Brussels, 18/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Vienna on 17 January, a delegation of European employers (Unice), led by its President Ernest-Antoine Seillière and Secretary General Phillip de Buck met the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel to ask him to “seize the opportunity created by the improved political and economic climate to tackle the major issues facing the EU” and to do all he could to breathe new life into the revised Lisbon Strategy, urgently confront the challenges in growth and employment at European level and take the EU out of its institutional crisis.
Writing on behalf of Unice, Me Seillière specified: 1) Economic reform: Unice hoped for a more concrete Spring Summit than previous ones, and undertook to monitor national reform programmes. Mr Seillière warned that national organisation members of Unice would look very carefully at the reform programmes in their respective countries; 2) Growth and employment: the major challenges at European level in these areas must be dealt with urgently. Mr Seillière wanted, in particular, an agreement reached at Council during the Austrian Presidency on the Services Directive. He pointed out that a real internal services market could create up to 60,000 jobs in the EU; 3) Taking the EU out of its current institutional crisis: without coherent institutional governance, even the EU's most outstanding achievements, like the internal market, common trade policy or the euro, could be compromised. Unice expected that at the European Council in June, Mr Schüssel would put forward a clear assessment of the current situation and that there would be agreement on a timetable for improving European governance.
Chancellor Schüssel replied that the Austrian Presidency would devote itself intensively to the themes of growth and employment in Europe, and particularly to improving framework conditions for SMEs and that research and energy were also among this Presidency's priorities. Mr Schüssel repeated that for him it was particularly important “to involve social partners in the European agenda” and he called on Mr Seillière to play an active role in this concrete project. The Social Summit, which will be held alongside the Spring Summit, will debate European social partners' proposals.