"And we are not," he told me later, "an inefficient company."

This means that inefficient companies will suffer a loss of market share and may have to close down.

The result was often that inefficient companies turned out shoddy goods that cost too much.

The inefficient companies are going to feel pressure.

"The Government says inefficient companies should be shut down," he says, then laughs.

The system provided government subsidies for inefficient companies and gave politicians a way to reward supporters.

Instead, poor managers running inefficient companies will continue to be able to hide behind protective barriers," he said.

Many traditional but inefficient companies had to close.

In practice, this is nothing other than subsidising inefficient companies on the backs of European citizens.

First, state-owned companies, perennially inefficient, begin to care about profitability.