I propose to take Questions Nos. 5, 16, 28, 39, 45, 48, 67 and 75 together.
Ireland fully supports the concept that Community industrial policy should promote permanent adaptation to industrial change in an open and competitive market; that this policy be implemented through the creation of a favourable environment for firms' initiative, and that industrial problems at a regional or sectoral level should increasingly be resolved by horizontal measures, for example, internal market, standardisation, competition policy.
We believe that the objective of a Community industrial policy should be to create a favourable economic climate for firms through low inflation, low interest rates and measures to promote economic convergence and cohesion. Open competitive markets should be the aim rather than measures to protect or promote specific industrial sectors.
In relation to State aids, as recommended by the Industrial Policy Review Group, Ireland will continue to actively promote the case for more effective EC restrictions on State aids for industry in the more developed regions with a view to promoting regional cohesion.
Ireland supports the Commission view that structural adjustment mainly involves three stages and that the Community's industrial policy must strike a balance between the three.
The first of these stages is the achievement of the necessary prerequisites for structural adjustment. This involves securing a stable economic environment in order, in particular, to strengthen firms' ability to invest; maintaining a competitive environment by keeping a careful watch on large mergers and acquisitions and controlling State aid rigorously; guaranteeing a high level of educational attainment as the basis for generating and assimilating new technologies and organisational methods; promoting economic and social cohesion between Community regions, with emphasis being placed on the role of the Structural Fund for areas with lagging economies; and achieving a high level of environmental protection in order to safeguard human health and the natural environment and create new markets as a source of competition for "clean" growth.
The Commission has defined the second stage as the pursuit of measures for underpinning structural adjustment, including: completion of the internal market, to be achieved in particular by improving European standards and product quality, liberalising public procurement, abolishing national import quotas and establishing a coherent legal framework and trans-European networks; and an open trade policy as a necessary complement to the opening of the internal market, with strict respect for the internationally agreed rules by all world trade partners; this includes refraining from unfair trading practices and the Community being willing to take effective action to defend itself.
The third stage involves means of speeding up structural adjustment such as: development of firms' technological capabilities by providing more favourable conditions for the planning, development, diffusion and use of advanced technologies; a dynamic policy towards small and medium-sized enterprises, designed to limit red-tape, increase co-operation and improve access to Community and world markets; and better use of human resources and easier introduction of new technologies and working methods as a result of worker training and retraining.
This approach at Community level is consistent with the broader way of dealing with industrial development which we ourselves are now implementing in line with the recommendations of the Culliton report.