Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-17-Speech-3-226"
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"en.20000517.11.3-226"2
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".
Mr President, I wish to thank Mr Gallagher for his question, particularly as it gives me a further opportunity to provide the House with information about the work resulting from the adoption by the Special European Council in Lisbon of a set of measures to improve the fight against unemployment and to encourage economic reform and innovation.
We feel that the European Charter on small- and medium-sized enterprises due to be approved this June is an extremely important instrument for guaranteeing improvements in the fight against unemployment, in increasing social cohesion and also in improving the foundations on which the new knowledge society is based, by making instruments for innovation more democratic.
I would point out that the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council highlighted the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises as the driving force of Europe’s economy and that they in fact generate around 80% of employment in the European Union. Small- and medium-sized enterprises cannot be excluded from the strategic objective outlined in Lisbon, that is the creation of a more competitive, more dynamic, knowledge-based economy. Small- and medium-sized enterprises are essential and they must be given more support. The Council and the Commission are therefore drawing up a Charter for small- and medium-sized enterprises which, as I said, we hope will be approved in June at the Feira European Council.
The aim of this Charter is to commit Member States to focus on these instruments and to provide a specific response to the specific needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises. I wish to emphasise that although the issue of a Charter for small- and medium-sized enterprises is not new, the European Council has never quite so clearly demonstrated the importance it attaches to making it a reality. We think that a fairly detailed study must be carried out on this issue, which will not only enable Community instruments to be adjusted to facilitate the work of small- and medium-sized enterprises, but which will also highlight the need for Member States to have a set of procedures enabling them to take action in this area, procedures that should be as uniform as possible."@en1
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