Brussels, 16/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council of 21 and 22 May, the last under the German Presidency, will have a particularly packed agenda, on which the proposed directive on consumer credit is to feature prominently. The ministers will also take stock of various dossiers related to the internal market, consumer policy and research. A “Space” Council will take place on Tuesday.
Consumer credit. The Council will attempt to reach a political agreement, unhoped for just a short time ago, on the proposed directive aiming to create a framework for consumer credit with new common rules, to guarantee better consumer protection against overindebtedness, on increased responsibility on the part of the lender and greater consumer confidence in the single market. This proposal, which has received a lot of press attention, has been on the table since 2002; it included a principle of total harmonisation, which has been contested, and the directive as a whole has been reincarnated several times. The most recent of these incarnations- the amended proposal presented by the Commission in November 2004- still had the Member States divided just a short time ago (EUROPE 9045). The determination of the German Presidency to conclude the dossier will, it is hoped, pay off. It put forward a compromise which brings in greater flexibility and which won the support of the national ambassadors to the EU, with one exception: the question of indemnity in case of early repayment of loans is still to be settled by the ministers. The Presidency is proposing to leave it up to the Member States to establish a threshold, within a scale between 0 and 5000 EUR, above which an indemnity will be paid to consumers who pay back their loan in full before the given deadline. Maximum harmonisation would stay in place for standard information in advertising, pre-contractual information and information to be included in credit contracts, cancellation rights and the calculation of the total annual cost of the loan.
Internal market. The German Presidency will present the delegations with a progress report on negotiations over the legislative package on the free movement of non-harmonised goods presented by the Commission in mid-February (see EUROPE 9366). A key measure of this package is a proposed regulation suggesting greater recourse to the principle of mutual recognition, conferring upon the destination Member States the responsibility for proving by an imported good must be withdrawn from the national market. The German Presidency is also said to have succeeded in making very swift progress on this dossier, so much so that it would have liked the Member States to agree on a partial general approach on Monday. However, many delegations would rather take more time over this, as the EP is not set to return its initial opinion until November. OHIM. The Council will adopt conclusions on the communication of the Commission on the financial perspectives of the Office of Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM). Given the recurrent budgetary surplus of this European agency, the Commission is hoping to propose a method for the periodic and automatic revision of the fees on Community brands. The Member States are not greatly in favour of this in the long term. The question of the survival of the national offices will also be raised. Better regulation. The German Presidency will present a new progress report in the field of the improvement of regulations since December 2006. Industrial policy. The industry ministers will hold a political debate and adopt conclusions concerning the automotive industry (CARS 21), biotechnology, information and communication technology and the naval industry.
Space Council. Under the auspices of Peter Hintze, the German Secretary of State for the Economy and Technology, and of Maria van der Hoeven, the Dutch minister for Economic Affairs and President-in-exercise of the Council of the ESA, the fourth Space Council will, on Tuesday, adopt a resolution prepared by a joint EU/ESA high-level group. This resolution will define the orientations and the subsequent stages for the programming and implementation of European space policy, and affirm its support for the recent specific communication of the Commission (EUROPE 9415). Research. On the same day, the research ministers are invited to go into greater depth in their discussions at the informal meeting of Würzburg on the creation of the European Institute of Technology (EIT) (see EUROPE 9418). The exchange of views aims to clarify the agreement on: 1) the process in two stages: setting in place the communities of knowledge and innovation and then their development, further to an evaluation of the activities of the EIT; 2) funding: 308.7 million EUR over six years from 2008; 3) the degree of autonomy for the EIT and the communities of knowledge and innovation. Furthermore, the Commission will present its proposed regulations on the creation of joint companies in the fields of embedded computer systems and innovative medicines, in the framework of the corresponding technological platforms. After a further exchange of views on the Green Paper on the future of the European Research Area (see EUROPE 9401), the ministers will discuss the transfer of knowledge between institutions for research and industry in Europe and the initiative of the German Presidency concerning an intellectual property Charter (see EUROPE 9419). The Council is set to adopt conclusions after this debate. Further conclusions are expected on research infrastructure. (an/eh/mb/oj)