness “check-up” was well received by the member states (see EUROPE 11401) and has been maintained by the Dutch Presidency.
Space. While European space policy does not feature prominently in the Dutch programme, it will nonetheless be on the agenda of the Competitiveness Council of 26-27 May. Relations between the European Union and the United States in the space domain and management of space data will be discussed. The Dutch Presidency has elected not to go with the informal format proposed by Luxembourg (see EUROPE 11443). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)