Brussels, 04/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Tilman Lueder, spokesperson for Competition Commissioner Mario Monti, declared on behalf of the European Commission that the EU needed an efficient and co-ordinated industrial policy which was structured around a Community based and "coherent" policy and not through a "a non-co-ordinated national policy". The spokesperson was reacting to a draft memorandum sent by France to its European partners in view of the next European Council on 25-26 March, according to information provided by La Tribune. In this memorandum, France stated that European industrial policy was too "liberal" and called on the Commission for greater flexibility regarding national aid and that for safeguarding and restructuring as "it is important for the Commission to exercise its control by integrating current data on international competition and Europe's industrial needs". The spokesperson believes that the memorandum is not a "new initiative" as it refers to the declarations made by the German minister of the economy, Wolfgang Clement, who, a week earlier, stated in the Handelsblatt that re-nationalisation of regional aid was needed. Lueder pointed out that it would be extremely "harmful" for each Member State to apply its own aid policy and support its companies experiencing difficulties, as this behaviours would just shift the problem onto other companies that were not subsidised.