The Council stressed at the Competitiveness meeting celebrated in Brussels the importance of supporting actions leading towards Europe 2020 goals by an effective industrial policy that facilitates access to knowledge and enhances resource efficiency. Member States also stated their support to the European SME Envoy network to promote the implementation of the SBA.

One of the main conclusions of the Competitiveness Council meeting has been the agreement on the importance of re-establishing confidence of entrepreneurs and consumers, as well as of further strengthening the internal market in order to restore the growth path of the EU economy. The Council therefore encourages the Member States to respond to the Commission’s invitation to develop or update their plans or lists of priority actions in support of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

In addition, Member States representatives also agreed on the need of a fully implementation and enforcing the Single Market, in particular the Services Directive and proposals aimed at promoting and facilitating the Digital Single Market. They added that promoting competition among service providers that use the telecommunications, especially broadband, as well as energy and transport infrastructures, and providing efficient and high-quality public services, including unified service centres, shared networks, data centres and one-stop-shops, are also a matter of importance.

On the other hand, the Council invited the Commission to pursue its efforts to better promote the distribution of information for SMEs from all Member States with respect to information about European services in third country markets, e.g. by encouraging cooperation and exchange of experience between SMEs in the EU that are 'export veterans' and 'newcomers', as well as by developing a database of success stories.