Competitiveness Council to define its role
The EU's Competitiveness Council will hold its first ever informal meeting on 11 October. Council chairman Bendt Bendtsen plans to use the meeting to define the future role of the Council. The Competitiveness Council is an amalgamation of the previous Councils for the internal market, industry and research. The new Council was created by the Danish Presidency, which wished to 'simplify' cooperation in these areas. 'The Danish EU Presidency has chosen to use the informal Council meeting [...] for wide ranging talks on the role of the new Council. In the Council, we must find out how the work of the Council should be organised in future in order to ensure that we gain maximum benefit from the synergies resulting from the amalgamation,' said Council chairman and Minister for Economic Affairs, Bendt Bendtsen. Mr Bendtsen explained that policies relating to the internal market, industry and research all contribute to making Europe competitive. 'Several new studies indicate that an increasing part of the growth is, among other things, dependent on favourable conditions for entrepreneurs, well functioning markets and the utilisation of new technology. The EU can improve conditions in these areas, and to a large extent, it is up to the Competitiveness Council to be the political forum that promotes growth and competitiveness by creating the right conditions for knowledge-based economic activity in Europe,' said Mr Bendtsen. Referring to the pledge by the European Heads of State and Government to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010, Mr Bendtsen said he would 'strive to make the Competitiveness Council the engine in the achievement of the goal.'
Kraje
Denmark