The competent ministers will be invited by the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council to speak at the Competitiveness Council on Thursday 27 February in Brussels on the transition to a “circular and climate-neutral” industry within the framework of the European Green Deal.
As detailed above (see EUROPE 12430/5), the Presidency’s objective is to determine how European and national policies could help industry to achieve the objective of climate neutrality by 2050, particularly for energy-intensive industries. It will also seek to identify actions to be taken to combat the phenomenon of carbon leakage, which refers to the behaviour of certain companies that transfer their production to countries with less stringent environmental laws. The question of the role of digitisation in the industrial sector will also be discussed by the ministers.
The objective, as a diplomatic source explains, is to contribute to the Presidency’s thinking on the subject of energy transition, a subject that will be discussed until June in the various EU Council formations. Conclusions could be presented by the German Presidency, which will take over the rotating Council Presidency in the second half of 2020.
‘One in, one out’. Also in the morning, Ministers will be invited to adopt conclusions on better regulation. Exchanges should be brief, we are told, albeit in camera. The ‘one in, one out’ principle – which states that any legislative proposal that creates new burdens should be offset by the removal of equivalent regulatory burdens – will also be discussed. Although the conclusions should find the support of all Member States, France, Belgium and Luxembourg insisted in a joint declaration on the need to take a cautious and qualitative, rather than quantitative, approach.
This will be followed by a working lunch on the role of artificial intelligence, including a discussion of the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence recently presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12429/5), in the presence of Nikola Mišković, Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Zagreb.
In the afternoon, Ministers will exchange views, also in camera, on the Single Market Performance Report. In particular, the Presidency will seek to determine whether the ‘European Semester’ offers the appropriate framework for improving cooperation and coordination of national policies in relation to the single market. It will also try to identify the indicators to be developed to refine the analysis of the performance of the single market. For this reason, it should be noted that the Czech and Lithuanian delegations will present studies on existing obstacles within the single market.
Strategic Programme, Horizon Europe. On Friday 28 February, Ministers will be invited to agree on a partial general approach on the decision on the strategic innovation programme of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. They will then discuss the Union’s strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation. Over lunch, ministers will discuss the role of research and innovation in the framework of the European Green Deal. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)