Berlusconi backs industry's call to streamline EU regulations
The current President of the European Council, Silvio Berlusconi, has supported a call by the union of industrial and employers' confederations (UNICE) to reduce the amount of unnecessary EU regulation faced by European businesses. 'European enterprises are besieged by an excess of regulations,' said the Italian Prime Minister. He also said that companies operating within the EU are at a competitive disadvantage compared with enterprises not located in Europe, which 'do not have the environmental and social constraints with which we are forced to operate'. According to Mr Berlusconi, 'the whole of European architecture needs streamlining.' EU Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, meanwhile, stressed that: 'it is always better to create rules than have none at all.'
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