Brussels, 17/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a letter sent to the President of the European Council, Guy Verhofstadt, the President of the European employers organisation (Unice), Georges Jacobs launches an appeal to the Ghent Summit "for a more competitive and effective Europe". This means "a democratic, transparent and simple institutional system", Georges Jacobs continues, saying that "it is essential to consolidate European integration without enshrining competences in a rigid Treaty which could no longer respond to the challenges of the moment". Jacobs places emphasis on the need to complete the internal market, promote entrepreneurship, and succeed in enlargement, which , he says, has the "full support of the business community in both existing EU Member States and the candidate countries".
Mr. Jacobs would in particular like: a more secure Europe: to take on the present challenges (terrorism, violence and commercial and financial delinquency…). European companies "need effective European institutions and call for a secure European area in which open competition is assured, allowing them to increase their strength in the context of a more global economy"; - a simpler Europe: Unice wants "policies for regulatory and administrative simplification at the level of both Europe and Member States"; - a less distant Europe: for Unice, Europe should develop "open co-operation and self-regulation" and, "above all, draw support from the constituent living forces of society".