Hungary’s Minister of State for Economic Strategy and Industry, Máté Lóga, will chair a Competitiveness Council in Brussels on Thursday 26 September. Although the author of the report on the future of European competitiveness, Mario Draghi, has been invited to join the meeting, he will not be present. He will talk directly to the heads of State at the summit on 17 and 18 October. His report will indeed be debated by the ministers this Thursday, as will State aid, the situation for SMEs and e-commerce.
The automotive industry is not on the agenda, but could come up at the last minute, given the current debates on tariffs for Chinese electric vehicles (see EUROPE 13486/24) and on the revision of CO2 standards for cars (see EUROPE 13487/3).
On Wednesday 25 September, the Hungarian Presidency hosted a high-level conference in Brussels with representatives of the automotive industry. “Depending on the richness of discussions, the Minister of State could decide to add an ‘any other business’ item to the agenda at the beginning of the Council on Thursday”, a source told Agence Europe.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Minister for the Economy, Adolfo Urso, has warned that he will use the Competitiveness Council to push for a postponement of the rules on vehicle CO2 emissions.
The future of European competitiveness. The Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council hopes not only to learn from Mario Draghi’s report, but also to contribute to the work on the Budapest declaration, which is due to be established at the summit on 8 November (see EUROPE 13474/1).
Budapest has presented a roadmap on the follow-up to the ‘Draghi’ report, in which it recommends discussions on this subject as often as possible, i.e. in almost all Council formations.
State Aid. The second debate will focus on the rules governing State aid, in particular the temporary crisis and transition framework, which runs until the end of 2025. The Hungarian Presidency of the Council wants to sound out the other 26 Member States on the flexibilities granted by the temporary framework and find out whether any of them should be extended.
SMEs. Over lunch, the ministers will discuss the situation of SMEs and how to facilitate their access to the single market. They are also invited to reflect on the exact definition of SMEs and middle-size capitalisation companies or midcaps.
It should be noted that, in his mission statement, the European Commissioner-designate for Industrial Prosperity, Stéphane Séjourné, is tasked with “introducing a new category of midcaps”.
E-commerce. At Germany’s request, an ‘any other business’ item on e-commerce has been added to the agenda. Berlin is calling on the Member States to adopt a common approach to ensure that manufacturers and platforms such as Shein and Temu are forced to comply with European regulations (see EUROPE 13487/8).
Single market. The ‘any other business’ items also include the non-paper submitted by 20 member countries on the internal market (see EUROPE 13487/4).
Other items. On Thursday, the ministers will mark the adoption of the regulation and annexed directives for the Single Market Emergency Instrument (‘Imera’) (see EUROPE 13341/10) and the ‘Single European Sky’ (‘SES 2+’) (see EUROPE 13365/1). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal and Isalia Stieffatre)