Speech to the Eureka Ministerial Conference

May I first welcome you all to London, for this, the third Ministerial Conference of EUREKA.

And may I also welcome you to what is the first official Conference to be held in this new Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, opened by Her Majesty The Queen only a few days ago.

You will recall that when Archimedes made his most [end p1] famous discovery he ran through the streets of Syracuse shouting

“Eureka, Eureka: I have found it, I have found it” .

Perhaps you felt rather the same way this morning as you and your drivers searched for this new building. [end p2]

Introduction

EUREKA has moved ahead rapidly.

At the first Conference in Paris a little less than a year ago we agreed on the aim:

to encourage collaboration between our companies in advanced technology.

Four months later, the second Ministerial Conference [end p3] in Hanover agreed on the principles and objectives of EUREKA.

And announced that ten collaborative projects were already under way.

This Conference should be able to record further important steps forward—To the benefit of our governments, our high technology companies, and ultimately our people. [end p4]

Why EUREKA?

The need for Europe to be able to compete in advanced technologies with the other major industrialised countries has long been recognised.

But in this, as in many other areas, we in Europe have been slow to act. [end p5]

The result is that markets for new technologies have grown; but Europe's share of them has fallen.

The problem is not lack of brilliant and inventive ideas.

We have never suffered a shortage of Nobel prize winners in Europe.

Our research laboratories burst with [end p6] talent and imagination.

We have all heard of an Oedipus complex.

I would say that Europe has suffered from what I would call an Archimedes complex.

Archimedes himself disparaged many of the mechanical contrivances which made him famous.

He regarded them as below the dignity of [end p7] pure science.

We have too often made the same mistake.

Of course, you must have excellence in pure science, that is vital.

But ideas on their own don't win markets.

The key is to turn ideas into products. Well designed products, which people actually want to buy, both in Europe and [end p8] world-wide.

That is where our competitors have consistently out-performed us.

There are two essential requirements if we are going to reverse that trend.

The first is to secure the resources needed to develop new products. [end p9]

Modern technologies are so complex, so expensive to develop, that individual firms in Europe cannot on their own put together the necessary capital. That is why we must have more collaboration between them.

Secondly, if firms are to get a worthwhile return on their investment, one which encourages them to go on investing in ever more [end p10] modern technology, then they must have access to the largest possible market. Markets which are not just national but Europe-wide and indeed world-wide.

It no longer makes sense for each European country exclusively to support its own high technology manufacturer, as a sort of national champion, in isolation from the rest of Europe. [end p11]

That way each country may retain a major slice of its own market.

But it will not be able to obtain a substantial share of the world market.

EUREKA offers a way of tackling this problem and of keeping Europe at the leading edge of new technology.

A way to encourage European firms to work together to tackle the problems of [end p12] research and develop more effectively. A way to convince governments that the barriers to selling the products of this collaboration throughout Europe must come down.

A way to enable Europe to compete in this vital area. [end p13]

EUREKA can do it

If we are to succeed in these tasks, EUREKA must observe some golden rules.

First, we must leave the basic responsibility where it rightly belongs with industry itself. Collaboration in new technology must be led by industry on projects and with partners of their choice. [end p14]

Second, EUREKA is not a source of funds.

As a rule we must look to industry to back its own judgement.

Beyond that it is for each Eureka country to decide whether Government support for a particular project is appropriate.

Thirdly, EUREKA must not become a new bureaucracy. If I may return once again to Archimedes, [end p15] you will recall that he said: “Give me a place to stand on and I shall move the earth” .

In other words a very great weight can be moved by a very small force.

That should be our aim with EUREKA.

To achieve the greatest possible result with the smallest possible bureaucracy.

Fourth, governments must reduce the barriers to [end p16] trade so that Europe can enjoy the same economies of scale as our main competitors.

The United States has a home market of 240 million people: Japan, a home market of 120 million.

That plays a very important part in their industrial success.

The market covered by the EUREKA countries [end p17] is in numbers nearly as large as the American and Japanese markets combined. But as a “home” market for European firms, we all know that it is an aspiration rather than a reality though strangely American and Japanese companies often find it easier to exploit than we do ourselves.

Our firms still have to cope with different [end p18] industrial standards.

They still have to find their way through a maze of different national purchasing policies.

They still have to sort through a welter of confusing and incompatible rules and regulations.

Through EUREKA, European firms can help us to identify the steps to open markets which [end p19] will most help them.

And we, the governments, must ensure that their proposals are followed up and acted upon.

If we fail, we face the stark prospect that the United States and Japan will monopolise world markets in high technology goods. And we in Europe will not succeed in creating the new manufacturing jobs we [end p20] need in order to reduce unemployment.

What we want to see from this Conference.

I should therefore like to see this Conference address three clear messages to European business.

First a message of progress. [end p21]

It should show that EUREKA is moving forward rapidly.

I understand that a total of around sixty new projects, over and above the ten announced at the last Conference, are likely to be announced today.

That is a major step forward.

They cover a wide range of technologies.

From ceramic materials to lasers, [end p22] robotics and image-synthesis.

Their applications extend from improving medical care and road safety to advanced manufacturing techniques and high definition television. They vary widely in scale and cost.

From only 1 or 2 million ECU for the small specialist processes.

To around 300 million ECU for a number of major projects involving information [end p23] technology and telecommunications.

And the names of the projects run from the Biblical to the Classical to the Improbable: Moses, Prometheus, Pan, Diane, Europolis and Transpolis.

But the most important feature of them is that virtually all the projects now coming forward will lead to industrial prototypes [end p24] or products, to processes and services aimed at identifiable markets.

Second, a message of efficiency and effectiveness. The Conference must reach the decisions which are still needed in order to make EUREKA an effective organisation.

That means a small, streamlined EUREKA Secretariat: and straightforward, agreed procedures for notifying and discussing [end p25] projects in the EUREKA machinery.

European business is looking to you for decisions on both matters today.

Third, a message of commitment to open-markets. Those of us who are members of the European Community have recently urged, at the European Council, that fresh momentum be given to creating a genuine, single open market with the EEC. [end p26]

That process needs to be extended more widely and barriers reduced throughout the countries which make up EUREKA'S membership.

Conclusion

This Conference concludes the United Kingdom's term in the EUREKA Chair. [end p27]

We have been privileged to have held that Chair in succession to France and Germany—the two countries which have done so much to launch EUREKA and set it on the right course.

We wish our successors well, as we in turn take on the Presidency of the European Community.

Our experience has strengthened our conviction that [end p28] EUREKA is a key element in Europe's industrial strategy.

This Conference has the opportunity today to signal to the world our determination to make a success of that strategy, to pit the best of Europe's brains, ingenuity and enterprise against our competitors. Success in the new technologies is vital to Europe's industrial future and [end p29] therefore to Europe's long-term standing in the world.

I know that you will contribute to it by your work.

I wish you well.