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European and External Relations Committee 03 March 2016

03 Mar 2016 · S4 · European and External Relations Committee

Item of business

Presidency of the Council of the European Union (Priorities)

Simon Smits Watch on SPTV

Wonderful—thank you for having me. I will set out some of our principles and ideas for the coming months, and I will be most happy to take your questions. As you said, convener, we live in interesting times. With everything that is coming to Europe and the challenges that we face, I think that you will agree that the presidency is hardly an easy task, but it is one that we are and will be executing with all the energy and input that we can muster. On the one hand, we see that there is a lot of scepticism about Europe and about its ability to make decisions efficiently; on the other hand, we see that solutions and answers are requested from Europe. On the one hand, people feel that Europe is beyond their control and that Brussels is a kind of alien entity—although we are all part of Brussels; on the other hand, with the refugee crisis, terrorism and so on, there is a general question about what the EU can and should do. I will say a few words on what kind of presidency we are running. First, on our role, we want to be a reliable and efficient mediator—an honest broker—in the Council of 28 member states, with the European Commission and with the Parliament. As that honest broker, we will try to move forward the strategic priorities that have been agreed in the Council and which have found their way into the European Commission’s work programme. We have three guiding principles. The first is focus, which means that the EU should focus on the things that have the most added value—in other words, as the Commission’s President Juncker has stated, it should be “Big on the big things, but small on the small things.” It is no use for the EU to prescribe the length of windowpane washers’ ladders; it should leave that to the local authorities. That is exactly what my former boss, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, is busy with—better regulation. That brings me to the second principle, which is connecting with citizens. The keywords here are transparency and visibility. Such connecting could be done, and we think that it should be done, by addressing the questions of the man in the street and of businesses—specifically, small businesses. To give one concrete example, if we reduce the burden of reporting for agriculture and fisheries businesses, that will reduce the workload and costs and will make a difference. The third principle—not surprisingly—is about growth and jobs, and innovation is key to that. We should remain competitive and be more competitive as the European Union. We have succeeded in staying ahead of the competition, but it is extremely important not to be complacent about that. One of the key issues is the internal market. The Netherlands is a trading nation and we attach great value to further extending and perfecting the internal market, which means extending it into the digital age. We also think that there is a lot of untapped potential with the internal market of services. Those are the guiding principles. Our priorities are obviously to do with the events that have more or less overtaken us in the past year. I am thinking of security, the refugee crisis and getting agreements in place with countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon that are bearing the brunt of the influx but have also received substantial help in tackling the problems. That is the first priority; other than that, we will concentrate on the issues that I have mentioned. Convener, the interesting times that you mentioned for the United Kingdom come when some member states are reconsidering their relationship with the EU. We will at least try to facilitate an informed debate, as that is key to the whole issue.

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European and External Relations Committee 03 March 2016

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