Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-18-Speech-2-037"
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"en.20000118.2.2-037"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, competition is exactly what we need. We need competition if there is the least unemployment, for a smooth-running healthcare system, for social justice, for high social standards, and, of course, we also need – these are competition criteria to do with the economy – business management competition so as to achieve highest-quality products, equal market access conditions for all enterprises, and environmentally-friendly products. In other words, we must succeed in linking the competition criteria that are necessary to the economy with those relating to managerial economics. I often have the impression, unlike the country I come from – former East Germany – where economic competitiveness is prized above all else and competitiveness relating to managerial economics is disregarded, that very often the reverse is the case; society thinks almost exclusively in terms of managerial economics. I say that as an entrepreneur who has a vested interest in this. But a system cannot function in this way: it will only work if the two aspects go hand in hand.
I will give you an example: the European Union was right to support the Grönitz steelworks in Brandenburg, although out of 5 000 jobs only 700 remained. But these are competitive jobs, for this steelworks is now the number two tool steel manufacturer in the Federal Republic of Germany. Anyone who would jeopardise production at this steelworks on principle, by demanding the return of the aid that was granted at the time, would not just place the steelworks itself in jeopardy but also one of the region’s employers that small and medium-sized enterprises are, of course, dependent on too. It goes without saying that that is not what the European Union’s competition policy is designed to achieve.
If we want there to be competition then we must establish this link between the requirements of the national economy and the pre-requisites of managerial economics. Indeed that is the only way to build up regional economic circulation in the under-developed regions that will protect people’s social welfare and boost purchasing power. To that end, we must also make it our business to take more account of demand-orientated economic policy as opposed to one focusing heavily on supply."@en1
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