Internal Market, Consumers and Tourism Council (Hansard, 28 June 2001)

§ Miss Melanie Johnson

The Deputy Permanent Representative Bill Stow represented the UK at the Internal Market, Consumers and Tourism Council ("IMCT") in Brussels on 30 and 31 May.

The Council reached agreement on Directives on Fair Value Accounting, Life Assurance and Short-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins.

The proposed amendment to the Cosmetics Directive was referred back for further negotiation in the light of numerous remaining reserves. On the Distance Marketing of Financial Services Directive, which sets out minimum standards for information to be provided by financial services providers, it was not possible to reach a qualified majority. On the proposed Directive on Food Supplements (vitamins and minerals) which aims to harmonise rules on their authorisation, marketing and labelling, there was also no agreement as there was no qualified majority.

Agreement was reached on a Common Approach to the key issues on the Community Patent. This defines the principles under which work can be taken forward. The 148W Presidency is now able to ask the European Patent Organisation to prepare for a diplomatic conference to revise the European Patent Convention.

There was general support for a common approach on Food Law and the establishment of the European Food Authority, which would guide future work with a view to possible political agreement in June.

The Commission gave an update on its plans to review the Consumer Credit Directive and agreement was reached on a progress report on two draft Directives covering solvency margins for life assurance and non-life assurance undertakings. These aim to enhance the protection of policyholders by strengthening solvency margin requirements. The Council took note of a progress report on negotiation of the draft public procurement directives. The Presidency concluded that the Council remained committed to reaching agreement by the end of the year.

The draft report on the Integration of Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development into Internal Market Policy for the European Council was adopted without discussion and the Draft Council Conclusions on the Commission's 2001 review of the Internal Market Strategy were approved. The draft Council Resolution on a strategy for the Customs Union, which is intended to improve standards of customs services throughout the EU, taking account of changes such as enlargement, e-commerce and customs related fraud, was adopted without discussion. The draft Council Resolution on eEurope: Information and Network Security was agreed with minimal discussion.

There was a Presidency report of the discussions held at the informal Ministerial in Lund which dealt with key items of consumer interest in the Internal Market and the Commission commented on the debate on the General Regulatory Framework on Good Market Behaviour or "Duty to Trade Fairly".

There was an exchange of information on the state of play of preparations for preparing consumers for the introduction of euro notes and coins. Belgium and Spain outlined priorities for their Presidencies (the Joint Work Programme) and the Commission presented its latest 149W version of the Single Market Scoreboard, which records member states' performance in transposing Single Market Directives.

Over lunch on 31 May, the Council discussed joint action on the single market between EU and Russia, the Community Design Regulation and International Exhaustion of Trademarks (Parallel Trade).