Brussels, 20/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - How can the current social and economic difficulties be sustainably overcome? To discuss this, the employers' group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Spanish confederation of employers' organisations (CEOE) organised an extraordinary meeting in Madrid on 16 April relating to a new enterprise policy for EUROPE 2010-2020. The meeting allowed the main measures needed to help the EU overcome the crisis to be summarised, and provided an opportunity for employers to invite the European Union to develop a more proactive enterprise policy. “Such a policy will only be meaningful if accompanied by an open European internal market and by the reduction of administrative burdens and barriers faced by businesses”, said Henri Malosse, President of the Employers' Group, who undertook to support the measures to be taken to attain these goals. Malosse added: “Entrepreneurs, like European citizens, have high expectations of the European Union and have generally been disappointed by its lack of responsiveness and coordination in face of the financial crisis”.
Employers' requests: Employers: (1) call on the EU and national governments to invest more and over the longer term in education and training; (2) urge for the pioneering spirit and business mentality to be included in the school curricula, which would eventually lead to greater mobility of Europeans and wider market opportunities for their ideas, saying that “enterprise culture must once again become a value in Europe”; (3) hope, in the field of intellectual property rights, that entrepreneurs will call for an effort to be made to combat counterfeiting of European brands and for the implementation of a still missing European Community Patent; and (4) call for a stronger control of state aid, greater involvement of industry alliances in drafting legislation, more efficient support to research and innovation, and an end to Europe's de-industrialisation.
Context of the Madrid meeting: The EU's socio-economic problems reactivate many questions relating to Europe's ability to create an environment that is favourable for emergence, i.e. the existence of firms that generate jobs, and that are competitive and innovative in all economic sectors, as the Committee points out in a press release. They also highlight the risks of de-industrialisation in Europe, the EESC adds, noting that all crisis exit strategies should be based on a new enterprise policy in Europe. The Committee considers that a better understanding of the stakes linked to the different enterprise cultures in Europe, of the EU's scientific, technological and social potential and also of the importance of strategic enterprise partnerships and alliances will be essential assets for raising the challenges of a true enterprise policy for Europe. (G.B./transl.jl)