ARCHIVES HISTORIQUES
DELACOMMISSION
COLLECTION RELIEE DES
DOCUMENTS "COM"
COM (78)328
Vol.1978/0125

Disclaimer
Conformément aurèglement (CEE, Euratom) n°354/83 duConseil du1erfévrier 1983
concernant l'ouverture aupublic desarchives historiques delaCommunauté économique
européenne etdelaCommunauté européenne del'énergie atomique (JOL43du15.2.1983,
p.1),telquemodifié par lerèglement (CE, Euratom) n°1700/2003 du22septembre 2003
(JOL243du27.9.2003, p.1),cedossier estouvert aupublic. Lecaséchéant, lesdocuments
classifiés présents dans cedossier ontétédéclassifiés conformément àl'article 5dudit
règlement.
Inaccordance with Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No354/83 of1February 1983
concerning theopening tothepublic ofthehistorical archives oftheEuropean Economic
Community andtheEuropean Atomic Energy Community (OJL43,15.2.1983, p.1),as
amended byRegulation (EC, Euratom) No1700/2003 of22September 2003 (OJL243,
27.9.2003, p.1),this fileisopen tothepublic. Where necessary, classified documents inthis
filehave been declassified inconformity with Article 5oftheaforementioned regulation.
InÜbereinstimmung mitderVerordnung (EWG, Euratom) Nr.354/83 desRates vom 1.
Februar 1983 über die Freigabe der historischen Archive der Europäischen
Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft undderEuropäischen Atomgemeinschaft (ABI. L43vom 15.2.1983,
S.1),geändert durch dieVerordnung (EG, Euratom) Nr.1700/2003 vom 22.September 2003
(ABI. L243vom 27.9.2003, S.1),istdiese Datei derÖffentlichkeit zugänglich. Soweit
erforderlich, wurden dieVerschlusssachen indieser Datei inÜbereinstimmung mitArtikel 5
dergenannten Verordnung freigegeben.

COMMISSION OFTHEEUROPEAN COMMUNITIE
COM(78)328 final
Brussels,19July1978
FifthAnnualReportofthe
BusinessCooperation Centre(1977)
C0MC78)328final

Fifth Annual Report ofthe
Business Coooeration Centre (1977 )
Function ofthe Business Cooperation Centre
InJulv 1977 the Commission decided tomake anunber of
changes tothedirectives ithadgiven theBusiness Cooperation
Centre when itwas established in1973 .
1 Although the Centre istocontinue tooperate inall sec­
tors ,the Commission instructed ittoconcentrate oncertain
ones inorder toincrease the effectiveness and impact ofits
ooerations .
Thepriority sectors will beidentified bythe following
characteristics :
-areasonable development rate ;
-theneed toimprove thecompetitive structure ,notably by
means ofcooperation between indaoendent small businesses ,
possibly tocontend with competition from non-member couhtrie
-fast growing technology orrapidly expanding market .
Thefollowing initial list ofsectors ,which isintended
only asaguide andissubject toamendment ,hasbeen drawn uo
bytheBusiness Cooperation centre andother departments ofthe
Commissions v
-plastics processing
-furniture
-book publishing andgraphics x
-road transport
Thetrade associations inthese sectors will also becon­
sulted about this choice .

-2
1.2 Atthe sane time theCommission authorized theCentre
toextend itshitherto entirely passive role .Incertain cir­
cumstances ,itmaymake thefirst move byitself aoproacaing
firms when ithas identified aneed and apotential for trans­
national cooperation .
Theaction begun in1977 will bedeveloped further in
1973 intwo sectors : '
-raeditm-sized deposit brinks ?
-small andmedium-sized manufacturers ofmedical and hospital
equioment .
1.3 Following requests from anumber ofnbn-mem'ier countries
tobeincluded inthe Centre *sactivities and inview ofthe
•fact that certain link-ups sought bvCommunity firms can be
found outride theCommunitv ,theCommission decided that the
Centre mav henceforth establish cooperation between Community
firms end firms from non-nember countries .
The countries concerned are those having structured
links with theCommunity (cooperation aqreensnt ,free trade
agreement ,etc.).The Community and the non-member countries
interested will together decide what form any industrial co­
operation will take .
Todate Austria ,Canada ,Israel and the five ASTLArt
countries have officiallv asked tooarticipate intheCentre 's
operations andthepractical details arenowbeing considered .
Anumber ofother countries have made preliminarv enquiries .
/.

