Brussels, 06/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - Dirk Hudig, Secretary General for the European employers' confederations (UNICE), pointed out that his organisation very much welcomed the new European Commission proposal to create a Community patent (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). "Adoption of a Community patent is the next logical step towards further completion of the Internal Market in the field of intellectual property. (…) Companies and in particular SMEs need a Community patent that is cheap and rapid to obtain", commented the Secretary General. He went on to add: "UNICE hopes very much that Member States will now transform their declarations into action by supporting this ambitious proposal that could give the EU a system to encourage innovation that can be compared with what exists in Japan or in the USA". UNICE (which will study in detail the content of this proposal and make its own suggestions) calls on the Member States and the European Parliament to support it and to make rapid progress on this issue.