The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Michael Fallon)
My noble Friend, the Minister for Trade and Investment, Lord Livingston of Parkhead, has made the following statement:
The Competitiveness Council took place in Brussels on 26 May. The UK was represented by Shan Morgan, the Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU. Internal market and industry was discussed during the morning session with research, innovation and space being discussed in the afternoon session.
The Council opened with a presentation by the Commission on the current state of play of the state aid modernisation programme. In the discussion that followed the UK expressed its support for strong state aid rules and added that further work should be undertaken by the Commission to streamline and accelerate the approval system.
Modernisation of trade defence instruments was then discussed as an any other business item. The discussion focused on the Commission’s decision to adopt the non-legislative guidelines before agreement of the legislative proposal. Several member states, including the UK, intervened stating that the initiative should have been presented as a package. However, the Commission rejected this noting that it has exclusive competence on matters relating to trade and that no undertaking had been made, committing the Commission to issuing the guidelines and legislation as a package.
Following this, the Commission presented a progress report on the package travel directive, which the Council noted.
The Council then considered three intellectual property issues. First, the Commission provided a progress report on the trade mark package (there was no substantive discussion). Secondly, the Council agreed a general approach on the trade secrets directive. During discussions, the UK, with support of other the member states, intervened to praise the presidency’s draft and confirm this was the only draft that could result in an agreement. Finally, the presidency presented an information point on the European patent and unitary patent court, during which it noted the positive outcome of a referendum in Denmark on the establishment of the unitary patent court. The UK, along with several other member states, intervened to note the importance of the court and to emphasise that implementation should not be rushed so as to ensure that systems are right.
Denmark and the Netherlands introduced an any other business item on the frontrunners initiative. The initiative is designed to further improve the single market through the sharing of best practice, peer review and ambitious approaches to the implementation of single market rules.
The UK is a participant in the frontrunners initiative and intervened to express its support for it. The initiative was welcomed by both the incoming presidency and the Commission.
The Council agreed a general approach on the regulation on the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system. This is an automatic system which alerts the emergency services when a vehicle has been involved in an accident. The UK has long opposed this and intervened, opposing the general approach, maintaining that a voluntary approach would be best given the costs of the regulation outweigh the benefits.
The Commission updated member states on the current state of play of key enabling technologies and raw materials, during which it announced the adoption of a new list of critical raw materials.
In the afternoon the research, innovation and space agenda opened with a discussion on the draft Council conclusions on improving relations between the EU and the European Space Agency (ESA), during which the importance of improving the relationship between these institutions was stressed, with a number of member states noting that the best way to achieve this was through revision of the existing framework agreement or the creation of a new EU pillar in the ESA.
The Council agreed with the conclusion on European research infrastructures. The UK intervened to explain why a declaration with eight other member states had been tabled. All of the signatories explained that they felt strongly that the Commission should spend no more than half of the moneys set aside for research infrastructures this year (€90 million) on the top three priority projects. The presidency outlined its paper which argued that there should be a public-public partnership (article 185 of the treaty) for Euro-Mediterranean co-operation. Eight member states gave their full support. The UK, along with four other member states were all supportive of the general ambition of the initiative, but asked for additional information about the likely added value and an impact assessment before taking a final stance. The Commission welcomed the progress made.
Finally, the Italian delegation gave a presentation on their presidency, noting that they will prioritise mainstreaming competitiveness, industrial competitiveness, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the review of the Europe 2020 strategy.