Brussels, 29/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Addressing the EP's social affairs committee, German Vice-Chancellor for Labour and Social Affairs Franz Müntefering, called for “a stronger social dimension in Europe”. In response, Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP (Conservative, United Kingdom) declared, “the current problem for the EU is not in the absence of a social dimension but the presence of an anti-social dimension - over-prescriptive employment legislation that puts burdens on businesses, and keeps 18 million Europeans unemployed. Simply talking about equal opportunities will not help those without a job, unless accompanied by practical steps to make it happen”. The MEP also challenged Müntefering to highlight the importance of simplified and better regulation, as recently emphasised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The MEP concluded that “Only by freeing up businesses in general, and small businesses in particular, from some of the bureaucratic burdens placed upon them, will they be released to put more people on the payroll. That would indeed mean Equal Opportunities for All, including the currently unemployed”. (gb)