Business organisations demand competitiveness first

In a joint statement ahead of the hearings of the commissioners-designate, BUSINESSEUROPE, EUROCHAMBRES, Eurocommerce and UEAPME demand that the European Union prioritises competitiveness in any future policy initiative. In their paper “Competitiveness First”, the four business organisations argue that Europe’s most urgent issues, such as creating jobs for the 25 million unemployed, enabling young people to enter the labour market and making social systems and public households sustainable can only be solved by improving economic performance. To do so, Europe has to become more attractive for private investment in the real economy and this requires an increase in competitiveness. Therefore, competitiveness must come first, which requires a coherent approach to EU policy-making for the new term that covers all aspects of competitiveness, as set out in the joint statement.