Brussels, 23/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Union's 28 member states have agreed on the need to update the civil service and public companies in order to stimulate growth in the wider economy.
A meeting of the Competitiveness Council, chaired by Lithuania, was attended by EU28 industry ministers in Vilnius on 23 July, where the politicians agreed that reform of state enterprises could be a growth engine for competitiveness and that updating the civil service would make it respond better to the needs of small business by reducing the red tape and its associated costs.
The Lithuanian economy minister, Evaldas Gustas, said that public enterprises are active in infrastructure, energy, financial services and the supply of services of general interest to companies and individuals, and are very important for the economy, comprising a large proportion of GDP. He said that ordinary people indirectly owned public enterprises, hence the absolute need to ensure the maximum amount of transparency and responsible management as a precondition for good management of state assets and very high performance.
The ministers stressed the importance of member states having very clear rules on how state enterprises are managed and run in order to strike a balance between commercial and non-commercial interests, transparency and being held to account. The EU28 encouraged the member states to exchange best practice for the reform of public enterprises to make them more efficient in an increasingly competitive world.
In a discussion on how the civil service can meet the needs of small business, the ministers said all member states must “think small first” when designing new rules - and the same applied at EU level too. (EH/transl.fl)