To ask the President of the Board of Trade when he received a copy of the European Commission report EUR 14456 of 1992, "Technology and the Future of Europe"; and what assessment he has made of the relevance of the report to the impact of emerging technologies on the British industrial economy.

This report, which has only recently been brought to my attention, offers a useful analysis of how we have got to where we are in Europe, what challenges we are facing, what technologies are becoming important, what effects these technologies are having on us and what changes we are likely to see in future years.Thus the report makes a useful contribution to the debate on how emerging technologies are affecting the economies of Europe.