§ Mr. RiddickTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what happened at the Internal Market Council meeting in Brussels on 8 November.
§ Mr. RedwoodI represented the United Kingdom at the Internal Market Council on 8 November. Two measures were adopted to liberalise the EC insurance market: the life services directive and the motor services directive. Two company law measures were adopted, extending the provisions of the 4th and 7th company law directives to certain partnerships and creating exemptions for small and medium-sized companies.
The Council also heard a first report from Sir Leon Brittan on the operation of the EC merger regulation. It was agreed that annual progress reports should be made.
I asked that the Commission should treat merger inquiries as an objective process; that clear rules should be observed in hearing evidence and offering fair opportunities to all interested parties; that the Competition Commissioner should stress to his colleagues the need for their final decision to be based the evidence and findings of the investigation and the need to preserve the confidentiality of the price sensitive company information; and reminded the Council that article 2 states clearly that 103W competition is the sole criterion to be used in the examination. The Vice President was sympathetic to these points.
The Council discussed the copyright protection of computer software, and in particular the extent to which decompilation or reverse engineering should be permitted. The Council also discussed briefly progress reports on the fifth company law directive, the second diplomas directive, and the firearms directive.