here - United Kingdom Parliament

111WS
Written Ministerial Statements
6 JUNE 2013
Written Ministerial Statements
112WS
The Council took note of a proposal for a space surveillance and
tracking support programme. Under AOB, the Commission briefly
presented its proposals for the funding and operation of the
European Earth monitoring programme (Copernicus) 2014-20
(previously known as “GMES”). Their latest proposal reflected
the agreement made at February’s European Council that Copernicus
should be funded from within the multi-annual financial framework
(MFF). It would provide a solid legal base from which to launch
the next set of satellites in the “Sentinel” series and support the
delivery of downstream applications that would foster economic
growth. The Commission emphasised the importance of a swift
negotiation on the regulation in order to ensure the programme
could launch at the beginning of 2014. The space discussion
closed with a short update from the Commission on work to
re-evaluate the relationship between the EU and the European
Space Agency (ESA). The Commission argued that reciprocal
access to the respective decision-making bodies was essential for
the relationship to function effectively. The UK intervened to
insist that the issue of the Commission role in ESA governance
was one that required careful analysis before decisions could be
taken by Ministers.
On the research items, the Council adopted conclusions in
response to the Commission communication “High Performance
Computing: Europe’s place in a Global Race”. These highlighted
that HPC is an important asset for the EU’s innovation capacity.
The Council then adopted conclusions in response to the Commission’s
communication on “Enhancing and focusing EU international
co-operation in research and innovation”. The Commission undertook
to closely involve member states in the implementation of multi-annual
“road maps” for co-operation with selected countries. Council
subsequently adopted without discussion a resolution on the
advisory work for the European research area (ERA). This resolution
agreed that the advisory committee ERAC should be renamed the
European Research and Innovation Committee (while keeping
the existing acronym ERAC) in order to enhance its advisory role
in research-led innovation.
The presidency updated Council on progress in negotiations
with the European Parliament on the Horizon 2020 Regulation
and associated Rules for Participation Regulation. The presidency
noted that seven trialogue meetings had been held with the
European Parliament, and that negotiations were now entering a
critical phase if a deal was going to be delivered by the end of
June. They believed that a compromise package could secure an
agreement which did not alter the Council’s agreed position on
the reimbursement model. The Commission reiterated the importance
of simplification; this was essential to make life more straightforward
for participants, and widen participation by reducing barriers to
entry. The Council then broke for lunch. After receiving a short
presentation from the CERN Council on the European strategy
for particle physics, the presidency hosted an informal discussion
between heads of delegation on their strategy for the Horizon
2020 negotiations. The UK intervened to support the presidency’s
aim of securing political agreement by the end of June, while
recognising the need to demonstrate a willingness to compromise
on several issues of importance to the European Parliament.
Following this discussion the Council reconvened. The presidency
concluded without further discussion that a large majority of
member states had subscribed to their proposal that simplification
and the “flat rate” funding model should be defended and that in
exchange the Council could show flexibility on other issues, such
as widening participation, a fast track to innovation instrument,
some earmarking in favour of renewable energy research, and
stronger support for SMEs. As a result of the discussion the
presidency noted that they would intensify negotiations with the
European Parliament with a view to securing an informal agreement
by the middle of June.
A policy debate then took place on joint programming initiatives
(JPIs). The UK intervened to underline the strong UK support
for JPIs. These were complex initiatives and member states had
invested significant time, money and effort in them. In the UK it
was for research councils to make decisions about funding. The
Commission called for swifter implementation, in particular in
relation to alignment of national strategies.
Under AOB, the Commission updated Council on the state of
play on the proposal for a Council regulation on the Euratom
research and training programme 2014-18 and on the proposal
for the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT)
programme (these both form part of the Horizon 2020 package).
The incoming Lithuanian presidency briefly presented its work
programme. The Council also received a short overview of a
recently published Communication on Energy Technologies and
Innovation. This would be discussed in greater detail at June’s
Energy Council.
Reducing Burdens on Small Businesses
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills (Michael Fallon): I am announcing today a
strengthening of this Government’s commitment to
bear down on unnecessary regulatory burdens on small
businesses.
The Government recognise that the burden of regulation
falls disproportionately on small businesses. They have
therefore already taken specific and concrete steps to
reduce the burden of regulation on smaller businesses,
for example:
Saving SMEs £388 million by not extending the right to
request time to train to businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
Exempting smaller retailers for three years from the display
ban on tobacco, which applies to supermarkets and very
large stores from April 2012.
Phasing implementation of pensions automatic enrolment,
so that small business will not need to comply until June
2015.
This Government are also reducing the burdens of EU
legislation by holding the European Commission to account
on their commitment to seek exemptions and lighter regimes
for SMEs in new proposals. The Commission’s March SME
scoreboard published recent examples, several of which are
already bringing major benefits for UK businesses, such as
the agreement exempting up to 1.4 million UK small businesses
from certain EU accounting rules.
We are also reducing the stock of regulation through
the red tape challenge. Many changes resulting from
this process will help small businesses. Examples include:
Our radical package of employment tribunal reforms is
expected to deliver £40 million of savings per year to employers.
We are committed to a major deregulation of entertainment
licensing through 2013.
We are freeing around 1 million self-employed people from
health and safety law whose work poses no harm to others.
This Government introduced a three-year moratorium
on new domestic regulation for micro-businesses and
start-ups from 1 April 2011, in order to support growth
and establish a period of increased regulatory stability
for the smallest businesses.
The moratorium is an important mark of the
Government’s aspirations for reducing regulatory burdens
on the smallest businesses.
It reflects established evidence on the disproportionate
burden that new regulation places on smaller business,
as well as their importance for jobs and growth.
We are now building on these achievements by extending
the moratorium in the second half of the Parliament to
cover small businesses as well as micros. This will now
be known as the small and micro-business assessment
(SMBA). It will be supported by independent scrutiny
from the Regulatory Policy Committee.