Brussels, 07/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - As we reported on 12 March, the group of personalities put together by Commissioners Byrne and Liikanen to examine ways of making the European pharmaceutical industry more competitive while ensuring high levels of health protection submitted its report on Tuesday to the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. The members of the group, called G10, also took part in a debate and a press conference. Commissioner David Byrne took advantage of the press conference to stress the importance of G10's work since it had led to an open dialogue between all healthcare stakeholders, particularly the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare systems and patients. The German health minister Ulla Schmidt called for Member States to apply a common strategy in the interest of citizens, starting with the sharing of information and experience. The President of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA) Jean-François Dehecq regretted that the real problems facing the industry had not been touched upon, such as the segmentation of the European market, national price fixing mechanisms and parallel imports.