Employer organisations BusinessEurope, SMEunited, and Ceemet welcomed the election of German Ursula von der Leyen as the head of the European Commission on Tuesday, 16 July, as well as her work programme (see EUROPE 12296/1). On that occasion, they made convergent proposals to guide the new Commission’s emerging mandate.
Thus, BusinessEurope—through its president, Pierre Gattaz—welcomed the election of the German, with whom it hopes to have a fruitful cooperation so as to create an “innovative, entrepreneurial European society” in order to face international competition. To this end, the organisation, which represents the big bosses, has proposed 50 actions.
For example, among the most prominent proposals are restructuring the European Commission’s internal organisation in order to respond more effectively to international competition (specifically by improving coordination among the institution’s Directorates-General), introducing a mechanism to protect cross-border investments, and implementing an impact assessment after the legislative process.
Mrs von der Leyen’s election was also warmly welcomed by SMEs and the craft industry. SMEunited President Ulrike Rabmer-Koller said that she was “convinced” that Mrs von der Leyen was the “right person to lead the European Union through the challenging time ahead of us”.
Mrs Rabmer-Koller notably applauded the fact that the new president wanted to adopt a holistic approach in order to better take SMEs into account by stressing the importance of social partners in minimum-wage negotiations and even consideration of “the global context” in the development of climate measures.
The employer organisation recently published a document approximately 40 pages long detailing its expectations. For example, it calls for extensive revision of the Small Business Act (SBA), a pro-SME initiative that had been adopted in 2008. In general, SMEunited calls for an intersectional approach in all European policies so as to better take small economic operators into account. Interestingly, the organisation emphasises the importance of Cohesion Policy in supporting, in particular, the economic fabric in rural areas.
Ceemet, which represents employers in the industry and technology sectors, also applauded the election of Mrs von der Leyen, being pleased with a “truth” stated by the president, namely: “spending needs to be earned before”.
It is also putting forward its 10-point plan, which notably includes proposals to strengthen the digital single market, the development of a major industrial strategy, support for human-centric digitisation, and even the training and upgrades provided to workers so that they will be able to meet market needs. Like the other two organisations, Ceemet calls for “continuous” impact assessment of legislative initiatives.
To read BusinessEurope’s 50 points: https://bit.ly/2xXqmKh
To see SMEunited’s proposals: https://bit.ly/2XsGIFl
To read Ceemet’s suggestions: https://bit.ly/2JKLitx (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)