Brinkhorst calls for reform of the EU’s Telecoms Council

By Tim King

Date: 16/12/04

Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, the Dutch economics minister, wants further reform of the EU's Competitiveness Council, which he believes should now take charge of telecoms matters.

He argues that, in the Council of Ministers, telecoms no longer belongs with "network" issues such as transport and energy. Instead, he says, it should be brought "within the family" of the Competitiveness Council because telecoms industries are vital to improving economic performance.

Brinkhorst said: "It is no longer about technical issues. It is about the content of services. That requires a much stronger link with the Competitiveness Council. You could rename it the ICT [information communications technologies] Council or the IT Council."

Brinkhorst was speaking after a meeting of the transport, telecoms and energy Council, whose conclusions included a resolution on the future of ICT for the Lisbon Agenda of economic reform.

Ministers agreed that: "The ICT sector is a major economic sector in its own right, with considerable potential for future growth and having impact on nearly all other economic activities [and] the use of ICT has a direct and substantial impact on the productivity and competitiveness of the European economy."

EU sources said that Brinkhorst had floated the idea of switching telecoms to the Competitiveness Council at an informal dinner with telecoms ministers last week, but no formal proposition had been made. The idea later received support from Denmark.

The Competitiveness Council is an amalgamation of various formations of ministers. It was created in June 2002, after a merger of the Industry, the Internal Market and the Research Councils.

At the outset of the Dutch presidency, Brinkhorst described it as "a Mickey Mouse Council". Its flaw, he said, was that the ministers attending did not know each other. Because it was formed from the merger of three councils there was still the possibility of three ministers from each of the 25 nations attending each meeting.

"There were of course good reasons to reduce the number of councils," Brinkhorst told European Voice. "What was underestimated as far as the Competitiveness Council was concerned was how to create a team spirit."

Brinkhorst's innovation has been to set up a dinner on the evening before each council meeting. He had, he said, succeeded in getting key ministers to attend these events, with support from Wolfgang Clement and Jerzy Hausner, Germany's and Poland's economics ministers, and Patricia Hewitt, the UK's trade and industry secretary. He had though, he admitted, been disappointed with France's failure to support the initiative.

"Only by having the senior ministers present can we make a breakthrough. Personal links are essential," Brinkhorst said, expressing confidence that the Luxembourg presidency would continue with the tradition of the preparatory dinner.

Brinkhorst blamed the French President Jacques Chirac for the Competitiveness Council's failure to agree on a community patent.

The Dutchman said that he had worked hard to try to broker agreement but "political intervention at the highest level" in France had blocked a deal.

It was, he said, Chirac's "personal decision" not to accept a language regime which put French in a position inferior to English.

Germany was ready, he said, "to put on one side" its earlier objections to the court regime and was ready to accept the proposed "English-only solution".

But although French industry was ready to go along with the idea, the French president would not.

Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, the Dutch economics minister, is calling for further reform of the EU's Competitiveness Council, which he believes should now take charge of telecoms matters.