Brussels, 11/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council of 10 May in Brussels, chaired by the Luxembourg minister for the economy, Jeannot Krecké, approved the two latest Commission proposals on the relaunch of the Lisbon Strategy: a) the integrated guidelines adopted by the Commission on 12 April (EUROPE 8926), which encompass the broad economic policy guidelines (BEPG) and the employment guidelines (EGs), to be formally adopted by the forthcoming Ecofin and Employment/Social Affairs Councils, to be enshrined by the European Summit of June; b) the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP), with an envelope of 4 billion EUR over the period 2007-2013, adopted on 7 April (EUROPE 8923).
The Council welcomed the Commission's recommendation on the micro-economic plank of the integrated guidelines and underlined “the need for a flexible approach, in order to take account of specific national characteristics”, Mr Krecké told the end press conference. The Council stressed the “need for close coordination, at national and community level, and for a coherent approach between the micro- and macro-economic planks and the EGs”. He also said that a coherent approach was also of the essence in the implementation of the integrated guidelines. On the content of the micro-economic lines, the Council identified the following priorities: -facilitating innovation; -investing in research and development (on this, the Barcelona objective of spending 3% of national GDP was confirmed); -working towards a strong industrial base, in both traditional and high-tech sectors (on this point, the Council approved the Commission's recommendations to carry out both cross-cutting and sectorial actions); -completing the internal market; -creating framework conditions to attract investment, particularly in the field of infrastructure, by improving the quality of national legislation, by making access to funding easier and by stimulating entrepreneurship. The Council also stressed the key role of SMEs in the European economy.
As for the integrated guideline process, the Council approved a swift implementation of national action plans (NAPs) with a view to jump-starting the Lisbon process: the NAPs are scheduled to be presented in October, to feed into active collaboration with the national parliaments and the social partners. The ministers highlighted the importance of having national and community programmes which provided reciprocal support. With this in mind, the Council took note of the Commission's recommendations on the development of joint methodology on the structure of the national action plans. The Council also decided to carry out a regular follow-up of the new strategy, with particular reference to the NAPs and, if necessary, to make changes. Lastly, the ministers stressed the need for the Ecofin Council and the Competitiveness Council to work more closely together.
The Council also came down in favour of the CIP proposal, which is made up of three specific sub-programmes aiming to build the capacity for innovation of businesses in the EU and to improve the regulatory framework for SMEs: the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (2.6 billion dollars), the ICT support and development programme (802 million EUR) and the Intelligent Energy Europe programme (780 million EUR).
Over lunch, the ministers held an exchange of views on the new European industrial policy. The Commissioner for Industry, Günter Verheugen, sketched out the broad guidelines of a modern industrial policy- combining a cross-cutting approach with sectorial analyses- which will make it easier to pre-empt challenges and identify opportunities for European industry, to make any necessary restructuring easier. The ministers were favourable to this approach, which will be the subject of a Commission communication next July. They agreed that it was not appropriate to “talk of disindustrialisation” solely on the basis of indicators such as the fact that industrial employment has fallen as a proportion of total employment. It is, in fact, symptomatic of advanced development, a growing tertiary sector, and “does not mean that European industry is running out of steam”, said Mr Krecké. “We feel that a renaissance of industry is possible”, the Luxembourg minister stressed, but warned that “this cannot be done via conventional national plans, State aid, or protectionism aid”. “No intervention should take place unless the market proves unable to manage a specific change on its own”, said Mr Krecké, adding that the emphasis should be placed on innovation, a qualified workforce, the development of infrastructure, the creation of a stable regulatory environment and investment in energy (on this, Mr Krecké confirmed an EU/OPEC summit to be held in Brussels on 9 June). The Council also held a debate on the situation of the European textiles sector and heard Commission information on the state of play with international negotiations on the ITER project.