Please allow me, though, to pass over the report and make a few brief comments on competition policy in general.

I have one potential confession: If I have to slip away for a couple of minutes during the course of the debate, it will be just to do my democratic duty in another place, where one of the Union's great institutions is meeting and discussing important matters relating to competition policy and other things.

In the event, for a number of reasons, including delays arising from arranging competitions for selection and extensive consultation of local partners, although some programmes arrived on time, many did not.

As regards competition, there has been some progress with the beginning of the enforcement of the State aid rules, but further efforts are needed to strengthen the administrative capacity in this area and to ensure that public undertakings are submitted to competition law in line with the acquis.

We are all aware of the workload of the DG for competition and we understand that we have to do something to reduce it, or drastically increase the resources in Brussels.

(15) Provision should also be made for exemption of an obligation on the licensee not to put the product on the market in the territories of other licensees, the permitted period for such an obligation (this obligation would ban not just active competition but passive competition too) should, however, be limited to a few years from the date on which the licensed product is first put on the market in the Community by a licensee, irrespective of whether the licensed technology comprises know-how, patents or both in the territories concerned.