ABSTRACT
In 1969, Jean-Jacques Servan Schreiber's international bestseller The American Challenge warned Europeans of the war being waged by the Americans in high technology at that time. Strong industrial policies were devised at the national level in many high-technology sectors because they often had a strategic dimension. In theory, the country that should have been the most interested in European industrial policy in high technology was France. In terms of international cooperation in high technology, the French approach was initially not directed toward the EEC. The West German government remained reluctant about any form of ambitious EEC industrial policy. Under Thatcher, the British government was not naturally inclined to defend ambitious EEC initiatives. A coherent neomercantilist project of European policy to create pan-European champions in high technology had been developing since the 1960s, and was partially implemented in the 1980s. The end results of this neomercantilist project were mainly the completion of the common market, the definition of European norms, etc.
