The EU Council for competition, chaired by the Irish Minister for Industry, Mary Harney, met in Brussels last Monday. The ministerial summit approved a plan of work that “identifies the priority areas for reducing trade and industry regulations, with a view to reaching an agreement by the end of 2004”. At the end of the meeting Mary Harney explained that the Council “has asked the European Commission to develop a method to simplify its documents so as to reduce the administrative burden that weighs on businesses”. A report on the progress made will be presented in November. According to Harney, “the main challenge that European competition must tackle does not come from outside the Union, but from its inside. We must reduce the administrative and regulatory burden that weighs on industry, and work to create a truly free market of goods and services”. To the same end again according to the ministerial Council it will be necessary to support private investment in scientific research and the development of “closer links between industry and the universities”. The Council identified in biotechnologies and life sciences the “key technologies for future industrial development”.
