Brussels, 17/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - After a debate on the Lisbon objective of making the EU the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, the "Competitiveness" Council, which met on Monday under the chairmanship of Mary Harney, adopted conclusions on competitiveness and innovation, in which it took note of the recent Commission communications on industrial structural change in Europe, the development of a "proactive" competition policy, the European life sciences and biotechnology strategy and the situation in terms of State aid. In its conclusions, the Council has essentially committed to expanding its examination of the Commission's analysis and recommendations, to determine the priorities at its September session. After the Spring European Council, the Council adopted conclusions on improving the rules: the Twenty-Five took note of progress made under the agenda for better rules, and commit to setting priorities to simplify the legislation in September, with a view to concluding an agreement by the end of 2004.
The public debate which preceded the adoption of these conclusions saw a favourable welcome reserved by lost delegations to the Commission's work, especially the communications on industrial policy and the need for a proactive competition policy. All those who took the floor once again agreed on the importance of pushing forward with R&D and innovation efforts and to simplify texts to lighten the administrative load on business. Warning against "an exodus of high-tech industries", Germany called for a proactive approach to competitiveness, inviting the Commission to draw up a White Paper on the issue. The Finnish Minister expressed the same concern, stressing that the phenomenon of disindustrialisation also threatens the services sector, as it is closely linked to industry. Other delegations (Cyprus, Portugal, Poland) stressed the importance of entrepreneurship and of SMEs, to boost EU competitiveness. Italy voiced its wish for greater integration of the environmental dimension into the issue of competitiveness, and Austria called for closer links between the "Competitiveness" and "Employment and Social Affairs" Councils. Lastly, convinced of the need to remove obstacles to the free movement of services in the EU, Belgium, supported by France, stated that the future directive should take account of the specific nature of services of general interest. Poland considered that negative social consequences should be avoided in the process of "liberalisation" of the services sector.