Danish presidency: Ole Sohn

Revitalising the single market is high on the agenda for the Danish presidency, writes Ole Sohn.

The economic crisis has tested the EU and will continue to do so. We hope to use the council presidency to lay the foundations for future growth. We need to get the growth rates turning upwards in Europe as well as consolidate our public spending. It is important that we do not lose growth possibilities for future prosperity for all of Europe.

It is important to revitalise the single market; to make it more dynamic. The single market is one of the EU’s greatest achievements and has created growth and new jobs. That is why we agree to modernise the single market, adapt it to new technologies and use it to facilitate the creation of jobs and growth as well as to progress towards energy efficiency and less pollution.

Our presidency wants to give high priority to the ambitious 12 key initiatives set out in the single market act by the commission. Our focus will be on driving forward negotiations on the concrete legislative acts that will help modernise and simplify single market regulations, reduce the administrative burdens on EU companies and ensure the best conditions for European consumers. We particularly want to make progress on the revision of the public procurement directive, the accounting directives, the venture capital proposal and the standardisation package. We will also focus on the digital single market where we especially hope to reach an agreement on the roaming regulation, which can help lower prices for mobile phone networks across the EU.

Reform of the public procurement rules should act as a driver for growth. Simpler rules will help innovative companies, especially SMEs, access the public market. We believe that public procurement has the potential to make a significant impact on the revitalisation of the single market as a driver for sustainable growth. By simplifying the EU’s accounting rules we will help cut the administrative burdens on our small businesses. It will make company statements more comparable, clearer and easier to understand, and free resources that can be better spent on making business. At the same time, large companies operating in extractive industries in developing countries should be required to publish country-by-country information as an instrument in the fight against corruption.

To help release the growth potential that the 500 million consumers of the single market hold for European business we need to get our companies to reach new markets. We have the potential to develop EU’s position as a beacon of best practice for the rest of the world, through the development of market-leading standards and through the use of standards to support public policy objectives. The Danish presidency will strive to modernise the standardisation rules to enable standards to be set more quickly in line with technological developments and make Europe a stronger player in global competition.

Another way we can help European growth is by making it easier to access venture capital. We will help our innovative companies turn the challenges of the future into growth as well as enhance European competitiveness on the global stage. We hope that this will create a single market for venture capital.

Our innovative companies will also benefit from an agreement on reforming the European patent system. This is why we will move forward with issues that might be outstanding in the European patent reform after the Polish presidency. A digital single market is furthermore an important element in modernising the single market and making it more dynamic. Life is increasingly online for all of us and therefore it is important that the cost of accessing mobile phone networks abroad is fair and transparent. It should not be too expensive to use your mobile phones whether phoning, sending an SMS, or downloading data from the internet. It is also important that consumers feel confident buying goods and services online from other EU countries. Access to easy dispute resolution when something goes wrong might pave the way for more cross-border eCommerce.

A focus on the digital single market also means that we are inviting the European ministers responsible for the single market to Copenhagen on 2-3 February 2012. We hope to discuss how we can create a more functional digital single market.

This will involve looking at how we can increase trust in cross-border online trade and how companies and citizens can access digital possibilities to create growth. We hope that the efforts of the coming Danish presidency will contribute to a responsible and dynamic Europe with compromises that will end up in concrete results to the benefit of Europe, its companies and its citizens.

Ole Sohn is Denmark's business and growth manager