One fundamental distinction that can be made is between southern and northern Europe, i.e. between areas forming part of the so-called ‘wet culture’ - in which, according to an age-old tradition passed on through the generations from each person’s earliest childhood, wine is served with food, is something to be drunk with pleasure and to be taken in moderation, and forms part of the local cultural and traditional heritage - and the ‘dry’ culture - in which, as a result of the mood-changing properties attributed to alcohol and the fact that it is not consumed as a part of norm ...[+++]al day-to-day patterns, alcohol is drunk outside meal times, generally at weekends and in huge quantities for the purpose of losing one's social inhibitions and escaping the conformism and rigidity imposed by social mores.

In meetings with the Japanese government, the EU-Japan Industrialists' Round-Table and the Business Forum Mr. Bangemann discussed mainly issues related to global communications and electronic commerce: the outcome of the OECD ministerial meeting in Ottawa on electronic commerce, the next generation of mobile telephony (UMTS), the Global Business Dialogue and self regulation.

Avenues to be explored and measures to be taken include mutual recognition of measures to withdraw driving licences; harmonization of the blood alcohol level at 0.5 Mg/l (a 1988 proposal from the Commission is still before the Council); effective control of the driving time of road hauliers (by way of a new generation of tachographs); and support for research activities into devices to be fitted into the vehicle to measure driver fatigue.