Better regulation

To enable businesses to perform this role, the EU must provide conditions that make European businesses more competitive, encourage entrepreneurship and ensure favourable conditions for them to innovate, invest, operate and trade. This calls for a business environment that helps prepare for the future, is based on open markets and fair competition and provides enabling and supportive conditions for doing business

Quality legislation - which meets clear policy objectives, balances relevant interests, is well-drafted and coherent,  and as simple, easy to understand and implement as possible - is essential for any well-functioning society and for a strong democracy. As trade unionists, workers and citizens we know the pivotal role that legislation plays in guaranteeing our rights and freedoms, including providing the opportunity for redress when they are infringed either by employers, enterprises or the State.

SMEs are the backbone of the EU economy and have been placed in the focus of European policy following the adoption of the Small Business Act in 2008. This study makes a comprehensive overview of EU support initiatives for SMEs in the period 2007-2015 with the aim to assess the effectiveness of EU SME policies – both in terms of their formulation and implementation.

This integrated report assembles inputs from the national Economic and Social Councils (and the Liaison Group, an NGO umbrella organisation) and gives an overview of the involvement of organised civil society in the European Semester, highlighting the different ways in which organised civil society interacts with governments in the framework of the European Semester. The purpose is to make the Semester more democratic and more efficient, by identifying problem areas and disseminating best practices across the entire European Union.