The priorities of the Ministry of Economy during the Presidency of Romania at the Council of the European Union (EU) aim at Pillar I, namely “Europe of Convergence”. Within this framework, the Presidency of Romania at the EU Council (PRES RO) will aim to contribute to ensuring European convergence and cohesion for a sustainable and equitable development for all citizens and Member States by increasing competitiveness and reducing development gaps, promoting connectivity and digitization, stimulating entrepreneurship and strengthening European industrial policy.
The specific objectives for Pillar I are:
- Strengthening the Single Market, European Growth and Competitiveness;
- Promoting Research, Development, Digitization and Connectivity;
- Promoting Entrepreneurship – 2020 Action Plan for Entrepreneurship, Digitization and Innovative SMEs, Start-ups, Scale-ups and Unicorns.
The single market is the world’s largest market, with about 500 million European citizens and 24 million companies, generating 14 trillion Euros in GDP/gross domestic product annually and celebrating in 2018 its 25th operating anniversary. Deepening and improving the functioning of the Single Market is one of the national priorities and we believe that important progress can be made to remove remaining barriers, bureaucratic and administrative burdens in implementing existing EU legislation and exploiting the untapped economic potential generated by these inconveniences. At the same time, it is necessary to adapt the Internal Market to the new challenges of digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Thus, we consider that the proposal for a Regulation establishing Programme for single market is a significant step as part of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, which will impact on the competitiveness of the Single Market, SME competitiveness and industry, taking into account the following main objectives:
- Optimizing the functioning of the Single Market;
- Improving the competitiveness of enterprises, especially SMEs;
- Increasing standardization;
- Promoting the interests of consumers ;
- Increasing the level of human, animal and plant health along the food chain;
- Developing and communicating high quality statistic data regarding Europe.
In order to strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy and its sustainable growth, it is essential to maintain a strong industrial base in the EU to ensure new jobs and a significant share of high value-added products in exports which is able to capture the opportunities of digitization, innovation, decarbonisation, circular economy, areas that are decisive for the future of industry. As a consequence, an EU industrial policy is needed to take all these aspects into account and at the same time to be strongly forward-looking.
It goes without saying that we cannot discuss strengthening the competitiveness of European industry without talking about digitization, artificial intelligence and robotics. As a result of companies’ awareness of the potential of digital solutions and the reconfiguration of consumers’ expectations in this increasingly digital context, the digitization process is continuously growing at EU level. To this end, investment in infrastructure, digital competences and innovation is a vital condition. Therefore, PRES RO wishes to adopt, within the EU Competitiveness Council of 18 February 2019, a set of conclusions on the Coordination Plan on Artificial Intelligence initiated by the European Commission on 7 December 2018.
Promoting entrepreneurship is a priority, as entrepreneurship is an essential component for strengthening the competitiveness of European companies, given the important role of innovative SMEs in ensuring competitiveness. Special attention will be given to innovative SMEs active in digital transformation processes, from start-up companies to unicorn companies. Within this framework, debates at the EU Competitiveness Council level will address issues such as the importance of clusters and the development of value chains.
We show our confidence in our success and we are convinced that the actions carried out by our representatives during the first semester of this year will make the first Presidency of Romania at the EU Council to be a triumph, given the mandate of the current Parliament and the perspective of the following European Parliament that will be elected in May 2019.