Brussels, 09/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The future Commission of José Manuel Barroso has to be prepared for direct confrontation with Member States if its necessary for pushing forward economic reforms in the European Union, according to the Commissioner-designate for trade, Peter Mandelson from the United Kingdom. On Monday in Birmingham, where he was addressing the British employers' association (CBI), he stated that, "We need a tough, strong, independent-minded, well-led, efficient Commission that is prepared to stand up to Member States". To impose its authority, the future Commission "needs to pick some early fights" with Member States that continue to protect or subsidise certain enterprises or nation industrial sectors, "and it needs to win them", asserted Mandelson. The Commissioner-designate affirmed that Member States had to make the Lisbon Process an integral part of the EU's domestic reforms and that the EU had to pursue "determined economic reform" if it was not to lose its status as "a global economic leader". The next Commission had to be "strong" and introduce reform, insisted Mandelson if it were to achieve this objective. He also said that reform involved "re-dynamising Europe's old economic structures so as to achieve more efficient markets, a faster rate of innovation, higher productivity and growth, and therefore higher levels of employment for Europe's citizens". The Commissioner also called on his British compatriots to not distance themselves from the EU, "Britain shouldn't aim to diverge from Europe. What we need is a new European convergence British style economic openness and market flexibility with continental-style investment in social and economic infrastructure, research and public services".