The Community patent should allow for a cheap and simple solution for the whole of the Community. It is our ambition to have this adopted by the governments of Europe already next year in order to start reaping the benefits of the new system within a few years. Take the example of our financial markets. There are huge gains to be had from an integrated capital market complementing the gains from the Euro. We need a deep and liquid European financial market to provide funding for European high technology companies and start-ups.
European markets are too fragmented.
We have not yet created a true internal market for financial services. I hope that before this Summer we will see an agreed list of particularly urgent issues. Let me mention one example where progress is desperately needed. Portfolio restrictions on the investment activities of pension funds. If all Member States had equivalent investments in private pension funds as the Netherlands, an extra five thousand billion Euro could be available in EU capital markets.