Brussels, 31/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Modernisation of European accounting regulations, adoption of a customs union strategy, agreement over reinforcement of requirements for a solvency margin of insurance companies: - these are the successes achieved by the Internal Market/Consumer Council on 30 and 31 May. The Council President Leif Pagrotsky welcomed the adoption of a Directive on annual and consolidated accounts of investment companies and a customs unions strategy based on the simplification of procedures, that would simplify the lives of companies and encourage cross-border trade. However, the Ministers failed, once more, over the dossiers of distance selling of financial services and animal testing of ingredients entering into the composition of cosmetics. Though no notable advances were seen on the Community patent dossier, the Ministers nevertheless reached an agreement on a common approach for the continuation of works. Below is an overview of the main results:
Dangerous substances: the Council reached a political agreement over the draft Directive aiming to ban short-chain chlorinated paraffin in two areas: the tooling of metals and the finishing of leathers. Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands moved against, hoping for a wider scope of application of the Directive.
Cosmetics: the Presidency preferred, in the absence of a qualified majority allowing to reach an agreement, to defer to a future session the vote over the proposal aiming to ban cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals. On one side, Denmark insisted on the ban, while France does not accept the principal of adopting a cut-off date from when testing on animals will be banned (Germany, Belgium and Finland among others expressed reticence).
Customs union: The Council adopted a customs union strategy that should allow the EU to face up to the effects of globalisation and enlargement. EUROPE will come back to this.
Accounting: The Council adopted a directive aimed at modernising the European accounting regulation by authorising application of the "fair value" accounting method. The directive will take over from the current regulation, which is nearly twenty years old.
Insurance: The Council reached an agreement on the proposal of directive aimed at melting into a single text the three directives on life insurance. There was also agreement, though not formal (as the Parliament's opinion was lacking), on the two proposals of directive (one covers life insurance, the other non-life insurance), which aim to strengthen the current demands for a solvency margin imposed on insurance companies.
Internal market: The ministers held a discussion on the last "scoreboard" (see EUROPE of 28/29 May, p.8). They also adopted conclusions giving their endorsement to 80 priorities set out in the Commission's communication of 17 April for continued liberalisation until end 2002.
Public procurement: The Council took stock of work relating to the draft directives on the coordination of procedures for public procurement of materials, services and work. Last December, they had not managed to reach common guidelines on these texts, mainly on two points: the sanctions against tenderers condemned earlier for crime and negotiated contracts. On this first point, the Commission proposes to rule out candidates that have been found guilty of such actions, while several Member States are in favour of a softer approach. On the second point, the Commission hopes that the possibilities for negotiation between the purchasing authorities and the tenderers will come within a strict framework for complex markets, whereas some Member States hope for greater flexibility.
Distance contracts for financial services. The Council did not reach a political agreement on the proposal of directive (see other article).
Patents: At the end of the afternoon, the Ministers reached an agreement on a compromise by the Swedish presidency recommending the adoption of a common approach for continuing work. The compromise provides, in substance, for: 1) the European Patents Office to play a central role in the issue and administration of European patents, which involves amending the European convention on patents; 2) the national patents offices play, in their working language, an important role of intermediary (advisers and informers in particular) between the public and the companies on one hand and the European Patents Office on the other; 3) the price of European patents remains competitive; 4) the European patents system is based on the principle of non-discrimination regarding languages; 5) a percentage of annual revenue from the Community patent should be distributed to national offices according to a key for fair breakdown of such. EUROPE will come back to this.
New forms of market regulation and administrative cooperation between Member States: Commissioner David Byrne announced a Green Paper this autumn on the conditions of fair trade for industry and consumers. Preliminary considerations will be published before November.
Consumer credit: David Byrne informed the Council of his intention to present a discussion paper in June and to organise hearings in July with a view to preparing, for the autumn, a new proposal of directive for harmonisation that will mainly cover the existing and future forms of consumer credit, the treatment of credit intermediaries and mortgage loans.
Trade marks/parallel imports: During lunch, the Presidency discussed the Presidency's wish, supported by seven delegations, of seeing the Community system of exhaustion of trade mark rights amended. The Commission still voices opposition.
Consumers and single currency: The Council held a round the table discussion which confirmed the similarity of preparations in the different Member States for the introduction of the euro (advertising campaigns, TV campaigns, distributions of kits of notes and coins). The Commission and several delegations stressed the need to settle the problem of over-high and disproportionate bank charges for payments in euros.
European Food Agency: Pending the opinion in first reading of the European Parliament on the new food regulation aimed at ensuring food safety, the Council discussed questions that remain controversial concerning the representation on the administration board of the future EFA, its method and referral and the range of its powers, in order to later adopt the text rapidly, in the knowledge that the EFA must be operational by January 2002.
Sustainable development: The Council adopted, in the form of a report to the European Summit of Gothenburg (15-16 June) its strategy for the integration of environmental concerns and sustainable development in the internal market policy in order to not only promote the protection of the environment but also economic growth and social cohesion. The document is the second stage towards the development of a comprehensive strategy based on the gradual fixing of objectives, timetables for implementation and progress indicators (a first report had been presented to the Helsinki summit).
EUROPE will come back to some of the results of the Council.