European Community competition policy 1996.

Abstract

In 1996, as a result of the globalization of trade and the internationalization of economic phe-nomena, 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 partic-ularly Community competition policy, seeks to promote the indispensable adaptation of the Community economy to this new situation. Globalization is in many respects an oppor-tunity 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 busi-nesses and European consumers