This was outlined very clearly in a report in today's Financial Times on a study by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, which stated clearly that most people involved in banking and financial services believe that we have far too much regulation and that we need to tackle it so that business can become more competitive.

research and technological development (RTD), innovation and entrepreneurship, including strengthening research and technological development capacities, and their integration into the European Research Area, including infrastructures; aid to RTD, notably in SMEs, and to technology transfer; improvement of links between SMEs, tertiary education institutions, research institutions and research and technology centres; development of business networks; public-private partnerships and clusters; support for the provision of business a ...[+++]nd technology services to groups of SMEs; and fostering of entrepreneurship and innovation funding for SMEs through financial engineering instruments.

52. Remains concerned that previous innovation and competitiveness programmes have failed to deliver the necessary link between fundamental and applied research and industrial innovation partly due to the fact that the financial resources were rather limited; believes that the support of the European public is indispensable for realising the Lisbon goals; considers that the Commission should propose a simplification of its financial procedures with a view to facilitating the implementation of research policy; considers that financi ...[+++]al instruments need to be rethought in a more fine-tuned, targeted way and that the establishment of an ambitious programme for competitiveness and innovation endowed with adequate financial resources is vital for supporting a "prosperity" oriented industrial policy, notably for SMEs, that would successfully capitalise on research through industrial applications, such as technology transfer from universities and research centres into industrial application; considers that further steps should be taken to foster development of the information society as proposed by the Commission, developing and promoting international standards for ICT and mobile telecommunication technology, monitoring the implementation of the electronic communications legislative framework, supporting EU benchmarking activities in the field of eEurope action plan initiatives and further enhancing EU security research; regards such a programme as essential in order to achieve the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy in the sphere of new technologies and ecotechnologies; considers that adequate funding must be secured through the 7th EU Research Programme (FP7) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) for the EU Action Plan for Environmental Technologies (ETAP); calls for adequate funding for the support of innovative SMEs and initiatives aimed at helping the commercialisation of research and the transfer of technology, notably through the Euro ...

17. Welcomes the UN's annual programme impact review and the decision to open a UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe in Brussels, from the beginning of 2004; notes that this Centre will focus its activities on providing information for citizens of the EU Member States and other European countries; invites it to include in its annual activity programme information actions on the relations between the EU and the UN; invites the EU Commission to launch, if possible jointly with this Centre, an information initiative on th ...[+++]e relations between the EU and the UN, including on the EU's financial contribution to the activities of the UN, its Agencies, Programmes and Funds; also encourages the UN Regional Centre to develop its activities in close cooperation with the UN Associations and educational institutions, which are vital structures of civil society to bring to citizens the common values of the EU and the UN;

15. Welcomes the UN's annual programme impact review and the decision to open a UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe in Brussels, from the beginning of 2004; notes that this Centre will focus its activities on providing information for the citizens of the EU Member States and other European countries; invites it to include in its annual activity programme information actions on the relations between the EU and the UN; invites the EU Commission to launch, if possible jointly with this Centre, an information initiative o ...[+++]n the relations between the EU and the UN, including on the EU's financial contribution to the activities of the UN, its Agencies, Programmes and Funds; also encourages the UN Regional Centre to develop its activities in close co-operation with the UN Associations and educational institutions, which are vital structures of civil society to bring to citizens the common values of the EU and the UN;

The main publications in 2000 include the guide covering the Structural Funds, the Cohesion Fund and ISPA ('Structural Actions 2000-2006 - Commentary and Regulations'), and the Vademecum listing the 'Community rules on State aids'. Other documents related to specific aspects of regional policy were also produced, such as the guide to the territorial pacts 2000-2006, the final report on the Terra innovative measure, a study on the urban audit, a guide to the Business innovation centres (BIC), and six studies on: the prospects for regional planning in the context of enlargement, the impact of economic and monetary Union on cohesion, employ ...[+++]ment-related initiatives in the United Kingdom, equal opportunities and the Structural Funds, local development and the strategic and sustainable management of water resources.