Brussels, 05/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Despite tooth and nail negotiations, the EU Council of Industry Ministers were unable on Wednesday to strike agreement over the implementation of a temporary defence mechanism for European shipyards that are being seriously hit by South Korean dumping practices. Member States' positions remained poles apart - on the one side, the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which all bitterly oppose the granting of aid; and on the other, southern countries (Spain, Greece and Italy) which want shipyard aid and would have been able to reach a qualified majority if they had been able to get France on board. But France would only agree if the mechanism were to cover LNG carriers, but was unable to win the support of the majority of Member States for this position. After a series of "bilateral" meetings, the Belgian Presidency decided not to proceed to a vote but to pass the issue on to the Spanish Presidency. The Council as a whole believes that it is now up to the Commission to lodge a complaint about South Korean practices at the WTO, but the Commission has consistently linked the lodging of any complaint with the adoption of a defence mechanism.
The ministers also discussed the following issues:
Competition. Ministers looked at the proposal introducing a new system for implementing competition rules. All delegations reiterated their support for the Commission's approach aiming to decentralise Community competition law and replace the current notification system with the idea of automatic legitimacy for transactions not contravening competition rules. Discussions focused on the question of how Community law meshes with national law under the proposal.
State aid. The Council adopted conclusions reaffirming Member States' commitment to pursue their efforts to cut the overall level of state aid as a percentage of GDP by 2003 and the need to refocus aid on horizontal objectives of common interest, including cohesion objectives. The Dutch delegation issued a reservation to the conclusions for reasons of coherency (that the conclusions contradict the desire of the majority for aid to be granted to shipbuilding).
Funding SMEs. In its conclusions, the Council called on the Commission to publish good practices in terms of funding for SMEs and draw up a European code of conduct in this connection. They also called on the Commission to present (in 2003) an initial assessment of progress made in promoting SME access to capital. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) were asked to get involved, with the first being requested to focus more of its global loans on areas where the market significantly failed and ensure that funding reached SME level. The EIF was asked to consider how a guarantee system can be instigated to mobilise funds and focus them on risk capital for the areas where the market leaves the most to be desired.
Competitiveness and entrepreneurship. Referring to the spirit of Lisbon, the Council adopted conclusions reiterating the importance of "calibration" (roadmaps) for entrepreneurship, recognising the performance of the Member States that have best managed to integrate information technology and communication. It called on the Commission and Member States to pursue their co-operation to define quantitative objectives for entrepreneurship, improving the business environment and the exchange of good practices and stepping up the debate on the impact of the e-economy. It called on the Commission to rapidly prepare a draft European strategy for biotechnology and an action plan to improve the regulatory framework in terms of competitiveness and entrepreneurship.
After examining the ECSC dossier, the Commission gave a progress report on work on sustainable development, biotechnology in the EU, the social responsibility of companies and the STAR 21 aerospace initiative. EUROPE will return to these issues.