The Centre 'sresources
TheCentre 'spresent staff consists offour category A,
twocategprv Band four category Cofficials .There isanitem
inthe Commission 'sbudget tocover its operating costs (rent ,
office equipment ,missions ,etc.).The 1977 apnronriation was
Bfrs 3300 000 .
:' -ν
The Centre was set upin1D73 ,and asitwas then little
more than anexperiment ,itwas quite natural todevote only
very limited resources toit.In1976 ,after the experiment had
been running for three years ,both theCommission and the Council
concluded that ithadbeen asuccess and expressed satisfaction
atthe results obtained .
Tosucceed inits' role asago-between for small and
m^dium-si^ed firms ofdifferent nationalities ,itmust take a
detailed and thorough examination o*each case .There isthere­
fore adirect correlation ,which cannot bereduced ,between the
means employed and the results obtained .
rtoreover ,the Centre must have afdditional resources if
iti3tocope with thenewtasks which have just been entrusted
toitandthose which were assigned toitin1976 (coordination
inrespect ofsub–contracting )andalso toprovide asgood a
3orvice aninthepast .
TheCentre accordinly feels that itspermanent staff
should beincreased andthat itsadministrates budget should
beincreased toenable ittohire experts forhighly specia­
lized work . .

Operations
TheBusiness Cooperation Centre 'sactivities
in1D77 were asfollows :
Informations nunber ofrequests
Se^rch for partners
-number ofrecxuests
-nu'nher ofreplies
-contacts made515
84
894
75
\saresult ofthese contacts ,the following
agreements were confirmed bythe Centre :

Sector Typ*2ofcooperation Nationality
offirm
Mechanicalencrineering
Specialized road
transport
Industrial brushes
t,Tin^s
Banking
Plasticsprocessing
Roadtransport
Transportintermediaries
Banking
Furniture
P.ubberprocessing
Paoer .
Projectstudyand
development
Plastics
Software
Chemicalcleaningproductsexchanaeoflicencesand D-I
kncniow
exchangeofknowhowand D-GB
reciprocalhelp
jointmanufacturing sub-GB-F
sidiarv
reciprocaldistribution D
reciprocalhelpin D
operations abroad
jointsalessubsidiary D
reciprocalhelpin GB
international transport
iointventure GB
reciprocalhelpin B-
operations abroadGB
DK
I
NL
NI»
DK
J'ilkproducts
structuralsteelworkreciprocal distribution D-P
ofcertainproducts
reciprocaldistribution sD-Iofcertainproducts
.exchange ,of.-market' D-F
information ?reciprocal
supplier
jointhandlingofprojects DK-F
investment G3-F
exchangeofprogrammes B-I
reciprocalshareholding B-F
andexchangeofproducts
nointmanufàcturing D-XRLsubsidiary
jointmanufactur d-F

2 Infour vears theCentre hasbeen responsible for
cooperation agreements involving 32German firms ,30British
firms ,30wrench firms ,1.5Belgian firms ,12Italian firms ,
11Dutch firms ,5Danish .firms ,4Irish firms and 1Luxembourg
firm .
These figures areafair reflection ofeach country 's
Dosition intheCommunity economy .Belgium istheexception ,
itshi^h ranking being duetotheCentre 'slocation inBrussels ,
which inevitable'' makes contact with Belgian firms easier and
more frequent than vrith other countries .Italy andtoalesser
extent Denmark areunder-represented ,having made fever requests
and been less sought-after .
Britain still produces most requests ,British firms
Joeing constantly insearch ofafoothold onthecontinental
market .Since small businesses inBritain asarule have little
experience ofthecontinental market ,they seek the supoort of
acontinental partner .Host British firms seek asmaller part­
nerand trvtostrengthen cooperation byacquiring a-holding .
The interest ofFrench firms intransnational coopera­
tion has increased noticeably inrecent years instep with the
export drive ledbyFrench industry and snail businesses in
particular .Onthe other hand ,the interest ofGerman firms
seems tohave declined slightly ,and they appear tobeconcen­
trating onnon-member countries *markets rather than strengthen­
ing their presence inthe other Community countries .
Germany ,France and the Benelux aremuch mora sought -
after than the four "outlying "countries of ,theCommunltv ,al­
though the reasons arenot necessarily the same ineach case .

