A delegation from the FSB, led by National Chairman Carol Undy, is in Brussels tomorrow to host a keynote briefing session for MEPs at the start of the new parliamentary term.
With 40% of new regulations affecting business coming from Brussels, Britain’s leading business organisation is calling on MEPs to renew their efforts to ensure that the EU is the world’s most dynamic economy by 2010.
MEPs will be urged to combine their 5 year term with the 5 years that remain of the agenda set at the 2000 Lisbon Council of Europe to make the EU the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world.
The event in the Salon de Membres will allow MEPs to meet the FSB’s recently elected National Chairman and her colleague Tina Sommer, FSB International Affairs Chairman. MEPs will be briefed on the FSB’s latest reports and encouraged to view them as a route map for the whole of the new parliament.
Tina Sommer, who runs businesses in the UK, Latvia and Germany, said:
“More and more small firms have the opportunity to engage in cross border trade. They can make contacts in markets that can prove highly profitable.
“But the Lisbon Agenda to create the most competitive market by 2010 is in direct conflict with the increase in legislation that aims to regulate every conceivable eventuality.
Emphasising the creativity and innovation that small firms deliver, Tina Sommer added:
“MEPs must understand that one size does not fit all and that the creativity and innovation of small firms cannot be encouraged with a strait-jacket.”
Ends
Notes to Editors:
1. The event takes place in the Salon de Membres of the European Parliament on Wednesday 13 October 2004 from 1830.
2. The aim of the FSB event is to encourage MEPs to combine their five year term with the five years that remain of the Lisbon Agenda deadline for the benefit of business. MEPs will be briefed on 3 major documents:
- The FSB’s EU manifesto which can be used as a route map whenever issues arise throughout the whole of the parliamentary term that affect small businesses,
- Lifting the Barriers 2004, the FSB’s biennial membership survey which provides unrivalled information about the small business sector, how it is working, what the needs are and what the obstacles are in achieving them,
- Better regulation…Is it better for business? which gives an assessment of current regulatory process and how it could be improved to minimise burdens.
3. The FSB is Britain's biggest business organisation with 185,000 members. It exists to protect and promote the interests of the self employed, and all those who run their own business. More information is at: www.fsb.org.uk. The FSB is a leading member of the European Small Business Alliance. For more information see: www.esba-europe.org.
Contacts:
FSB Chief Spokesman
Stephen Alambritis: 07788422155
FSB Press Office (ISDN available):
David Bishop: 020 7592 8113 / 07740 076848
Daniel Mazliah: 020 7592 8128 / 07717 861605
