Brussels, 12/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - European business leaders are expecting gradual economic growth in Europe in 2003, according to the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry in its 10th survey of the European business climate. Almost 100,000 entrepreneurs from 25 European countries (the fifteen Member States of the EU and 10 candidate countries - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech republic, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia replied to the Eurochambres questionnaire. Christopher Lietl, the Eurochambres President explained in his presentation of the results that these perspectives were, nonetheless, below recent European Commission economic forecasts that took into account other factors. After a sharp decline following the shock of 11 September, confidence in the European business community slowly increased from 8 points in 2002 to 13 points in 2003. This reflected all the different indicators (business community confidence, investment, domestic sales, exports and jobs). The progress that has been announced remains quite moderate, particularly that involving perspectives for investment and jobs, which does not exactly indicate a swift return to growth in Europe. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg and Poland are among the most pessimistic. Mr Leitl indicated that "there are signs of optimism but not very much" and explained that in this context, the initiative of the ECB to lower interest rates, "is a first overdue step in the right direction". Mr Leitl also indicated that Europe had to make its labour markets more flexible and co-ordinate its economic policy more in order to encourage countries to abide by the Stability Pact and attain the Lisbon objectives. Germany, previously the economic power house of Europe, is clearly being left behind by its neighbours. Mr Leitl explained that, "We need a European strategy. We have a European currency but do we have a European economy?" The Eurochambres President exhorted the European Commission to "launch initiatives", notably by encouraging more investment in human resources. The Eurochambres President also called for Europe to pull itself together economically and follow the US example, "Europe is loosing time and is increasingly falling behind compared to the US". Confidence in the business community in candidate countries for 2003 also deteriorated compared to that in 2002, explained Eurochambres, which highlighted the difficulties currently experiences by candidate countries joining a Europe that is losing speed.