EESC Employers' Group launches new priorities to boost competitiveness and achieve prosperity for all

28 March 2023 - The Employers' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee launched today its policy priorities for 2023 and beyond. In a paper titled "Driving Prosperity for All: A Competitiveness Agenda for the EU", the group outlined a number of actions needed to restore business confidence and prosperity for all."

Businesses deliver common good day in day out. They are an integral part of society and play a pivotal role in creating jobs, providing sustainable goods and services that improve people's quality of life, even in times of crisis," said Stefano Mallia, President of the Employers' Group.

"But in order to make sure that businesses continue to make a difference we need an EU competitiveness agenda," Mallia added.

The Russian aggression against Ukraine has ushered in a new economic and geopolitical environment. Consequently, the EU more than its global competitors, is suffering from extremely high energy prices and inflation. At the same time, other global economies subsidise and favour their own industries. These are factors that create the risk of EU’s deindustrialisation. To successfully cope with these problems and other challenges of the present and future, the Employers' group considers that the competitiveness and resilience of the EU economy must be strengthened.

In this context, the Employers' Group has decided to update its priorities in 2023 and call for a Competitiveness Agenda.

Since the end of the Lisbon Agenda in 2010, competitiveness has fallen off the EU map.

 "Nobody argues that that strategy had its flaws, but it also had its goal set in stone: to make the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion," said Mallia, adding that the goals were not achieved because the EU failed to address structural problems which continue to dog us to this very day. "What we need is the political will to finally put competitiveness first, because competitiveness matters."

The Group's document outlines a new economic and industrial path that would apply to all businesses (industry, services and agriculture).  Based on two pillars, creating common good and focusing on the essentials, the Employers' Group priorities call for three areas of actions:

First, the access to basic production resources at competitive prices. This applies equally to energy, raw materials, labour, capital, and data. That means improving conditions for energy and raw materials' domestic production and for building resilient ecosystems and diversifying foreign suppliers, but also ensuring the availability of an adequate skilled workforce by facilitating mobility and economic migration, as well as setting up effective life-long learning systems anticipating change.

Second, we must enhance open markets with equal rules. Building on the benefits and progress made over the past 30 years of Single Market, the EU must persistently and decisively identify and systematically remove market barriers, while avoiding the creation of new ones. Member states must adhere to common rules and avoid gold-plating and new national regulations that conflict with EU rules, helping avoid market fragmentation and loss of economies of scale.

Third, we must ensure business-friendly regulation and taxation. Businesses need a policy framework that fosters entrepreneurship and encourages enterprises to innovate, invest and trade. This requirement applies equally to regulation, taxation, and allocation of public funding. Embedding a competitiveness check, which we employers have called for the past two years, is part of the solution. But also accelerating permit procedures would prevent relocation and speed up the deployment of competitiveness.

To read and download the full paper, please click here.

For more information, please contact:
Daniela Vincenti, Communication Adviser
daniela.vincenti@eesc.europa.eu
+32 497 412095