Ekstraordinært Det Europæiske Råd den 1.-2. oktober 2020 - Bilag 6: Konklusioner fra det ekstraordinære møde i Det Europæiske Råd den 1.-2. oktober 2020

Europaudvalget 2019-20
Ekstraordinært Det Europæiske Råd 1-2/10-20 Bilag 6
Offentligt

European Council

Brussels, 2 October 2020

(OR. en)

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CO EUR 10

CONCL 6

NOTE

From:

To:

Subject:

General Secretariat of the Council

Delegations

Special meeting of the European Council (1 and 2 October 2020)

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Conclusions

Delegations will find attached the conclusions adopted by the European Council at the above

meeting.

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Conclusions

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1 and 2 October 2020

COVID-19

The European Council held an in-depth discussion on the handling of the COVID-19

pandemic. It is determined to stand together in this difficult situation, and calls on the

Council, together with the Commission, to further step up the overall coordination effort and

the work on the development and distribution of a vaccine at the EU level. The European

Council will regularly come back to this issue.

II.

SINGLE MARKET, INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND DIGITAL

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on the European and the global

economy. It has highlighted both Europe s assets and its dependencies. A strong economic

base is now more essential than ever for inclusive and sustainable growth, competitiveness,

jobs, prosperity, and for Europe s role on the global stage.

In July, the European Council agreed an unprecedented recovery package to counter the

effects of COVID-19 on our economies and societies, and to promote Europe s strong

recovery and the transformation and reform of our economies. The two mutually reinforcing

pillars of such a recovery, the green transition and the digital transformation, together with a

strong and deep Single Market, will foster new forms of growth, promote cohesion and

convergence, and strengthen the EU s resilience. Achieving strategic autonomy while

preserving an open economy is a key objective of the Union.

Single Market and industrial policy

The European Council underlines the need to return to the normal functioning of the Single

Market as soon as possible. But this is not enough: we will draw the lessons from the

COVID-19 crisis, address remaining fragmentation, barriers and weaknesses, and increase our

ambition. The European Council endorses the Council conclusions of 21 September 2020 on a

deepened Single Market for a strong recovery and a competitive, sustainable Europe and calls

more specifically for:

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

strictly implementing and enforcing the Single Market rules, in line with the

Commission s Single Market Enforcement Action Plan;



removing remaining unjustified barriers, particularly in the area of services, and

refraining from creating new ones;



updating the European competition framework to ensure that it meets the challenges of

the green transition, the digital transformation, and the evolving global context. This

framework must provide clear rules for economic operators and support innovation,

including in the digital sector. The possibility of adopting rules on the systemic role and

responsibilities of online platforms with significant network effects should be explored.

The European Council looks forward to the outcome of the Commission s ongoing

review of competition rules, the first results of which are scheduled for 2021. The

effects of globalisation and the emergence of the digital economy have to be taken into

account in this context;



shaping the new system of global economic governance based on an ambitious and

balanced free trade agenda with the WTO at its core, while protecting ourselves from

unfair and abusive practices and ensuring reciprocity. The Enforcement Regulation

should be upgraded, work on the International Procurement Instrument proposal

accelerated and further instruments to address the distortive effects of foreign subsidies

in the Single Market developed;



investing in education, training and the effective use of skills with a view to increasing

job retention and creation, supporting economic and social prosperity, and

implementing the necessary social protection policies in line with the Treaties.

The EU must pursue an ambitious European industrial policy to make its industry more

sustainable, more green, more competitive globally and more resilient. The European Council

invites the Commission to identify strategic dependencies, particularly in the most sensitive

industrial ecosystems such as for health, and to propose measures to reduce these

dependencies, including by diversifying production and supply chains, ensuring strategic

stockpiling, as well as fostering production and investment in Europe. It calls for:

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

ensuring a level playing field, and a regulatory environment and state aid framework

that are conducive to innovation and facilitate the full involvement of SMEs;



developing new industrial alliances, including on raw materials, medical equipment,

microprocessors, secure telecommunication networks, low-carbon industries, and

Industrial Clouds and Platforms;



stepping up the assistance to the existing Important Projects of Common European

Interest on Batteries and micro-electronics, and to those being developed by Member

States and industry in the context of various alliances (such as on the Internet of Things,

Clean Hydrogen), so as to overcome market failures and enable breakthrough

innovation. The European Council invites the Commission to help the Member States

develop new Important Projects of Common European Interest. Furthermore, it calls for

further strengthening synergies between the use of EU and national funds as regards key

technological projects, while ensuring transparency and open participation of SMEs;



developing EU autonomy in the space sector and a more integrated defence industrial

base.

Digital

The COVID-19 pandemic has further underlined the need to accelerate the digital transition in

Europe. Seizing the opportunities of this transition is crucial to strengthening our economic

base, ensuring our technological sovereignty, reinforcing our global competitiveness,

facilitating the green transition, creating jobs and improving the lives of citizens. Building a

truly digital Single Market will provide a home-based framework allowing European

companies to grow and scale up.

