Industry and internal market minister met in Brussels on Friday 24 May for the last Competitiveness Council under the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council. During the discussions, several delegations raised the problem of territorial supply restrictions imposed by certain manufacturers on the internal market.
These are cases where manufacturers, for example, refuse to supply customers in another Member State and refer them to a local reseller that charges higher prices.
The issue was the subject of a position paper published by the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Greece. These eight countries suggest actions to be taken, including a ban on these practices. The Commission could implement this ban via existing - or new - European instruments, say the signatories.
They also propose investigating the reasons given by manufacturers to justify these restrictions, so as to remove obstacles in national law.
Luxembourg’s Minister for the Economy, Lex Delles, hoped that the future College of European Commissioners would take up this issue.
When asked about this, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, said that a fact-finding mission would be carried out in collaboration with the Member States, in the framework of the working group on the implementation of Single Market rules (SMET).
See the position paper from the eight countries : https://aeur.eu/f/cd7
Following up on the ‘Letta’ report
In their remarks and in the conclusions they adopted, ministers welcomed the presentation of the report on the Single Market led by the former Prime Minister of Italy, Enrico Letta (see EUROPE 13393/3).
However, it will be difficult for Member States to adopt the measures proposed at this stage. “Of course, on the specific actions, we could have had something more precise in the conclusions, if we compare them with the ‘Letta’ report, which contained a lot of proposals. It is, however, a compromise document, which preserves the spirit of the ‘Letta’ report”, the German State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sven Giegold, told Agence Europe.
Improving the regulatory framework
In its conclusions, the Council calls for the removal of unnecessary administrative burdens and compliance obligations. They contain a warning against “over-regulation”. This involves identifying and removing the obstacles encountered by businesses, particularly SMEs.
Ministers also stressed the importance of digitalising procedures to make life easier for the private sector.
See the Council conclusions : https://aeur.eu/f/cdb
Making better use of public procurement
The Competitiveness Council also adopted conclusions in response to the European Court of Auditors’ report of December 2023 on public procurement in the EU (see EUROPE 13306/13). It proposes the launch of a strategic action plan, which should be one of the European Commission’s priorities for the next mandate.
Ministers believe that the rules on public procurement can be improved. To achieve this, co-legislators need to be supported by accurate and relevant data. However, they do not set out any concrete actions that could change the current rules.
For Margrethe Vestager, one way forward lies in the effective implementation of the 70-30% split between price and other criteria, such as sustainability and resilience, when awarding public contracts. She stressed that this 70-30% split was not effective: “Public contracting authorities tend to focus on price only. And since we want competition to drive us to the best results - and that means resilience - a push to use at least 30% in a much more strategic manner will be quite essential”.
Voir les conclusions du Conseil : https://aeur.eu/f/cda (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)