Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-13-Speech-4-037"
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"en.20020613.2.4-037"2
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"Mr President, the European Council that convened in Lisbon in March 2000 made entrepreneurship the key issue in the achievement of the EU’s strategic objectives. Entrepreneurship can help to exploit economic opportunities, so creating a prosperity that makes it possible to achieve social objectives. One result of the Lisbon meeting was that the European Charter for Small Enterprises was born. The basic principle at work here was that small enterprises are an important source of dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship.
We were worried last winter that the major importance that entrepreneurship had would be forgotten about. It was not, however. In March the European Council at Barcelona said again how important entrepreneurship was, reconfirmed the special status it had been accorded, and urged Member States to expedite the implementation of the charter on small enterprises. At the same time the Commission published its report on competitiveness for 2002. It shows what a long way EU productivity is from that in the United States of America. For this reason, per capita GNP in the EU is only 65% of that in the United States.
There are various reasons for Europe’s poor levels of competitiveness, but the report highlights the poor levels of investment in information technology and communications technology and poor levels of utilisation of investment. The results of this are visible in industry, but also in services. Utilisation of investment in information and communications technology furthermore helps prevent a situation where there is a shortage of skilled labour in the EU.
The worrying conclusion of the report on competitiveness for 2002 is also that, unless the EU removes all the barriers, it will not be able to achieve the Lisbon objectives. Dominique Vlasto draws attention in her report to various courses of action to improve EU performance and avoid any such eventual situation.
Finally I would like to lay emphasis on five matters. Firstly, the Internal Market is the basis of competitiveness for EU companies. There is still much to be done to establish the internal market in services. Liberalisation of the finance markets would help to make funding available to business. Secondly, the Charter for Small Enterprises must be implemented with a measure of determination. There are signs of progress, but Member States should not waste time. Thirdly, better regulation means that the effects of every legislative proposal must be examined. Last week the Commission submitted a proposal on this and I am very pleased with the speeches the honourable Members Mr Chichester and Mr Titley have made here on this issue. Fourthly, we must do everything possible to exploit information and communications technology properly. It is not enough that information or communications technology is showing signs of speeding up the US economy; the necessary action has to be taken also. Finally, we must first and foremost create a favourable climate for entrepreneurship. We have to take risks and society must be encouraged to do so. We shall return to this in the Green Paper.
These are all political measures. We must concentrate on getting political action on the right track. That way the EU will be able to achieve the right kind of operational environment for companies – not so much by attaching too much importance to small-scale projects, as lucrative as they too may be in themselves. As significant levels of funding are needed at EU level we already have the necessary tools at our disposal.
I wish to thank Mrs Dominique Vlasto for having indicated the very important areas of policy in which progress is needed. In the final analysis we have to improve political action. That way we can bring the Lisbon objectives within achievable range."@en1
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