Small Businesses (EU Legislation) (Hansard, 21 June 2000)

§ Mr. Vaz

The right hon. Member for Horsham challenged me at 6.50pm on 15 June, to identify three improvements that the Lisbon Special European Council had introduced for business. I responded immediately that I would supply a list of 25 examples before 10 o'clock. I provided a list of no fewer than 35 examples, as follows, and it was faxed to the right hon. Member's office by 9.45 pm.

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told the House of Commons in his statement on 27 March 2000, Official Report, columns 21–23, Lisbon marked a sea change in European economic thinking. It pointed Europe in a new direction, towards a new approach based on enterprise, innovation and competition. A work programme is now in hand across the entire breadth of EU economic and social policy, to deliver the improvements that Lisbon called for. The list sets out examples of how much is being done, and the Feira European Council will mark a further step in the delivery of this agenda.

Economic Benefits for Enterprise from Lisbon

1. Charter for small firms already agreed, to be confirmed at Feira.
2. Clear set of principles to ensure small enterprise promoted as main driver for innovation, employment and social integration.
3. Concrete follow-up action e.g. national bankruptcy laws to be assessed, new regulations screened to assess impact on small business.
4. Progress to be monitored annually.
5. Work on structural indicators in hand to promote economic reform in order to benefit enterprise and SMEs, to be endorsed at Nice.
6. Agreement on improvements to the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, in line with the Lisbon conclusions, to be endorsed at Feira.
7. Adoption of EU legal framework for electronic commerce reached in April 2000.
8. E-Europe action plan agreed, to be endorsed at Feira.
9. Focus on cheaper internet access, accelerating e-commerce and bolstering ICT skills.
10. Generalised electronic access to main basic public services by 2003.
11. All schools to have access to the Internet by 2001.
12. Teachers skilled in use of Internet and multimedia resources by 2002.
13. European diploma for basic IT skills.
14. Fully integrated and liberalised telecommunications markets by the end of 2001.
15. Competition in local loop to reduce substantial costs of using the Internet for business and consumers alike.
16. Single market strategy agreed (May).
17. Faster liberalisation of energy and transport. New targets will be established next year following a report from the Commission. Bodes well for forthcoming Gas Directive.
18. State aids to be reduced further.
19. EU strategy to remove barriers to services in hand, to be agreed at Nice.
20. New EU integrated regulation and simplification initiative in hand, to be agreed by June 2001.
21. Resolution on European Research Area agreed in June 2000. Boost to links between firms and research centres.
22. Increased mobility of researchers.

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23. Proposal for regulation on community wide patent (June), to be agreed by 2001. To make patent protection in the EU as simple, inexpensive and comprehensive in scope as the protection granted by key competitors.
24. Interim review of Employment Guidelines—to include recognition that policies like welfare to work and lifelong learning have a key part to play to fight social exclusion and to ensure that the benefits of the knowledge-based economy will be for all.
25. Europe-wide database on jobs and learning opportunities, based on a UK idea.
26. Schools and training centres to be turned into multipurpose local learning centres accessible to all.
27. European award for firms committed to developing staff potential—a European "Investors in People".
28. Lisbon agreed to raise employment rate from average of 61 per cent. today to as close as possible to 70 per cent. by 2010.
29. Target to halve by 2010 the numbers of 18 to 24 year olds with only lower-secondary level education without further education and training.
30. High Level Group on social protection which was called for by Lisbon is now established. Working to modernise and re-orient EU social policy, away from a narrow focus on employee rights towards: active welfare state, not passive dependency; new focus on employability and life long learning; ensuring that work pays and that welfare systems are sustainable. Agreement to increase investment in human resources.
31. Political agreement on directive to counter racial discrimination.
To promote integrated European capital market.
32. EU action now in hand to lead to common international accounting standards.
33. Financial Services Action Plan in hand to be implemented in full by 2005.
34. EIB to make another billion euro available for venture capital for SMEs over the next three years. Tax policies, venture capital and EIB support for private research investments, R&D partnerships and hi-tech start-ups.
35. Work in hand on rapid adoption of new streamlined rules in the public procurement legislative package for June 2001. Procurement on line by 2003; procurement rules modernised and simplified by 2002. The system will be more accessible to SMEs.