Mr President, once it again it gives me pleasure to congratulate Rolf Linkohr on another outstanding report, and I fully support the Council decision concerning the rules on participation of undertakings, research centres and universities in the specific programmes of research, technological development and demonstration activities of the European Union.

To remain competitive in the business environment, research must be carried out by companies to improve the quality and standards of their products for the marketplace. Japanese companies are known to devote up to 20% of annual turnover to research into the quality and standards of their products.

Research should not be limited to large industrial companies: small and medium-sized enterprises within the industrial sector should be encouraged with the assistance of European Union funds to fundamentally research their products on an on-going basis.

Technology, of course, has become so advanced, particularly with the advent of multi-media, that if quality research is not carried out European small and medium-sized companies could be easily left behind by their Japanese counterparts in the marketplace.

Unemployment is now running at 10.8% in the European Union. We should not jeopardize more jobs by operating at a competitive disadvantage as a result of inadequate research into industry. Moreover, with the successful completion of the Uruguay Round and the GATT negotiations, the liberalization of world trade is now a reality. The European Union can no longer rely on imposing large import duties on products from third countries in an effort to sustain an indigenous industrial base.

In short, research must be an intrinsic and fundamental part of any business and must be encouraged among all small, medium-sized and large companies within the territory of the European Union.