Mr. Colm Hayes:

The 15 to 20 years, to my knowledge, has not been raised as a specific issue, but the Commission is a broad church. We deal directly with the Directorate-General for Competition. DG Competition, in turn, has to do an interservice consultation and the various DGs of the Commission will, and have, come forward with their various views. Every one of them has to be answered. As the Minister said, the purpose of all the informal consultation that is ongoing now is to work through as many as of these, what one might consider, technical questions right now. This will clear the way for a formal submission.