The European Parliament and the EU Council did not make decisive progress on the Regulation establishing a programme for the Single Market on Monday evening, 18 November, due to a wide gap between the positions of the co-legislators on the issue of the programme's objectives, in particular on market surveillance.
The discussions focused on the objectives of the programme (Article 3). The Parliament has “toughened” the objectives by clarifying them and adding a whole section related to market surveillance (for product safety and against counterfeiting) (see EUROPE 12177/16), whereas the EU Council has remained close to the initial proposal made by the European Commission. In addition, the European Parliament's position introduces the notion of “sustainability” and strengthens the social dimension of the internal market.
From the EU Council's point of view, like the Commission's, the Parliament's position does not generate much enthusiasm, even though the EU Council is said to have shown some flexibility on the points linked to sustainability. Discussions are expected to continue at the technical level.
The debate on the objectives is not insignificant, with MEPs proposing to create a new budget line dedicated to market surveillance (see EUROPE 12116/7).
The new definitions introduced by the Parliament, in particular on social economy enterprises and local public enterprises, have for the time being, been rejected by the EU Council.
Discussions were also held on Annex IV on SMEs (the indicators used to evaluate the COSME programme), evaluation and award criteria (Article 11), as well as on the entities eligible for the programme (Article 9).
The date for a new interinstitutional meeting has not yet been set, but 11 December is being considered. The Parliament is said to be tempted to wait for developments on negotiations of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 to resume negotiations, as is the case for the Space programme (see EUROPE 12335/18). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)