It is an agenda to focus the mind on a limited number of key priorities for reform for the coming years. These priority reforms should be delivered within a relatively short and precise timeframe. Otherwise they will not deliver that quantum leap in productivity that is required to make Europe a world leader in the new economy. I would like to highlight a few of the reform issues that are particularly urgent for me as European Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market. Take the case of public procurement.
Public procurement is a major part of the European economy.
In other words, public procurement markets have largely stayed national when European trade turned international. The result of this is that the European taxpayer pays too high a price for public purchases. We have to break down the old fashioned and protective barriers around public procurement. I will present before Summer a package of new measures to simplify, modernise and improve the functioning of public procurement markets. It is our ambition to have this package adopted by the European institutions by 2002 and implemented as soon as possible thereafter.