The community industrial policy has been going through many significant changes in the past decades. In reality the industrial policy didn’t even appear in the Rome Treaty of 1957 as an independent community policy. After the establishment of the common market the founders thought that the abolition of the internal barriers to trade provides a competitive market, and the common foreign trade policy provides enough protection for the community industry to remain competitive. Therefore the European Communities didn’t take an important part in developing an industrial policy except for some areas. In the 1951 the ECSC was formed by the Paris Treaty, which focused on the protection of the coal and steel industry. This integration harmonized the French and German heavy industries. It created a regulation system for the coal and steel industries of the members. Concerning its impact on the industrial policy it created production quotas, and it could define minimum prices. These were its main industrial tools. In the 50s the ECSC put the coal and steel industry under community regulation,

· The development of innovation and R+D

· Creating good environment for the cooperation of enterprises

The false behaviour of the EC used in the 70s lead to a significantly reduced world competitiveness. As the Communities arrived to the 1980s there was a significant gap between the USA/Japan and Europe especially on the area of innovation or technological development. The structural changes of industry went more rapidly in the first two countries, and these changes were driven by well-planned industrial policies. The crises lead to the recognition of a need for a better coordinated industrial policy. The result of such a recognition was the Single European Act that emphasized the use of advantages provided by integration against turning to internal national affairs. The importance of innovation was also emphasized in this act. During this period, developments towards a common industrial policy started. Firstly the countries were recommended to abolish their national subventions, which they did till 1980. In the 1970s France also had a proposal to develop policies against the dominance of US multinationals, however this was vetoed by Germany.

· Creating better financial environment for SMEs (with founds)

Some topics in this essay:
Maastricht Treaty, French Italian, French German, European Act, industrial policy, Rome Treaty, USA/Japan Europe, , EC Treaty, Charter SMEs, European Communities, common industrial, common industrial policy, coal steel, community industrial, · development, community industrial policy, maastricht treaty, coal steel industry, knowledge information, technological development, · creating, medium enterprises,