27. Is of the view that Romania's road to accession is rather difficult, partly because of its late start as regards privatisation and the restructuring of public enterprises, and partly because the business environment is neither apt to generating indigenous business, nor attractive to foreign direct investment; stresses, therefore, that two priorities have to be asserted urgently: the restructuring of key sectors such as energy, mining and transport and the establishment of a pricing mechanism for natural gas, which would reflect s ...[+++]hort- and long-term costs;

2. Is of the view that Romania's road to accession is rather difficult, partly because of its late start of privatisation and restructuring of public enterprises, and partly because the business environment is neither apt to generating indigenous business, nor attractive to foreign direct investment; in this context, therefore, two priorities have to be asserted urgently: restructuring of key sectors such as energy, mining and transport and establishing a pricing mechanism for natural gas, which would reflect short and long-term cost ...[+++]s;

27. Is of the view that Romania's road to accession is rather difficult, partly because of its late start of privatisation and restructuring of public enterprises, and partly because the business environment is neither apt to generating indigenous business, nor attractive to foreign direct investment; in this context, therefore, two priorities have to be asserted urgently: restructuring of key sectors such as energy, mining and transport and establishing a pricing mechanism for natural gas, which would reflect short and long-term cos ...[+++]ts;

The opening of national economies to world market forces has been a catalyst for restructuring (driven by intense competition, new technologies and rapidly changing consumer markets. The increased opening of the world economies has impacted industrial and service activity un-evenly, but has accelerated industrial change in Europe. Increasingly, companies are re-organising production along broader geographical lines to optimise skilled labour, technology and markets at each stage of the production process. The more successful companies are re-organising both internally and externally to acquire greater flexibility through specialisation a ...[+++]nd participation global production networks, and through the development of new subcontracting relationships, and are investing in intangible assets to improve the ability to learn and innovate.

The Commission has authorized under the provisions of Article 85(3) of the Treaty of Rome, the agreements between Bayer AG and BP Chemicals International Ltd concerning Erdöelchemie (a jointly owned company between Bayer and BP Deutschland AG), which represents a step for the restructuring of the European petrochemical industry, in particular in the polyethylene sector.

In fixing such a duration account has been taken of the fact that the exemption granted by the Commission to the first step of BP Chemical's restructuring also expires in 1998.