EU Council Conclusions.pdf

The European Council met in Brussels on December 12-13, 2003, and reached several key agreements. The Council noted that it was not possible to reach an overall agreement on a draft constitutional treaty at this stage, and requested the Irish Presidency to assess the prospects for progress and report back in March.

The Council endorsed the European Action for Growth, which aims to improve competitiveness, employment, and growth potential through investments in physical and human capital. The Action covers material and immaterial investments in areas such as trans-European network infrastructure, innovation, and R&D.

Key points of the European Action for Growth include:

Close collaboration between Member States, the Council, the Commission, and the European Investment Bank (EIB)
Mobilization of private resources to finance qualifying projects
Part-financing of projects from national budgets and EU contributions
Enhanced coordination between all relevant sources of financing

The Council invited the EIB to implement financial instruments to leverage private capital, and Member States to complement the Action for Growth with national measures and programs. The Commission was invited to redirect expenditure towards growth-enhancing investments and to examine the necessity of developing a specific Community guarantee instrument for certain post-construction risks in TEN transport projects.

The Council also welcomed the Council's political agreement on the new Community guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Transport Network, and noted the priority projects identified by the guidelines as crucial to strengthening Internal Market cohesion. The Council emphasized the importance of increasing the upper EU contribution for cross-border projects and welcomed the presentation of a proposal for a new Eurovignette Directive.

Other key points include:

The European Council inviting the Commission to propose concrete actions to improve the conditions of 3G mobile communications and broadband development in Europe
The Council taking note of progress on the definition of an integrated horizontal approach to competitiveness and inviting the Council to assess further the coherence, synergies, and complementarities between policies.