How to stimulate growth of the European economy from a Weimar Triangle businesses perspective?

WARSAW, Poland - Sept. 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Confederation Lewiatan, BDI and MEDEF call on European institutions and states to take decisive actions for building globally competitive and strong Europe. The recommendations and expectations of the leading Polish, German and French business organizations will be outlined and discussed in details in this year’s edition of the European Forum for New Ideas (EFNI), taking place at Sopot between October 1-3.

„The time has come for actions not words!" – this is the main idea expressed by Confederation Lewiatan, BDI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie), MEDEF (The Mouvement des entreprises de France) in the joint statement after this year’s European elections. The beginning of the new term of the European institutions is an opportune time to start dealing with challenges facing the continent and introducing changes for Europe to thrive. In order to achieve progress in the future, the European Union should strengthen the integration process and undertake actions leading to enhancing economic growth, increasing innovation and job creation across the continent.

To make this happen, the leading Weimar Triangle business organizations recommend changing structures of the EU institutions and streamlining their decision-making procedures by focusing on a limited number of key priorities around global competitiveness, growth, prosperity and employment.

„Europe needs new ideas for restoring growth and confidence among citizens. This means reforming EU institutions by focusing on core priorities, which will help revive the economy and generate jobs. This will better equip them for challenges facing the continent now and in the years ahead” – says Henryka Bochniarz, the President of Confederation Lewiatan.

„Europe must become a more competitive economy in order to remain able to provide high and rising living standards and gainful employment for its citizens” – states The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum. That means therefore, the European Commission should put greater weight to innovation and efficiency in its proposals. The reason for it is that only innovative Europe can effectively take up contemporary challenges and compete globally.

„Europe needs better integration and EU institutions have to be reformed to better cope with threats and take up opportunities that arise. Making European economy more effective requires prioritising business competitiveness at the core of European policies” – says Loïc Armand, President of the European Committee of MEDEF.

In particular, the European Commission should focus on budgetary consolidation and structural reforms in the Eurozone as well as stronger economic policy coordination. Greater efforts should also be made to increase the contribution of manufacturing to European GDP by 20% by 2020. It is equally important to develop a common European energy policy and complete the internal energy market, as this would be more cost-efficient and secure transition of supplies.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, businesses should have facilitated access to financing while European Investment Bank ought supporting long-term ventures that raise competitiveness of Europe. What is more, a Banking Union should also be established, thereby making the whole European banking system more resilient to future crisis.

From the point of view of Weimar Triangle business organizations, among the priorities for the European Commission is concluding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States. The main reason of doing that is to stimulate the European economy, generate jobs and benefit from accessing the world markets likewise.

These are examples of proposals of the leading Polish, French and German business organizations, the representatives of which will meet at the upcoming European Forum for New Ideas to discuss ways to spur growth in Europe and improve wellbeing of its citizens.

„At EFNI, we will hear specific proposals on how to move forward in business area and put European economy on growth path. This will provide precious insight and practical solutions for European authorities” – concludes Henryka Bochniarz.

More details about the forum and agenda are available here: http://efni.pl/en/