Brussels, 24/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - Following discussions on the "horizontal issues", the "Competitiveness" Council, meeting on Friday under the presidency of Dutch ministers Maria van der Hoeven and Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, adopted a series of conclusions on industrial policy and structural change in Europe. Based on the analysis developed by the Commission on the subject back in April (see EUROPE of 22 April, p.11), these conclusions recommended the substance, recognising that "intra-sectorial and trans-sectorial structural changes are necessary to stimulate competitiveness and the growth of productivity in Europe". The ministers feels that these changes cannot happen without a redistribution of resources to economic activities which could develop productivity and create value-added jobs, i.e. activities using a high degree of knowledge based on innovation, human qualifications and better use of technology. The Council stresses the need to make use of the dynamism created by the enlargement of the EU to work in favour of structural change.
In order to achieve the objectives of industrial policy, the Council calls upon the Commission and the Member States, to the very limit of their respective competencies, to create conditions in which business will be able to face up to competition and become first-rate economic actors at a global level. The conclusions adopted on Friday also stress the need to move forward with work underway to improve and simplify the rules and, in particular, reinforce the "competitiveness" plank of the integrated impact analysis process by evaluating the cumulative impact of existing legislation on the competitiveness of industry and specific industrial sectors, and by developing a method for measuring the administrative burden on business. The Council also hopes that the synergy between the various policies will be exploited more, in order to increase competitiveness. Along similar lines, the ministers agreed on the need to develop and adapt the impact of Community policies on industrial competitiveness.
From a sectorial point of view, the Council sees a number of actions in the fields of trade policy, State aid, research and development (R&D), cohesion policy and the environment as "important".
In the field of trade policy, the ministers think that the most important thing is to make the effort, bilaterally and multilaterally, to open third country markets to the EU as part of the multilateral rules, especially under the WTO umbrella.
On State aid, the Council pleads in favour of simplification and for: the adoption of a communication next year on State aid in favour of innovation; -ensuring that the Community framework for State aid to R&D is revised in 2005, along with the Commission's communication on "State aid and capital investment"; -giving competitiveness the attention it warrants at a future revision of the guidelines on regional aid.
On R&D, the conclusions emphasise the need to study the potential of developing technological platforms at European scale and adapting public innovation programmes to the needs of industry. The Council also feels that the EU should support regional initiatives for innovation by taking greater account of competitiveness in the current programmes on cohesion.
On the environment, ministers point out that the correct conditions should be created for sustainable production and the promotion of clean technologies and efficient energy production and use. They also call for: -a sectorial study on the eco-industry to be carried out in the enlarged Europe, to assess the level of international competitiveness of this sector, its growth potential and the obstacles to its development; -the assessment of various "viable" means of implementing the EU's decisions in the field of climate change and the potential cost of doing nothing.
Lastly, coming back to a two-year-old debate, the Council reaffirmed in its conclusions that "the industrial policy is horizontal by nature", but that "the specifics of each sector must be taken into consideration when applying it". In this perspective, "it will follow with interest the forthcoming sectorial analyses, and if necessary, initiatives currently being launched by the Commission, especially in the automotive sector, mechanical construction, information and communication technology and eco-industries". The Council also approved the method adopted by the Commission to develop these initiatives: consultation of the interested parties, reflection on the instruments to be used, etc. (See page 11 for the written responses to the MEPs of future Commissioner for Industry and Enterprise, Günter Verheugen).