Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-26-Speech-2-077"
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"en.19991026.2.2-077"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner Schreyer, we have just had a very interesting discussion. The Members have endeavoured to get to the heart of the issues. At the same time, we should not forget the goals of the European Union, the most important of which is to make our budget lines as effective as possible in terms of creating employment. Which budget lines can we use to create fresh employment opportunities in Europe? Another interesting question of course is which budget lines we can use to secure fresh taxation revenue. Revenue is a very important area and we should examine these issues in detail.
On the other hand, we must take a look at which of the products currently on offer in the EU superstore we could take off the shelves. Which products could be returned to the national level? It would be interesting to set up a research programme into which activities are currently being performed at European level that could in fact be dealt with much more easily, more efficiently and better at national level. This would free up our time and give us the opportunity to concern ourselves with the new projects, new goals and all the aspirations that we have expressed here today.
There are two budget lines that are particularly dear to my heart. One is B5-512, financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises, support for family businesses. The SMEs account for 66% of jobs. In excess of 55% of turnover in the European Community is generated by these enterprises. We must concentrate our energies on specific programmes, start-up support, transfer of business know-how, and on the Euro-infocentres, for it is these that will give rise to fresh employment opportunities and fresh sources of taxation revenue.
The second budget line B5-234 concerns financial support for the European digital capacity for global networks. Commissioner Liikanen advised this House that there will be approximately 1.2 million additional jobs by the year 2002, but we will not be in a position to guarantee the necessary quality of staff. We must train people and ensure that this labour market of 1.2 million jobs can be exploited in future, and that we develop programmes that will enable us to get people into work. This will put us on the right footing in terms of the Internet, e-commerce and the many sectors which will bring brand new opportunities to Europe, and there is no question but that we should work on this.
In addition, programmes such as BEST are of crucial importance to us. When it comes to enterprises of this kind – there are 18 million SMEs in Europe, 50% of which have no employees – we must make the legal requirements pertaining to them a great deal simpler so that they can concentrate on their main tasks of satisfying customer requirements and offering the right products and services. That is what creates jobs and new opportunities. That is why we should also look to encourage innovation in schools and to reinforce initiative and innovation in schools – from primary school to university level – so as to give this sector completely new impetus and also enable new opportunities to develop there. We must reach agreement with the supply sector. How can we foster links between small and large companies so that the former can learn from the latter, so that we can help them with the introduction of the euro, so that we can promote transfer of business know-how, and so that we can tackle any year 2000-related problems?
To close, I would like to mention the enormous challenge we have before us, that of enlargement. I believe that enlargement also represents a huge opportunity for small companies. But we should not shrink from providing them with the support they need. There are only a few more years to go. Many are already involved over there, many are interested, and I believe that the work being done at grass roots level is interesting and affords new opportunities. We in the European Parliament recognise the challenge to give our commitment and invest our energies here, and I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your support in this, Commissioner."@en1
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