Brussels, 19/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - After his visit to Dublin, where he spoke to the President of the European Council, Bertie Ahern, of his expectations for the relaunch of the Lisbon process (see EUROPE of 17 March, p.18), the President of the European Union of Craft and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME), Paul Reckinger, repeated his requests to be addressed to the Tripartite Social Summit of 25 March in Brussels. This Summit, preparations for which were discussed at the Employment/Social Summit of 4 March, will be on the theme of "New Partnerships for Reform", and will include four planks: economic growth, European competitiveness, adapting to change; employment (see EUROPE of 5 March, p.8).
In his contribution to the Tripartite Social Summit, Mr Reckinger stressed the importance, within the current context of economic growth, of consolidating the agenda of reforms of the Lisbon Strategy. "If Europe is to become its own engine for growth, urgent reforms will have to be taken at national level on the Stability Pact, employment markets and social protection systems", said Mr Reckinger. He reaffirmed the need for small businesses to have access to funding, especially to micro-credit. He pleaded in favour of in-depth reforms of the employment markets (as does the Kok report on employment), essentially in terms of the adaptability of workers and businesses, flexibility of work types, reduction of administrative costs etc. Mr Reckinger also pointed out that the Member States must seriously reform their social protection system to make work financially attractive to workers and employers alike. Indeed, the President commented, "many social protection systems do not really encourage people to look for work, because the level of various social benefits is too high. Furthermore, employers are discouraged from taking people on because salary costs are too high. Something must be done about this, and soon, if Europe is to create more better-quality jobs". Lastly, in the context of the EU's forthcoming enlargement, Mr Reckinger called for caution in terms of "new partnerships for reform", which is the central theme of the debate in the Tripartite Social Summit, "as our colleagues from the ten future States do not seem to be in a position to consider this new partnerships for change as the solution at the moment".