Brussels, 30/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - As reported in EUR OPE 9292, former President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)'s Budget Group, Greek national Dimitrios Dimitriadis, it taking over from Anne-Marie Sigmund as President of the EESC until 2008. Making his inaugural address on Thursday 26 October, Dimitrios Dimitriadis outlined the EESC's priorities in his presidential programme 'Entrepreneurship with a Human Face'. To create a competitiveness-friendly environment for European entrepreneurs, he said attractive jobs had to be created and red tape reduced. Describing small companies as the backbone of the EU economy and potential sources of high quality jobs, he argued in favour of greater European competitiveness and regretted the reluctance in Europe to take business risks required to attract investment in innovation. He outlined change in Europeans' attitude to work that would help create a competitive professional environment capable of foreseeing change and innovating. The newly elected President said the EESC could play an important role in the attempt to bring citizens closer to EU institutions by, for example, backing the development of a network of civil society measures to implement the Lisbon Strategy. (ym)