On the first day of the Competitiveness Council on Monday 28 May, EU ministers will adopt a general approach on the draft regulation on mutual recognition of goods lawfully marketed in another member state. Digital initiatives, space policy and research will be discussed over the two days of the Council.
The Council will hold a public debate prior to adopting a general approach on the regulation on the mutual recognition of goods. A source has suggested that the chances of having any amendments brought to the compromise reached within the committee of permanent representatives (Coreper) on 16 May are slight.
Negotiations have been moving apace, beginning on 23 January in the technical harmonisation working group (see EUROPE 11957) and ending with Coreper agreement on 16 May. Four major points have occupied the member states: Article 1 (subject matter), Article 4 (mutual recognition declaration), Article 5 (assessing goods) and Article 8 (problem solving procedure).
On Article 1, the delegations have removed explicit mention of Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, preferring that reference also be made to EU law to cover European Court of Justice case law.
With regard to the mutual recognition declaration (Article 4), the delegations have split the declaration into two parts and extended the possibility of making this declaration to all economic operators (importers and/or distributors). A number of delegations, notably that of France, had been critical of the European Commission proposal for its lack of clarity on who would be authorised to make the declaration and who would be responsible for it.
Several changes have been brought in on assessing goods, notably driven by the French delegation, at the Coreper meeting on 16 May with a view to increasing ways for member states to protect themselves (in line with Recital 24 and Article 10). The right of economic operators to provide information for assessment purposes has been guaranteed as has a response time. In addition, the assessment procedure in Article 5 has been linked with the administrative cooperation mechanism in Article 10. In this latter Article, the delegations extended the range of institutions able to provide documentation for the purposes of assessment, replacing “product contact points” with “competent authorities”.
In Article 8, the “informal” nature of the SOLVIT procedure, a service offered free of charge by the Commission for the resolution of disputes between a company and a public administration in another EU country, has been maintained. Furthermore, clarification was brought on the role of the European Commission, the opinions of which will not be legally binding.
In mid-December 2017, the Commission presented a regulation on the mutual recognition among member states of goods for which there was no harmonisation across the EU in order to clarify the current legal situation, introduce a mechanism that includes a sworn declaration, put in place a dispute settlement procedure and enhance cooperation among member states in the exchange of information.
Digital section. Digital matters will feature strongly in the Competitiveness Council. On 28 May, ministers will hold an initial exchange of views on the draft regulation rebalancing relations between online platforms and businesses (P2B) that was presented a month ago. They will be asked to give their views on the proposed measures (to increase transparency and means of redress) and on the step-by-step approach proposed by the Commission (see EUROPE 12020). Over an informal lunch, they will also discuss the recent European strategy on artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 12009). They will be updated by the European Commission on the latest digital proposals and developments in the inter-institutional negotiations on copyright (the CabSat regulation and copyright directive). In the afternoon of 29 May, ministers will be asked to adopt conclusions on the implementation of a European Open Science Cloud and a report on the state of progress on a European joint enterprise on high-performance computing (EuroHPC). This document reiterates the desire of the Bulgarian Presidency to reach a general approach on the draft Council regulation (see EUROPE 11937).
Research. The ministers competent will adopt a general approach with a view to extending the research and training activities carried out under the Euratom research programme until the end of 2020. The regulation is due to expire at the end of 2018. Extension will align it with the current Horizon 2020 framework programme, which runs for seven years rather than the five years of the Euratom framework programme. The overall budget for 2019 and 2020 will be €770 million, and a central focus will be completion of ITER, the European experimental nuclear reactor.
Two sets of conclusions, one on “accelerating knowledge circulation within the EU” and the other on “the European Open Science Cloud” in line with the March roadmap published by the European Commission, will also be on the table for adoption by ministers.
The research section of the agenda will conclude with a policy debate on research and innovation and on the Horizon Europe framework programme (the content of which was set out in detail in EUROPE 12018) in the new multiannual financial framework.
Space. On Tuesday morning, ministers will discuss the future of the European space policy. The debate will be structured around two questions put by the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, one on possible EU and national measures to maximise the achievements of EU space policy, strengthen investments and encourage innovation and the other on how to increase awareness of the benefits of space for citizens and the economy across all market sectors. The focus will be on issues related to the use of data. The Bulgarian Presidency cancelled the Space Council in March of this year, after forming the view that not enough progress had been made in this area for discussion at political level (see EUROPE 11963).
Other business. In the “other business” section, the Commission will present its proposal on supplementary protection certification for medicines, the latest initiative of its mandate relating to the single market strategy (see EUROPE 11420). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens and Sophie Petitjean)