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PRESS RELEASE - PRESS RELEASE - PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, 14th April 2005
INDEPENDENT SMALL BUSINESSES AND SELF-EMPLOYED
WANT TO BE HEARD IN EUROPEAN SOCIAL DIALOGUE
At a time when the European Social Dialogue is being assessed by several EU Institutions, The European Small Business Alliance calls for the consultation on the European Social Dialogue to be opened up to small business & the self-employed in Europe.
In recent years, there have been many initiatives carried out under the auspices of the European Social Dialogue which have had a significant impact on small businesses.
The current form of the social dialogue ignores a large number of small business representative organisations. The 1993 initiative to create an “SMEs Committee” to include these organisations in EU social dialogue initiatives is today totally abandoned by the organisations recognised as social partners.
The diversity of small business representation has been ignored by EU decision-makers, who tend to put all SMEs organisation in the same pot, for far too long.
Small business representation in the EU is made of statutory-membership organisations or state-supported bodies, as well as, fully independent advocacy and benefits driven organisations.
The latter, which put small entrepreneurs at the centre of their “preoccupations” and involve them extensively in the representation process, have not been properly consulted on EU social dialogue which is still dominated by experts and officials rather than true small business representatives.
In line with the spirit of Article 137(2) of the EU Treaty, ESBA calls for the creation of an open SME Forum for social dialogue, giving small business entrepreneurs and the self-employed a better chance to express their opinion on any future EU social dialogue initiatives.
END
Note to the editor:
ESBA is a non-party political European group which gathers member organisations from 22 European countries. It is the only organisation in Europe to focus its representation on (fully) independent small business organisation needs (vs. statutory or compulsory membership groups). ESBA currently represents almost 2 million small business entrepreneurs and represents them through targeted EU advocacy activities. ESBA also works towards the development of strong independent lobby and benefits groups in European countries. ESBA is a member of WASME, the World Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. For more information, please contact: secretaria@esba-europe.org
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