§ Baroness Goudieasked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the outcome of the European Union Internal Market Council held on 9 November. [HL96]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Simon of Highbury)I represented the UK at the Internal Market Council in Brussels on 9 November.
The Council considered three elements of the Single Market Action Plan, which aims to improve the operation of the Single Market. It discussed the rolling Joint Work Programme of the three Presidencies; Member States' progress towards implementation of the Single Market Action Plan; and mutual recognition. The Commission presented the latest Single Market Scoreboard, which showed that the number of directives not yet implemented in all member states had been cut from 26.7 per cent. last November to 14.9 per cent. currently and noted that at 15 October 40 actions out of 66 of the Single Market Action Plan had been completed. There was agreement that the Single Market Scoreboard should be regularly updated to help maintain progress in building the Internal Market. The Commission gave a progress report on its work on mutual recognition of national standards.
27WAThe Commission introduced an open debate on legislative simplification with a report on the simpler Legislation for the Internal Market (SLIM) initiative. The Council expressed general support for continuing SLIM and Business Test Panels, the Commission initiative aimed at improving consultation with business on the likely impact of selected legislative proposals.
The Commission presented reports on: the Expert Committee on Commercial Communications, which is addressing trade barriers in the field of advertising; public procurement; a proposal for a directive which aims to set noise limits for tyres; the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and the Single Market; the intervention mechanism aimed at removing obstacles to the free movement of goods; and Units of Measurement (Supplementary Indications), with the Commission announcing its intention to extend dual metric/imperial marking for a further 10 years.
The Council reached political agreement on a measure on cableways, which harmonises safety aspects of cableway installations, and on the fee arrangements structure for the European Medicine Evaluation Agency (by a qualified majority with UK and Germany maintaining scrutiny reserves).
The Council also briefly discussed the draft chocolate directive and agreed to reconsider the dossier after further work by the Commission.
Over lunch, Ministers discussed the issue of economic reform and organisation of Council business.