Brussels, 12/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - To meet MEPs and hold an open and free discussion on questions of respective interest: this is the reason for the meeting of a UNICE (European employers) delegation, headed by its chairman, Baron Georges Jacobs, and its General Secretary Dirk Hudig, with representatives of the SME Intergroup (small and medium-sized companies) of the European Parliament, last week in Strasbourg. The 80 SME entrepreneurs present explained to MEPs how they could be helped to develop the spirit of enterprise and a better and simpler business environment. They were also able to discuss with French MEP Elizabeth Montfort (Union for a Europe of Nations) about the multiannual programme for SMEs and entrepreneurship 2001-2005, for which she is rapporteur and to which the entrepreneurs give considerable importance. UNICE considers this meeting was an important event as it allowed SME entrepreneurs to make contact with MEPs, to better understand their work and their priorities, and to initiate excellent mutual relations, said the UNICE spokesperson. The meeting follows an exchange of views held by these entrepreneurs on enterprise policy at the European level early this year, with Commissioner Erkki Liikanen.
The entrepreneurs' delegation thus insisted with members of the SME Intergroup on: the essential role of company directors in the creation of well-being and employment; the need not to place too much emphasis on size, sector or categories of enterprises; and the risk of splitting the budget for enterprise policy into many small-scale programmes that will not have the expected overall impact. They restated their preference for an enterprise policy that focused on entrepreneurs who are the real creators of value, who aim at growth, employment and who want to gain advantage from the European Single Market. The delegation mainly insisted on the importance of taking account of the problem of transfers of undertakings, which will impact on many existing companies and jobs in Europe in the years ahead (25% of the 6 million enterprises to be transferred to the next generation are facing a major risk of disappearance due to regulatory obstacles and taxation).
The Chairman, Jacobs, and the representatives of the 34 UNICE member federations (from 26 countries and representing 16 million enterprises) also met EP President Nicole Fontaine, the presidents of the political group EPP-ED, Hans-Gert Pöttering, Socialist Enrique Baron Crespo, Liberal Patrick Cox and Greens/ALE Heidi Hautala, as well as the officials of parliamentary committees. UNICE hoped to make this meeting an annual tradition to take stock of subjects as varied as social dialogue, the environment, transport, etc., said the spokesperson.