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Building Partnerships with European Professional Associations
In 2000, under the presidency of Portugal, the “strategy of Lisbon” was launched to promote a European knowledge-based and competitive economy, in the paradigm of the competitive market economy in which the state intervenes as lightly as possible to establish a “level playing field” for competition and avoid the excesses of the free market economy in which large enterprises dominate and exercise market power.
Amongst the priorities set within the Lisbon process of national economic reform were (1) the reduction of administrative burdens and (2) the creation of an environment favourable to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).
Unfortunately, the European Commission did not seek to encourage national reforms recognising the need to reduce administrative burdens and their related costs, in fact to the contrary!
National governments have, of course, done very little or nothing and have increased burdens upon business across all activities.
ncreasing regulation driven by the perceived failure of ethical business practices
The financial crisis and the ensuing economic crisis have triggered a global policy effort to increase regulation and oversight of financial services and services provided to the financial sector. We are thus assisting in increasingly suffocating administrative burdens placed upon enterprises, having little financial manoeuvrability to...
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