EUROPEAN UNION COMMON POSITION Chapter 20:Enterprise and Industrial Policy - Main contents

Document date	28-02-2007
Publication date	22-01-2013
Reference	AD 11/07
External link	original PDF
Original document in PDF

CONFERENCE ON ACCESSION Brussels, 28 February 2007

TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

– TURKEY – PUBLIC

AD 11/07

LIMITE

CONF-TR 5

ACCESSION DOCUMENT Subject : EUROPEAN UNION COMMON POSITION Chapter 20: Enterprise and Industrial Policy

AD 11/07 CONF-TR 5/07 1 EUROPEAN UNION COMMON POSITION

Chapter 20: Enterprise and industrial policy

This position of the European Union is based on its general position for the Accession Conference with Turkey (CONF-TR 2/05), and is subject to the negotiating principles endorsed by the

Accession Conference (CONF-TR 6/05), in particular:

− any view expressed by either party on a chapter of the negotiations will in no way prejudge the

position which may be taken on other chapters;

− agreements - even partial agreements - reached during the course of the negotiations on

chapters to be examined successively may not be considered as final until an overall agreement has been established;

as well as to the requirements set out in points 3, 6 and 21 of the Negotiating Framework.

The EU underlines the importance for Turkey of compliance with the Association Agreement, including its Additional Protocol and the Customs Union, as well as the Accession Partnership, which constitute basic elements of the pre-accession strategy. Failure to implement its obligations in full will affect the overall progress in the negotiations. With this in mind, the Union underlines all relevant elements of the Declaration of the European Community and its Member States of 21

September 2005.

The EU encourages Turkey to continue the process of alignment with the acquis and its effective implementation and enforcement, and in general develop already before accession, policies and instruments as close as possible to those of the EU.

The EU notes that Turkey, in its position CONF-TR 2/07 accepts the acquis under chapter 20 as in force on 1 July 2006, and that Turkey declares that it will be ready to implement it by the date of its accession to the European Union.

Enterprise and industrial policy principles

The EU takes note of the information provided by Turkey which indicates that Turkey has established an enterprise and industrial policy through a variety of policy documents (including an

Industrial Strategy, SME Action Plan and relevant parts of its National Development Plan) which already largely respects EU enterprise and industrial policy principles. The EU notes the need for

Turkey to revise its comprehensive industrial policy strategy for examination by the European

Commission, as well as its SME action plan, to further improve its capacity notably with regard to policy implementation on the basis of strategy documents, to better evaluate the performance and impact of policies and to ensure broad stakeholders' consultation of Industrial Policy Strategy documents to provide for better ownership (or acceptance) of the revised Strategy.

The EU invites Turkey to continue improving its business environment by further simplifying administrative procedures for business; this includes the broader application of regulatory impact assessments for all new and relevant legislation and further reduction of market exit barriers for business.

The EU underlines that Turkey will need to further adapt its SME definition. It recalls that this definition must be fully in line with the acquis by the date of accession.

The EU takes note of the information provided by Turkey which indicates that the institutional framework and human resources needed to implement the enterprise and industrial policy acquis are already in place. The EU encourages Turkey to fully establish administrative capacity to support foreign direct investment and to further strengthen its administrative capacity in relevant bodies as appropriate.

The EU invites Turkey to keep it regularly informed of the developments and steps undertaken as regards the enterprise and industrial policy principles including on the revision of the SME action plan and the Industrial Strategy.

Enterprise and industrial policy instruments

The EU takes note of the information provided by Turkey which indicates Turkey's intention to take part in the Competitiveness and Innovation programme once an agreement is achieved on the modalities. The EU encourages Turkey to ensure that all participants in the Competitiveness and

Innovation programme have the necessary capacity to effectively implement the programme.

The EU welcomes Turkey's current status of alignment with Directive 2000/35/EC i on combating late payment in commercial transactions, and it encourages Turkey to complete full alignment in good time before accession in order to allow the Turkish authorities to strengthen the administrative capacity of relevant bodies and ensure efficient implementation and enforcement by the date of accession. The EU invites Turkey to provide regular information to the European Commission on its implementation measures with regard to the above Directive in the form of tables of concordance.

The EU invites Turkey to keep it regularly informed of the developments and steps undertaken as regards the enterprise and industrial policy instruments.

Sectoral policies

The EU welcomes Turkey's intention to further privatize state-owned enterprises as appropriate.

The EU encourages Turkey to continue its efforts for establishing and implementing a national restructuring programme for the steel sector. In respect of both privatisation and restructuring, the

EU invites Turkey to keep it regularly informed of the developments and steps undertaken.

The EU invites also Turkey to keep it regularly informed on the development or review of sector specific policy strategies.

* * *

In view of the present state of preparations, and in line with the Council conclusions on 11

December 2006, the EU notes that, on the understanding that Turkey has to continue to make progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis covered by the chapter Enterprise and industrial policy, this chapter may only be provisionally closed once it is agreed by the EU that the following benchmarks are met:

• Turkey has fulfilled its obligation of full non-discriminatory implementation of the Additional

Protocol to the Association Agreement.

• Turkey provides the Commission with a revised comprehensive industrial policy strategy

aiming at strengthening Turkey's industrial competitiveness. This strategy will address in some detail all key sectors of industry, including all those referred to in the 2003 Industrial Strategy, inter alia shipbuilding, railway- and food industry. It will be built on a thorough evaluation of past policy performance and a solid analysis of the competitiveness of industries concerned. It should enable an improved policy coordination and coherence and lead to better policy ownership and improved policy implementation. The strategy should also take account of the two sectoral strategy documents already under preparation (for the steel and the automotive supply industry) as well as of any future strategic sectoral documents. It should also take into account results of Turkey's sector technical committees including on sectors such as motor vehicles and textiles.

Monitoring of progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis will continue throughout the negotiations. The EU underlines that it will devote particular attention to monitoring all specific issues mentioned above with a view to ensuring Turkey's administrative capacity to implement an effective enterprise and industrial policy. The EU underlines the importance of a functioning market economy as an essential element under this chapter. It also underlines the contribution of an effective enterprise and industrial policy to enhancing Turkey’s capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Particular consideration needs to be given to the links between the present chapter and other negotiation chapters.

A final assessment of the conformity of Turkey's legislation with the acquis and of its implementation capacity can only be made at a later stage of the negotiations. In addition to all the information the EU may require for the negotiations in this chapter and which is to be provided to the Conference, the EU invites Turkey to provide regularly detailed written information to the

Association Council on progress in the implementation of the acquis.

In view of all the above considerations, the Conference will have to return to this chapter at an appropriate moment.

Furthermore, the EU recalls that there may be new acquis between 1 July 2006 and the conclusion of the negotiations.

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