Strasbourg, 27/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - By adopting last Thursday in Strasbourg the report by Belgian Socialist Olga Zrihen, on the Commission communication on industrial policy in the enlarged Europe, the European Parliament is calling on the Commission to set up, by the beginning of 2004, an action plan involving the following measures: 1) harmonisation of national systems of taxation that have a negative impact on the single market; 2) strengthening of administrative simplification; 3) strengthening of the link between research and enterprise; 4) facilitation of access to finance for new companies; 5) integration of social dialogue, education and training in industrial policy.. Ms Zrihen was pleased that "after years of silence we are again finally speaking about European industrial policy". She affirmed that "any research into competitiveness by the compression of continuous costs, wages, notably, or by environmental neglect, is completely illusory".
By adopting the amendment by German Christian Democrat Werner Langen, Parliament is underling that the it is not enough to conserve companies industrial HQs in the EU but that it is also necessary to maintain activities and production centres there by referring in this connection to the four EU legislative projects being prepared: the directive on trading in emission rights; the regulation on a new chemical product policy; directive on transport infrastructure costs; the directive on environmental liability.