Business leaders ask Spanish Presidency to focus on innovation
Innovation and entrepreneurship are two of the elements that need more focus during the Spanish Presidency, according to UNICE, the Union of industrial and employers' confederations of Europe. The organisation expressed these sentiments in an open letter to Spanish Prime Minister, José Maria Aznar, on 11 January. The letter was sent to alert the Presidency to the fact that the Barcelona summit in the Spring needs to act as a catalyst to take forward the reforms and measures promised at the Lisbon summit in March 2000. Lisbon's resolution was to set about making Europe the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. 'This promise, given two years ago by EU leaders, is not being kept,' says the UNICE letter. 'We are concerned that ten per cent of EU laws intended to open up markets have simply not been applied nationally...We have already been disappointed to see one of the first concrete steps being missed: adoption of a European community patent. We really expect more political will to overcome national interests.' The letter sets out six areas where UNICE believes that further progress needs to be made, headed by innovation and entrepreneurship, where its claims that a legislative framework is needed to reduce the administrative burden on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The other areas where UNICE has called for increased focus are flexible labour markets and skills availability; essential infrastructure; financial services; internal market and sustainable development. In these, it calls for the further liberalisation of services in the energy, postal transport and telecommunications sectors, as well as greater application of internal market directives and target actions. It also requests support for companies in building a skills base, both in improving basic education and enabling companies to 'develop the competencies of their workforce'. The Barcelona summit's agenda is already due to tackle some of the issues mentioned in the UNICE letter. The major objective of the UNICE letter is to give impetus back to the process which started in Lisbon. 'In the current difficult climate, the EU, the world's second largest economy, should be able to act as a driver of economic growth, but thus far it has not been able to fulfil its potential,' it says. The letter also welcomes the inclusion of the candidate countries into the Lisbon process. It highlights that the letter is signed by all the presidents of UNICE's EU members, the first time this has happened in its 50 year history.
Countries
Spain