Brussels, 02/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - During his meeting in Luxembourg on 30 November with the Luxembourg Prime Minister and future President of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Union of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME), Paul Reckinger, called upon the next President to send out a clear signal on the "mid-term revision of the Lisbon Strategy. The next Presidency will have to create new instruments to ensure that the commitments made by the Member States are being respected", said Mr Reckinger.
The UEAPME President also called upon the future Luxembourg Presidency to: 1) redouble efforts to overcome the deadlock on the dossier on reduction of VAT rates for highly labour-intensive sectors. "To bring a sudden end to the reduction of VAT rates for sectors which currently benefit from this measure would cut jobs and thus act as a new delay on the Lisbon Strategy", warned Paul Reckinger; 2) amend the proposed directive on services within the internal market. UEAPME feels that the approach based on the so-called "country of origin" approach is unrealistic. According to Mr Reckinger, "a gradual harmonisation of quality criteria for services and a sectorial approach may be more effective". Jean-Claude Juncker said that he was "fully aware of the economic role played by SMEs and the craft sector at EU level". He assured Mr Reckinger that the Luxembourg Presidency "will devote particular attention to the dossier on the reduction of the administrative burden, and will look in detail at the Services directive, which has met with growing resistance from the European public". On the Lisbon Strategy ("a reform to improve life in Europe"), this must be "demystified and better explained to the European citizen", said the Luxembourg Prime Minister.