§ Mr. WattsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what decisions were taken at the EU Ministerial Council on the Internal Market on 27 November; and what matters were voted upon. [20241]
§ Mrs. BeckettMy Noble Friend the Minister for European Trade and Competitiveness represented the United Kingdom at the Internal Market Council in Brussels on 27 November.
The Council reached political agreement by qualified majority voting on proposals on legal protection of biotechnological inventions, on insurance groups, on the extension of the KAROLUS programme (for exchanges of Single Market enforcement officials).
Common positions were agreed by qualified majority on proposals on Action Robert Schuman, an initiative to improve the training and informing of the legal profession about European law; on a proposal on in vitro diagnostic medical devices; on a modification of Directive 83/189/EC, to extend to information society services its mechanism for Member States to notify draft technical measures to the Commission and other Member States; on amendment of the food additives Directive 95/2/EC; and on a proposal on coffee and chicory extracts.
The Council discussed the Single Market Action Plan, legislative simplification, including proposals for revising the INTRASTAT regulations, and the proposals on chocolate, the Commission's Green Paper on food law, the legal protection of designs, and the free movement of goods.
The Council also received presentations from the Commission on proposals on foodstuffs, bus and coach construction, reform of the Community customs transit system, the European Company Statute, product liability, and the Community patent system.