Nyborg, 11/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - How will the Competitiveness Council, which for hardly two weeks now has integrated the former Internal Market, Industry and Research Councils, organise its work to meet the aim assigned to it by the European Council of Seville, namely that of strengthening growth and competitiveness in the EU so that Europe becomes the most dynamic knowledge economy in the world by 2010? Such is the question to which the Fifteen sought to provide an answer on Friday, during the first of the two days of work at their informal Nyborg meeting. At the end of the afternoon, four delegations at least (France, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom) had given a favourable welcome to the guidelines presented by the Danish Presidency.
Stressing that recent studies show that an appropriate legislative environment for the creation of companies and smooth running of markets, innovation and the use of new technologies are the elements that increasingly condition growth, Council President Bendt Bendtsen recalled that many European Commission reports precisely show that the EU is somewhat behind its rivals when it comes to uniting these elements. In this context, he placed emphasis on the opportunity offered by the Competitiveness Council to contribute to enhancing growth through its structure integrating the policies of the internal market, industry and research. For the Danish Presidency of the EU, the added value that the new formation could provide will depend on its operational and political ability to create synergies between these three policies. These will thus no longer be able to be considered in isolation, said Bendt Bendtsen, nevertheless recognising that certain specific questions under one of these policies or another will have to be continued to be dealt with as before. Thus, the Presidency put forward the idea of having each Council begin with a policy debate on horizontal subjects relating to competitiveness; the second part of the meetings would then be devoted to examining sectoral issues. The Presidency also expressed the wish for the competitiveness dimension to be taken into considerations in the work of other Council formations, like, for example, the Health Council when debating policy on pharmaceutical products, or the Environment Council when discussing issues close to industrial affairs.
Exploitation of synergies will, moreover, require a reorganisation of the Council's working methods. Thus, preparations for the session must avoid overlaps in preliminary talks, says the Presidency, also hoping that the structure of the working groups within Coreper should reflect that of the Council. To strengthen the latter's political and strategic capability, Bendt Bendtsen, moreover, recommended the creation of a new "Council group" composed of senior officials personally representing ministers, "while respecting the role of the Commission and Coreper" (the group would de facto depend on the latter). The group would have as role to advise on issues relating to growth and competitiveness. It would focus on strategic issues and programmes, including the establishment of priorities, but in no way broach issues relating to particular policies or simple legislative proposals. With the desire for more simplification and effectiveness, it would equally have to prepare draft notes on key-issue papers. These drafts short and succinct, would synthesise the different report currently provided by the Commission to the Council (strategy for the internal market, "Cardiff" reports, scoreboards, annual reports n competitiveness, SMB Charter etc.) and would act as a starting point for Council discussions. On this basis, the latter will be linked to the elaboration of definitive synthesis notes on key factors that will make up its contribution to the European summit in spring.
The Presidency will suggest every year, but without it becoming compulsory, that each Member State presents a balance sheet of actions that it has taken to bring down structural barriers hindering competitiveness. This approach is part of a perspective for information exchange among Union partners.