The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Mr Edward Davey)
The EU informal Competitiveness Council took place in Louvain-la-Neuve (industry sessions) and Brussels (research sessions) in Belgium on 14 to 16 July. The UK was represented by myself on 14 July and by BIS officials when I was not in attendance.
The first day of the industry session focused on future EU industrial policy. EU Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani emphasised the importance of SMEs, a well run EU single market, the external dimension of EU industrial policy and a strong better regulation agenda. He also highlighted the importance of the EU space sector and tourism to European economies.
The UK called for a step change in the better regulation agenda and more efficient use of natural resources. He stressed that the EU single market was the EU’s most effective industrial policy, but also that open trade on a global scale could create new opportunities for European companies. The Belgian presidency concluded that overall member states preferred a horizontal (rather than sectoral) approach to EU industry policy.
In discussion of the external dimension of EU industry policy, the UK and a few other member states focused on the importance of free trade, while a few other member states favoured the introduction of protectionist measures. At a morning session on the second day of the industry session, measures to help the integration of innovation by small to medium sized companies (SMEs) were discussed. The UK stressed the importance to SMEs of the single market, access to finance and making EU innovation programmes easier to use.
In the first research session on the afternoon of the second day, the EU Research and Innovation Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn outlined her plans for an EU “Innovation Union”, one of the flagship initiatives under the Commission’s Europe 2020 long-term economic strategy. She stated that she wanted the EU innovation strategy to address major societal challenges such as healthy ageing and creating carbon neutral cities. She stressed the need for the EU to broaden its approach to include innovation in services, business models, design, marketing and society. The UK welcomed the Commission’s approach of looking beyond technological innovation and considering how innovation policy could address major societal challenges, stressing the need to ensure framework conditions for innovation were right in Europe.
The second research session on the final day focused on the simplification of the EU research and development (R&D) funding programme. There was general agreement that the current rules for applying for funding were too complicated, inconsistent and too slow. The UK stressed the importance of the simplification agenda but said that moves away from a cost-based funding regime to one more focused on results and outputs needed to be treated with caution, as any new system would need to recognise the actual costs of the research and offer applicants a choice of funding methods. EU Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn said that the Commission intended to address these concerns through a radical overhaul of existing rules.