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The European Council looks forward to the Commission s proposal for a Digital Services Act

by the end of this year and invites the Commission to present, by March 2021, a

comprehensive Digital Compass which sets out the EU s concrete digital ambitions for 2030.

Such a Compass should establish a monitoring system for European strategic digital

capacities and capabilities, and outline the means and key milestones to achieve our

ambitions.

To be digitally sovereign, the EU must build a truly digital single market, reinforce its ability

to define its own rules, to make autonomous technological choices, and to develop and deploy

strategic digital capacities and infrastructure. At the international level, the EU will leverage

its tools and regulatory powers to help shape global rules and standards. The EU will remain

open to all companies complying with European rules and standards. Digital development

must safeguard our values, fundamental rights and security, and be socially balanced. Such a

human-centred approach will increase the attractiveness of the European model.

At least 20% of the funds under the Recovery and Resilience Facility will be made available

for the digital transition, including for SMEs. Together with the amounts under the MFF,

these funds should help advance objectives such as:



fostering the European development of the next generation of digital technologies,

including supercomputers and quantum computing, blockchain, and human-centred

Artificial Intelligence;



developing capacities in strategic digital value chains, especially microprocessors;

accelerating the deployment of very high capacity and secure network infrastructures

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including fibre and 5G

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all over the European Union;



enhancing the EU s ability to protect itself against cyber threats, to provide for a secure

communication environment, especially through quantum encryption, and to ensure

access to data for judicial and law enforcement purposes;

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unleashing the full potential of digital technologies to reach the ambitious

environmental and climate action objectives included in the July package;



upgrading digital capacities in education systems.

The European Council welcomes the European strategy for data, which supports the EU s

global digital ambitions to build a true European competitive data economy, while ensuring

European values and a high level of data security, data protection, and privacy. It stresses the

need to make high-quality data more readily available and to promote and enable better

sharing and pooling of data, as well as interoperability. The European Council welcomes the

creation of common European data spaces in strategic sectors, and in particular invites the

Commission to give priority to the health data space, which should be set up by the end of

2021.

10.

The European Council underlines the need to establish trusted, safe and secure European

cloud services in order to ensure that European data can be stored and processed in Europe, in

compliance with European rules and standards. It therefore welcomes the concept of an EU

federated cloud infrastructure and invites the Commission to take this work forward swiftly.

Greater European cloud capacity, together with an empowering interoperability framework,

should also enable the deployment of safe and secure cloud-based public and private digital

solutions, including ensuring faster and more efficient, convenient and transparent access to

e-government services.

11.

The European Council endorses the Council conclusions of 9 June 2020

on shaping Europe’s

digital future. It calls on the EU and the Member States to make full use of the 5G

cybersecurity toolbox adopted on 29 January 2020, and in particular to apply the relevant

restrictions on high-risk suppliers for key assets defined as critical and sensitive in the EU

coordinated risk assessments. The European Council underlines that potential 5G suppliers

need to be assessed on the basis of common objective criteria.

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12.

To ensure the rapid deployment of 5G across the EU, the European Council also urges all

Member States to submit their national plans on the roll-out of 5G to the Commission by the

end of this year, as set out in the 5G Action Plan.

13.

The EU needs to be a global leader in the development of secure, trustworthy and ethical

Artificial Intelligence. The European Council invites the Commission to:



propose ways to increase European and national public and private investments in

Artificial Intelligence research, innovation and deployment;



ensure better coordination, and more networks and synergies between European

research centres based on excellence;



14.

provide a clear, objective definition of high-risk Artificial Intelligence systems.

The European Council calls for the development of an EU-wide framework for secure public

electronic identification (e-ID), including interoperable digital signatures, to provide people

with control over their online identity and data as well as to enable access to public, private

and cross-border digital services. It invites the Commission to come forward with a proposal

for a European Digital Identification initiative by mid-2021.

Next steps

15.

The European Council will return to the topics of the Single Market, industrial policy and

digital at its meeting in March 2021. In this context it will also assess the situation regarding

the work on the important issue of digital taxation.

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III. EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Eastern Mediterranean

16.

The EU has a strategic interest in a stable and secure environment in the Eastern

Mediterranean and in the development of a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship

with Turkey. Pursuing dialogue in good faith and abstaining from unilateral actions which run

counter to the EU interests and violate international law and the sovereign rights of EU

Member States is an absolute requirement in this regard. All differences must be resolved

through peaceful dialogue and in accordance with international law. In this context, the

European Council reiterates its full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus, whose sovereignty and

sovereign rights must be respected.

17.

The EU welcomes the recent confidence building steps by Greece and Turkey, as well as the

announcement that they will resume their direct exploratory talks aiming at the delimitation of

the Continental Shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone of the two countries. These efforts need

to be sustained and broadened.

18.

At the same time, the European Council strongly condemns violations of the sovereign rights

of the Republic of Cyprus which must stop. The European Council calls on Turkey to abstain

from similar actions in the future, in breach of international law. The European Council

underlines that delimitation of the Continental Shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone should be

addressed through dialogue and negotiation in good faith, in full respect of international law,

and calls on Turkey to accept the invitation by Cyprus to engage in dialogue with the

objective of settling all maritime-related disputes between Turkey and Cyprus.

