The Competitiveness Council, to be held in Brussels on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 September, will focus entirely on the issue of sustainable growth and will be based, over the 2 days, on a report prepared by the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Thus, this report (see EUROPE 12330/12) will guide two debates in public session in the morning, on Thursday, with the Ministers responsible for Industry and Competitiveness, and on Friday, with the Ministers responsible for Research and Innovation. The Presidency wants to respond to the request of the March European Council, which called for an ambitious industrial strategy by the end of the year (see EUROPE 12220/3), and to follow up on the 2019-2024 strategic programme of the June European Council.
These will not be EU Council conclusions due to a certain reluctance of several Member States (Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Cyprus and Italy) to commit themselves to the guidelines of the document. According to a diplomatic source, the Finnish Presidency will consider the next steps once the discussions are over. EU Council conclusions might be drawn at the next Competitiveness Council at the end of November, we are told.
It should be noted that climate neutrality is omnipresent in the Presidency's report. However, the 2050 target date for achieving this objective is currently missing from the document. The Finnish Presidency is awaiting developments at European Council level. “The debates are not about deadlines, but about how to achieve the objective of sustainable growth”, explains our diplomatic source.
Franco-German document. During this exchange, the Franco-German document on the next European institutional cycle on economic, financial and trade issues could emerge in the debates, although it is not on the agenda.
This document outlines the points presented by the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, and his German counterparts, Peter Altmeier and Olaf Scholz, on Thursday 19 September. The document aims to consolidate the EU's budgetary foundations and strengthen the European presence in the economic and strategic sectors (see EUROPE 12331/23).
The first day will be followed by a lunch on financing sustainable growth. Alexander Stubb, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, from Finland, will be invited as a keynote speaker.
In the afternoon, in various points, the regulation on real driving emissions (RDE) will be discussed. Here, the Presidency will inform the EU Council of the progress made on the proposal for a Regulation. As a reminder, these regulations determine the compliance factors to be applied to measure the emissions released by vehicles under real driving conditions.
Small and medium-sized enterprises. Then, the German delegation will address the question of the place of SMEs in the future of European policies. In connection with the SME issue, the Czech delegation will take stock of a conference on State aid held from 29 to 31 May in Brno. It will also present the status of discussions on the definition of the concept of SMEs.
Battery alliance. Finally, the day will end with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, who will review the status of the European Battery Alliance project, launched in October 2017.
Research and development. The second day will be entirely devoted to research. The day will start again with the Finnish Presidency's document on sustainable growth. The issue of synergies between the Horizon Europe framework programme and other European programmes will be addressed later. Finally, the Competitiveness Council will conclude with a lunch on the role of research and innovation in achieving the climate objectives. In this context, the ministers will discuss Horizon Europe's contribution.