Brussels, 08/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting to discuss macroeconomics on Tuesday, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, President of European employers' association UNICE, and John Monks, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), expressed disappointment at the priorities set out by Member States, European institutions and the ECB in the current sluggish economic climate. At a press conference, Seilliere criticised the Member States for their feeble efforts to make the EU genuinely competitive on the global stage, saying companies faced problems with the environment they were forced to work in. He said the European institutions and governments were failing to do their duty to put the Lisbon Strategy into practice since more jobs and more growth are needed to have a competitive business environment. John Monks said he was astonished the ECB and politicians were still focussing on the dangers of non-existent inflation rather than the very real problems jeopardising growth and employment. The macroeconomic dialogue meeting was attended by representatives of the British Presidency, the ECOFIN Council, the European Central Bank, the European Commission, European employers and European trade unions. No formal conclusions are published after such meetings.