merrion street

Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen T.D., is in Helsinki today to attend the Informal Competitiveness Council meeting of Ministers responsible for the Internal Market and Industry.  The Ministers will discuss the main elements of the EU’s future growth agenda including policy priorities in the field of the single market, industrial policy, digitalisation, research and innovation, skills and the transition to a low carbon economy. 

The theme of the Council meeting is “Sustainable Growth” which also being attended by Commissioner Bieńkowska.

The specific agenda for the meeting of the Internal Market and Industry Ministers covers two aspects of sustainable growth: forming a comprehensive, ambitious and forward-looking growth agenda by integrating policies such as Single Market, Dynamic Digital Economy and modern Industrial policies, and identifying smart solutions for a competitive and climate neutral Europe.

Minister Breen said:

This Informal meeting is a welcome opportunity for my colleagues and I to develop our contribution to setting the direction of the EU for the next 5 years. As competitiveness Ministers, our ambition is to promote sustainable growth. I will be arguing that we need to develop policy that takes account of the needs of enterprise, deploys all the instruments at our disposal and takes an integrated approach that builds on the links and complementarities that exist between the different policy areas such as for industry, the Single Market, digitalisation and climate action.

The Council meeting is taking place under the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.