Four months after the European summit in June, the Heads of State or Government of the EU27 will meet again on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 October for further negotiations, which should also address the competitiveness of the European economy.
However, this subject risks being sidelined by discussions on the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine, which are at the top of the agenda.
European competitiveness
On Friday, the Heads of State or Government are expected to take time to consider the economic security strategy proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13205/7), the first stage of which took the form of the recommendation issued at the beginning of October on technologies considered ‘critical’ (see EUROPE 13211/8).
The EU27 are expected to review the progress made on various pieces of legislation concerning European competitiveness, namely the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.
In draft European Council conclusions dated 25 October, of which EUROPE has received a copy, the Member States “call on the co-legislators to reach rapid agreement” on these two texts, which are currently at various stages of the legislative process (see other news and EUROPE 13250/17).
It is also likely that the conclusions of the EU-US summit will be mentioned, in particular the status of trade agreements still under discussion and for which negotiations have not been concluded (see EUROPE 13276/1). The draft conclusions specify that the Commission must “work to mitigate the problematic and discriminatory elements of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)”.
According to several diplomatic sources, the discussions should cover the competitiveness of European businesses and the burdens placed on them.
Competition
Finally, the European Council should remind the Commission of its invitation to report to it on the impact of Europe’s State aid policy on the internal market and its integrity, as well as on its competitiveness on the international stage.
However, competition policy remains an exclusive competence of the European Union, and decisions in this area remain in the hands of the European Commission.
See the European Council's draft conclusions of October 24: https://aeur.eu/f/99d (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre, with the editorial staff)