Toespraak van minister Kamp, staatssecretaris Dijksma en secretaris-generaal Maarten Camps bij de EU-ambassadeursbijeenkomst

Toespraak | 24-06-2015

Speech by Maarten Camps, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. A special word of welcome to ambassador Orsolay Szijjártó of Hungary whose birthday it is today. Happy birthday, Ambassador!

Ladies and gentlemen,

In 191 days' time – just over six months from now – the Netherlands will take over from Luxembourg as President of the Council of the European Union.

Thanks in part to the countries that have gone before us, we’re taking over in a period of economic recovery. And so we see our task as ensuring this trend continues, by fostering innovative enterprise. During our Presidency we will focus on strengthening the internal market and on improving EU legislation. So that we all benefit from a Europe without internal borders, while at the same time protecting – and where possible enhancing – crucial European assets like our nature and quality of life.

This is the approach our ministers will champion in the Councils they sit on and – as of January 2016 – will be chairing.

The regular Councils will take place in Brussels and Luxembourg, as usual. But we will also be hosting a number of informal Council meetings and high-official-level conferences at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. These events will provide a good opportunity for your compatriots to get better acquainted both with our enterprising capital city and with our maritime history.

Like the other ministries, we're hard at work preparing for the EU Presidency, so that the Netherlands can fulfil this role as effectively as possible.

I'll let our ministers explain how exactly we plan to do that. First you'll hear from Henk Kamp, the Minister of Economic Affairs. During the first half of next year he will chair the Competitiveness Council, the Energy Council and the Telecoms Council. Then our Minister for Agriculture Sharon Dijksma, also responsible for Dutch nature policy, will take the floor. During next year’s EU Presidency she will chair the Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

Now it is my pleasure to give the floor to the Minister of Economic Affairs, Henk Kamp.

Speech by Henk Kamp, Minister of Economic Affairs

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I too would like to welcome you all to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It is an honour and a pleasure to receive almost the entire European Union here.

We're meeting at a time of optimism, for the European economy is looking up. In 2015 the European Commission expects EU growth of 1.8 per cent. Like most of your countries, the Netherlands is in an upward spiral. Exports are on the rise, and as a result companies are investing and the economy is growing.

In recent years important and far-reaching steps have been taken to stabilise the eurozone and the EU economy. The Netherlands has played an active role in those efforts. Thanks to the reinforcement of the Stability and Growth Pact, the eurozone is now fundamentally stronger than it was before the crisis.

The challenge now is to turn this budding growth into a full recovery, by enhancing our competitiveness.

As our Secretary-General indicated, the Netherlands wants to create opportunities for innovative enterprises. They will benefit from a strong European internal market. In fact, the EU’s future competitiveness depends on our bolstering the internal market.

We need an internal market that companies large and small have equal access to. One that offers scope for growth and innovation and fosters a better investment climate. Whether it's goods or services, an integrated energy union or a digital single market, the economic potential of a well-functioning internal market is enormous. It could be worth more than 650 billion euros a year. That’s 5 per cent of Europe’s total GDP.

So, during the Dutch EU Presidency the government will work hard to strengthen and deepen the internal market. Resolve will be our watchword: we need to stick to the agreements we’ve made, update existing legislation and make sure that new EU policy is fit for the future.

Creating an effective market within the EU is not a new agreement. In fact, it's an agreement as old as the EU itself.

And since 1992 it has given us a great deal: over two-and-a-half million extra European jobs and more than 200 billion euros' worth of extra prosperity.

But that doesn’t mean the job is done. Within Europe there are still many differences in legislation and standards, and in their implementation. Small and medium-sized enterprises suffer most from this, because they don't have the time or resources to figure out a new set of rules for each country. Some countries make unjustified demands regarding the legal form that companies take. Others still have too many regulated professions. And differences in countries' energy prices result in an uneven playing field. This makes it difficult for foreign enterprises to compete.

For these reasons, our first task is to carry out the measures we've already agreed. That means the full and rapid implementation of, for example, the Services Directive and the Third Energy Package. Every year the European Commission makes solution-focused recommendations to each member state, including where the internal market is concerned. I believe we should all take a more critical look at how we implement them.

But the job isn't done either if we merely carry out what we've already agreed. We must also look at where and how existing legislation could be improved. The Commission is already taking ambitious steps, with the Better Regulation package developed by Commissioner Frans Timmermans. In 2015 alone, 73 proposals have been withdrawn. It’s great that the European Commission has announced that it will now annually identify problematic legislation that needs amending or repealing. The Netherlands will hold the Commission to that pledge, and will push for even more ambitious steps. The Commission should set a target for reducing unnecessary regulatory pressure, for example, to ensure that concrete results can be achieved.

Updating current legislation isn't needed simply to lighten the burden. It's also an essential condition for a better functioning digital market in Europe. The benefits for the EU could amount to 415 billion euros a year. So the Netherlands is pleased with the recent proposal for a 'Digital Single Market Strategy', which also covers updating EU legislation. The rules for telecoms companies will be harmonised, making it more attractive throughout the EU to invest in high-speed networks and safeguarding competition more effectively.

