XXVIth report on competition policy 1996 : published in conjunction with the "General Report on the Activities of the European Union - 1996"

The Report on Competition Policy is published annually by the European Commission in response to the request of the European Parliament made by a Resolution of 7 June 1971. This Report, which is published in conjunction with the General Report on the Activities of the European Union, is designed to give a general view of the competition policy followed during the past year. In 1996, as a result of the globalization of trade and the internationalization of economic phenomena, there continued to be a considerable need for adjustment of the structures of the European economy. In a rapidly changing world environment characterized by four main factors - the speeding-up of technical and scientific progress; population growth in the developing countries; the increase in the production of goods and services; and the intensification of trade in goods and of capital movements - the policy of the European Union, and more particularly Community competition policy, seeks to promote the indispensable adaptation of the Community economy to this new situation. Globalization is in many respects an opportunity to be seized by those economies which have the means to do so. The liberalization of trade, both worldwide and within the single market, is a mainspring of growth that will benefit the European economy, European businesses and European consumers. For all that, globalization is also sometimes seen as a threat by European citizens faced with a society which they perceive as being more complex the more global it becomes, less safe the more prosperous it grows, and more fragile the more open it is. These concerns are understandable. They are legitimate. They must be accommodated by government policies and especially by Community policy. They reflect the mounting uncertainties for both structures and individuals that stem from the need to adapt to a rapidly changing world.