Brussels, 28 November 2024
The future of European competitiveness
The Hungarian presidency issued presidency conclusions on the future of European competitiveness. The presidency conclusions recognise the urgency of enhancing productivity and sustainable growth, while maintaining the EU’s social and economic model.
To achieve this goal, the presidency conclusions call for:
- deepening the single market
- the promotion of innovation
- the reduction of regulatory burdens
- the improvement of the business environment, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises
The Presidency conclusions highlight the urgent need to mobilise investment in key strategic sectors, including clean technologies and energy infrastructure, and to improve the financing of innovation.
The Presidency invites the Commission to develop new strategies for the single market and for industry, with a focus on modernisation and simplification to support long-term economic growth and competitiveness across the Union.
Better regulation in Europe
Ministers held a policy debate on better regulation in Europe. The debate was framed by a note prepared by the Hungarian presidency.
Ministers gave their opinions on three points:
- support for better regulation initiatives in the Draghi report
- the effective implementation of administrative burden reduction
- and improving existing better regulation tools
Most of member states welcomed the subject as an important element to improve competitiveness in Europe. A majority of delegations welcomed the Commission’s proposals to reduce reporting burden by 25%, with a target of 35% for SMEs. Several delegations endorsed the Draghi report proposal to go beyond this target (to 50% reporting reduction for SMEs), and also the idea of having a single methodology to calculate administrative burden, including the cumulative burden of different legislations. Many delegations welcomed the creation of a commissioner for implementation and simplification (Commissioner Dombrovskis) and the responsibility for each commissioner to stress test existing legislation and ensure that new legislation is not creating unnecessary additional burden, reporting annually on burden reduction and holding implementation dialogues twice a year. The issue of better impact assessments (also for amendments of the Council and the Parliament) was also raised by many delegations, including with a specific focus on different territories (such as Outermost regions) and firm types (such as SMEs). Several ministers called for a reinforced application of existing better regulation tools, like the one-in-one-out or the SME test. Finally, various intervention called for the use of existing or new technologies (digital, AI, blockchain) to reduce reporting requirements.
Any other business
The Hungarian presidency briefed ministers on the state of play of the legislative files it has been working on
The Danish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish delegations informed ministers on ‘bioeconomy – next steps in the EU’
The Danish, Finnish, French, German, Irish, Latvian, Slovak and Spanish delegations informed ministers about ‘Reaping the full benefits of the biotech revolution’
The French, German and Swedish delegations informed ministers about ‘the development of European Battery Production and the way ahead to ensure a competitive European Battery Industry’
The Austrian, Bulgarian, Czech, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Slovak delegations informed ministers about a ‘Joint proposal for a renewed European automotive policy: balancing competitiveness and climate ambition’
The Commission informed ministers about the ‘Regulation on a public interface connected to the Internal Market Information System for the declaration of posting of workers’
The Commission informed ministers about the 2024 Report of the Network of SME Envoys to the Competitiveness Council
The incoming Polish presidency presented its work programme in the field of the internal market and industry
‘A’ items
Ministers also adopted the list of A items.
If Coreper has been able to finalise discussions on a proposal, it becomes an ‘A’ item on the EU Council agenda, meaning that agreement is expected without debate. As a rule, around two-thirds of the items on a Council agenda will be for adoption as ‘A’ items.
- Presidency conclusions on the future of European competitiveness
- EU industrial policy (background information)
- Single market policy (background information)
- Support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (background information)
Preparatory documents
- List of A items, non-legislative activities
- Provisional list of A items, non-legislative activities
- Provisional agenda
- Background brief
- Provisional list of A items, addition 1
- Provisional list of A items, non-legislative activities, addition 2
Outcome documents
Source – EU Council