-7-
Since affinities diminish with distance ,itisnot
allthat surprising that theCentre hasvettoproduce an
acrreemsnt between aBritish andanXtalian firm .-
Therecent oilcrisis hasresulted inashifting of
ourchasincr oower from Europe toother parts oftheworld .
•••«■' .*
Theabsomtion capacity o^thenational markets has
consec*uentlv been reduced and firms' efforts tooffset this
bycreating outlets inadjacent markets have encountered the
same obstacle .
Theconsequent need tolook further afield forexport
markets poses serious problems ,however ,forsmall businesses .
Since these' new markets have not yet developed comifnr -
cial networks ofthetraditional type ,the exporter must him­
self organize on-tho-soot market research ,and the cost can be
prohibitive formanv small firms .
The sharing ofefforts and co^t3 through cooperation
between exporting small businesses isone answer ,but distrust
orscepticism will often prevail over comnunitv ofinterests
andwill deter firms from making aninvestment which cannot
guaranteeareturn toeach participant .
i
The Centre feels that the authorities ,national or
Community asthe case may be,might increase the chance of
success inthis area ifthey contributed towards the cost of
netting upexport groupings ofsmall businesses bymeeting
some oftheir management andmarket research costs for a
limited period . -

-s-
4•^ub-contracting
4.1 TheCant reha3followed upitscontacts with the
various sub–contracting bodies intheCommunity .
Thework onthenomenclature ofsub-contracting in
themetalworking industry wasconcluded bythegroup ofex­
perts working under theauspices oftheCentre .This working
instrument infour languages (Dutch ,English ,French and
Gorman )will serve asabasis fordrawing upregional registers
ofsub-contracting firms .Itsuseasameans oflisting sub­
contracting firms isplanned inGemany from 1979 ,while in
France theMinistrv ofIndustry hasrecommended that all sub­
contracting bodies adoot itin197^.Itwill begiven its r>ublic
debut in197S attho VAT sub-contractinq fair inUtrecht where
visiting orderers mav ,urging thenomenclature classification and
the language oftheir choice ,question acomputer about the sub­
contracting possibilities ofexhibitors .Belgium andLuxembourg
will each use the nomenclature asabasis for its sub-contractors
index and theOffice Beige pour leCommerce Exterieur will use it
tofeed data onBelgian firms inthe metal industry into acom­
puter .InIsrael ,the Ministry ofIndustry will use the nomen­
clature todraw upsub-contracting registers .
Besides working onterminology the experts group ispre­
paring harmonized index cards ofsub-contracting firms ,anomen­
clature ofsub-contracting products and acommon reference list
oftheexperience required bysub-contracting firms .
This classified information will anable sub-contracting
bodies toproduce their own card indexes andmake itpossible to
publish standardized registers .Itwill thus help toooen upthe
sub-contracting market .

9-
\
TheCentre intends tocontinue this work bygiving
itssupport tothepreparation ofasub-contracting nomen­
clature intheplastics andwood industries and inelectrical
and electronical engineering .
2 Other activities inthe sub-contracting field
Apreliminary exchange ofviews between the Centre
and theorganizers ofvarious sub-contracting fairs has
helped tosort out theproblem ofclashing dates and the in­
crease inthenumber o^such .events inthe European Communitv .
Aioint meeting isplanned inthe second half of137B
inaneffort tobring points ofview into line under aCommu­
nity imprint .