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19.

The European Council supports the speedy resumption of negotiations, under the auspices of

the UN, and remains fully committed to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem

within the UN framework and in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions, including

UNSC resolutions 550 and 789, and in line with the principles on which the EU is founded.

It expects the same of Turkey. The EU stands ready to play an active role in supporting the

negotiations, including by appointing, upon resumption, a representative to the UN Good

Offices Mission.

20.

Provided constructive efforts to stop illegal activities vis-à-vis Greece and Cyprus are

sustained, the European Council has agreed to launch a positive political EU-Turkey agenda

with a specific emphasis on the modernisation of the Customs Union and trade facilitation,

people to people contacts, High level dialogues, continued cooperation on migration issues, in

line with the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement. The European Council invites its President, in

cooperation with the President of the Commission and with the support of the

High Representative, to develop a proposal for re-energising the EU-Turkey agenda to this

effect.

21.

Recalling and reaffirming i.a. its previous conclusions on Turkey of October 2019, in case of

renewed unilateral actions or provocations in breach of international law, the EU will use all

the instruments and the options at its disposal, including in accordance with Article 29 TEU

and Article 215 TFEU, in order to defend its interests and those of its Member States.

The European Council will continue to closely monitor developments and will revert

accordingly and take decisions as appropriate at the latest at its December meeting.

22.

Finally, the European Council calls for a Multilateral Conference on the Eastern

Mediterranean and invites the High Representative to engage in talks about its organisation.

Modalities such as participation, scope and timeline will need to be agreed with all involved

parties. The Conference could address issues on which multilateral solutions are needed,

including maritime delimitation, security, energy, migration and economic cooperation.

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China

23.

The European Council welcomes the oral report on the EU Leaders’

meeting with

President Xi Jinping on 14 September as well as the signing of the agreement on

Geographical Indications. It stresses the need to rebalance the economic relationship and

achieve reciprocity. It recalls the goal of finalising, by the end of this year, negotiations for an

ambitious EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI) that addresses the current

asymmetries in market access, contributes to a level playing field, and establishes meaningful

commitments on sustainable development. It also calls on China to deliver on previous

commitments to address market access barriers, to make progress on overcapacity and engage

in negotiations on industrial subsidies at the World Trade Organization.

24.

The European Council encourages China to assume greater responsibility in dealing with

global challenges. This includes, in particular, taking more ambitious action on climate in line

with the goals of the Paris Agreement and on biodiversity, and supporting multilateral

responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, notably as regards treatments and vaccines, the

independent review of the international health response, and debt relief as a necessary

condition for recovery from the pandemic, particularly in Africa. The European Council

welcomes, as an important step in the right direction, the statement of President Xi Jinping,

following the Leaders video conference, that China will aim to achieve carbon neutrality

before 2060.

25.

The European Council underlines its serious concerns about the human rights situation in

China, including developments in Hong Kong and the treatment of people belonging to

minorities, as expressed at the EU-China

summit in June and the Leaders’ meeting held on

14 September.

26.

The European Council reaffirms the policy approach towards EU-China relations as set out in

the Joint Communication of the Commission and the High Representative EU-China:

A Strategic Outlook of March 2019 and calls for further coherent efforts to implement it.

It invites the Commission and the High Representative to present a progress report by March

2021. It looks forward to a meeting of all its members with President Xi Jinping in 2021.

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Belarus

27.

The European Council condemns the unacceptable violence by Belarusian authorities against

peaceful protesters, as well as intimidation, arbitrary arrests and detentions following the

presidential elections, the results of which it does not recognise. The European Council fully

supports the democratic right of the Belarusian people to elect their President through new

free and fair elections, without external interference. The European Council calls on the

Belarusian authorities to end violence and repression, release all detainees and political

prisoners, respect media freedom and civil society, and start an inclusive national dialogue.

It agrees that restrictive measures should be imposed and calls on the Council to adopt the

decision without delay. The European Council also encourages the European Commission to

prepare a comprehensive plan of economic support for democratic Belarus.

28.

With regard to the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant Ostrovets, the European Council reiterates

the importance of ensuring nuclear and environmental safety.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

29.

The European Council calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urges parties to

recommit to a lasting ceasefire and the peaceful settlement of the conflict. The loss of life and

the toll on the civilian population are unacceptable. There can be no military solution to the

conflict, nor any external interference. Azerbaijan and Armenia should engage in substantive

negotiations without preconditions. The European Council expresses its support for the OSCE

Minsk Group Co-Chairs and asks the High Representative to examine further EU support for

the settlement process.

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Alexei Navalny

30.

The European Council condemns the assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny with a military

chemical nerve agent from the Novichok group. The use of chemical weapons constitutes a

serious breach of international law. The European Council calls upon the Russian

Federation’s authorities to fully cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to ensure an impartial international investigation and to bring

those responsible to justice. The European Council will return to the matter on 15-16 October

2020.

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