In order to seize the opportunities the digital era offers, we must not only update existing legislation but also make new legislation future proof. It must be able to accommodate technologies and earning models that don't even exist yet. The market is changing rapidly, and Europe needs to respond more effectively. Companies like Airbnb and Uber illustrate this challenge, because they fall outside our regulatory frameworks. And when traditional players rise up in protest, all too often it’s the innovators who lose out. But ultimately we all lose out, because innovation is crucial for raising prosperity. That’s why the Netherlands is urging that all new legislation has to be tested to ensure it’s sufficiently future proof.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There's a lot that member states themselves can do to help the internal market function better and support businesses in their cross-border operations. Last year, I was part of an initiative by a group of member states called Front Runner, which developed practical solutions to problems in the internal market. For example, we made it easier to set up an online store in a different member state. And the Netherlands has made it simpler for foreign entrepreneurs to apply for a certificate of conduct.

On the energy market, too, we could benefit from regional cooperation. By enhancing market coupling and building interconnections, for example. For ten years now, the Netherlands has been working with Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria to improve integration in the Northwest European energy market.

Regional cooperation could help plant the seeds for a truly single market: one internal market for the entire EU. With small steps we can achieve great things, as the past 60 years of European cooperation have shown. During its 2016 Presidency, the Netherlands will make every effort to take our common agenda another step forward.

Thank you.

Speech by Sharon Dijksma, Minister for Agriculture

Your Excellencies, representatives of the EU member states,

Ladies and gentlemen, it's great to have you here in The Hague.

As my colleague Henk Kamp has said: the economy is looking up. Our seven lean years are over. Seven years of crisis, in which agriculture was one of the very few Dutch industry sectors that continued to grow. Last week, new figures reaffirmed our position as a global leader: in 2014 our exports rose and we remained the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products, after the United States. The sector has grown in most of your countries, too, just like the European agricultural sector as a whole.

But our strong position today provides no guarantees for the future. Last year, for instance, the growth of agricultural exports in China, the US and Canada grew far more than here. If we are to retain our competitive position we must improve legislation in order to promote innovative and sustainable enterprise.

Creating scope for innovation isn't a luxury. It’s a necessity.

By 2050, the world will have more than nine billion mouths to feed. We not only need to double productivity and improve food quality, but we need to do so with half the inputs we have now. So we must fulfil our three-fold pledge to increase food production, enhance resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We need to ensure that our farmers are in a position to practice climate-smart agriculture.

In recent years, we have worked together to develop a new Common Agricultural Policy. The result is a fairer, more ambitious policy that rewards ‘greening’ and promotes innovation. In essence it's simple enough. But in practice, a single policy for 28 member states is somewhat more complex. It’s understandable that the negotiating process should produce tailored solutions, but we must ensure that the legislation doesn’t end up being so detailed and complex that we miss the mark entirely. And that is now a real danger.

During our EU Presidency, the Netherlands will work to improve the CAP. There is a real need for simplification. Farmers are finding it hard to comply with the current rules. They are just too complicated. And we need to ask ourselves whether the administrative burden associated with accountability and monitoring is proportionate to the subsidies farmers receive.

But more than simplicity, these businesses need clarity. They need to know exactly what criteria they have to meet to qualify for a subsidy. And that’s not always the case at present.

Fortunately, Commissioner Phil Hogan also sees improving the CAP as a priority. Earlier this year he asked the member states to work with the sector and come up with suggestions. In the autumn the Commission will present a package of simplification initiatives. And in the course of our Presidency, the Council will use this as a basis for evaluating progress. We attach such importance to this issue that we plan to hold an informal Agriculture and Fisheries Council in the first half of 2016, looking at the future of the CAP.

The Netherlands also believes that the legislation on fisheries could be improved and made more open to innovation. Mr Kamp's remarks about innovators like Airbnb, which fall outside the existing regulatory frameworks, also apply to new methods and forms of fishing, such as electric pulse fishing. Fisheries legislation is based on existing methods and is not equipped to deal with new innovations.

The member states agree that we need to stimulate innovation in order to maintain our competitive position and meet global challenges. But with EU legislation we have a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

To a certain extent, the same is true of our nature policy. In our drive to protect the natural environment we have focused so sharply on conservation and species protection that there is now little room for changing nature value. So we risk losing sight of the bigger picture: a healthy natural environment for people, plants and animals. In the end, this approach doesn't benefit nature.

In the evaluation of the EU's nature legislation – the so-called Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitat Directives – we’re calling for more flexibility with emphasis on natural processes. Observing natural dynamics and focusing on conditions strengthens nature and therefore fosters biodiversity. In addition we are pressing for a close cooperation with other societal interests, such as water management, farmers, recreation and infrastructure. We want to combine dune management with coastal safety and opportunities for water collection and recreation. And in line with our ambitions for climate-smart agriculture, we want farmers to create nature-friendly river banks and hedgerows, which can help combat pests.

Our economy, environment, health and societal resilience could benefit considerably from sustainably combining the protection, perception and use of nature. I am convinced that the public interest in nature will be served if we are more aware of the services nature provides. However, a strong focus on natural processes, and on combining nature with other functions can create tension with certain European objectives. Like protecting all existing species and habitats in the Netherlands. For this reason the Netherlands believes the goal should be a single, robust European network in which species and habitat protection is viewed not on a country-by-basis but at European level.

The Fitness Check of the Birds and Habitats Directives will be discussed in the Environment Council next year, under the Presidency of the Dutch Minister for the Environment, Wilma Mansveld. In the spring I also plan to arrange a separate conference on future-proof nature policy

Ladies and gentlemen,

The countdown has begun. Six months to go before the Dutch EU Presidency. Today we have told you what our focus will be: improving EU legislation and strengthening the internal market. For a stronger and more sustainable Europe. The Netherlands looks forward to working with your countries to achieve these goals. But before we take over the baton, let us first wish Luxembourg every success with their impending Presidency.

Thank you.