Council Conclusions of 26 November 2002 on a more competitive environment for enterprises
Date: 2002-11-26
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: business policy, competition, competitiveness, type of business

18.2.2003

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 39/7

(e) to consider broadening the scope of measures of

non-discrimination of people with disabilities;

3. educative and informative instruments:

(a) to promote the aim that the network of Centres of
Excellence and networking in Design for All becomes
ever more inclusive and covers all Member States;

(b) to promote the aim that proposed Design for All
curricula are developed and adopted by the relevant
educational authorities in each Member State. In this
case use, where possible, funds earmarked for such
an activity within appropriate ‘networks of excel-
lence’ projects financed under the European RDT
Framework programme;

and the

awareness

raising of people with
(c) to provide
disabilities
service
providers of the opportunities of modern ICT and
the net for people with disabilities and the elderly.
Utilise appropriate existing Community structural
programmes towards this end;

elderly as well

as

the
through

employability of people with
(d) to improve
disabilities
vocational
programmes targeted towards KBS jobs as well as
training in KBS-oriented skills within other voca-
existing
tional programmes. Utilise
Community structural programmes towards this end;

appropriate

appropriate

(e) promote the application of principles of and apply
existing facilities for lifelong learning to upgrade the
skills of people with disabilities;

(f)

to ensure that the multimedia materials and the use
of ICT in education do not create new barriers for
the integration of students with disabilities
into
schools and other places of learning;

(g) to ensure that eAccessibility become a regular part of
all education programmes of vocational schools of
any level, e.g. Web masters, multimedia authors
and software developers. Utilise
eLearning
initiative towards this end.

the

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 26 November 2002

on a more competitive environment for enterprises

(2003/C 39/04)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLING:

competitive

— the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on the
strategy for making the European Union the world's
most
knowledge-based
economy, capable of sustainable economic growth with
more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by
2010, and the further elaboration of this strategy by
the Stockholm, Gothenburg and Barcelona European
Councils,

dynamic

and

lishing, where appropriate, quantitative and qualitative
indicators and benchmarks against
in the
world and tailored to the needs of different Member
States and sectors as a means of comparing best practice,

the best

— the European Charter for Small Enterprises which calls
for the creation of the best possible environment for
small enterprises,

— the Council Decision on a Multiannual Programme for
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and in particular for
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
(2001 to
2005).

— the conclusions of

the Stockholm European Council,
requesting Member States and the Commission to
improve statistical
information necessary for bench-
marking, and inviting the Commission to reflect on the
use of quantitative targets in enterprise policy,

— that the Lisbon European Council decided to apply an
open method of coordination which involves estab-

2. WELCOMES:

— the Commission's Communication ‘Better Environment
for Enterprises’ and related staff working papers, which
point to progress as well as the need for strengthened
efforts in many areas of enterprise policy, and which
also include information on the candidate countries
and indicators on sustainable development,

C 39/8

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Official Journal of the European Union

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— the Commission's intention to review industrial policy in
the globalisation and the advent of

the
light of
enlargement,

in order to build on the targets already
such targets,
declared and further integrate their use in enterprise
policy.

— the Commission's intention to present a green paper on

5. INVITES THE MEMBER STATES TO:

entrepreneurship.

3. EMPHASISES:

— the need to redouble the efforts to promote growth and
competitiveness in order to meet the Lisbon goal, noting
that the slowdown in economic growth should not be
allowed to detract attention from the implementation of
the commitments of the Lisbon strategy,

the
— that structural reforms and the improvement of
to
for enterprises are crucial
raising public awareness on these

framework conditions
growth and that
matters is essential,

— that

necessary

improvements

business
in
the appropriate
environment require further work at
level
for competi-
tiveness, noting that the conditions for SMEs remain a
task of critical importance,

in a wide range of areas relevant

the

— the need to ensure the competitiveness of European
enterprises with the appropriate balance between the
three pillars — social, economic and environmental —
of sustainable development, and STRESSES in particular
the need in all policy areas to assess effects on competi-
tiveness, with reference to global markets,

— that improving the quality of rules and regulations is
crucial
to the European Union in becoming more
competitive and that achieving better regulation is an
important responsibility for the Community Institutions
and Member States,

— that learning from best practices can further improve the

performance of Member States.

4. RECOGNISES:

— the progress in developing a framework of quantitative
targets which may be set by Member States on a
voluntary basis
in seven areas of enterprise policy
crucial to competitiveness: entrepreneurship, regulatory
and administrative environment, access to finance, access
to human capital, innovation and knowledge diffusion,
access to ICT and open and well-functioning markets,

— further develop quantitative and qualitative targets on a
voluntary basis in areas where Member States consider it
relevant
consideration to structural
differences,

and with due

— develop a more

systematic dissemination of best-
practices in enterprise policy and, when developing
policies, to take into account identified best practices,
the best
emphasising in particular
procedure projects.

results of

the

6. INVITES THE COMMISSION TO:

— adopt a comprehensive and strategic approach to
competitiveness, and to focus its work on the structural
determinants of enterprise competitiveness in all sectors,

— facilitate the exchange of best practices in order to
enable the Member States to learn more efficiently
from each other,

— refine

its

analytical

framework for

competitiveness
in that respect, take into account in the
the results from other

policy, and,
work on quantitative targets,
reports and procedures,

— report within a streamlined approach to the Council on
a regular basis on the progress in the quantitative targets
in order
to contribute to a strategic discussion on
competitiveness in the Council,

— continue to include information on candidate countries
in benchmarking exercises with a view to ensuring
comparability of data across countries.

7. INVITES THE MEMBER STATES AND THE COMMISSION TO:

— further develop the work on identifying, benchmarking
and exchanging best practises in the area of enterprise
policy across
the European Union and candidate
countries,

— continue the work on a voluntary basis on quantitative
and qualitative targets with the aim of further integrating
their use in enterprise policy,

— that quantitative targets can be a useful contribution to
achieve concrete objectives and to increase focus and
momentum in enterprise policy, noting that most
Member States see a need to continue the work on

— discuss enterprise policies developed in the Member
States and in this regard to consider the possibilities to
organise periodic monitoring, evaluation and peer review
as mutual learning processes on a voluntary basis.