Eröffnungsrede Botschafter Längle anlässlich des Treffens von Premierminister Marcinkiewicz mit EU-Unternehmern, Warschau, 12.6.2006
Szanowny Panie Premierze ! Mr. Prime Minister !
Ladies and Gentlemen !
It is for me as the Austrian Ambassador and local representative of the Austrian EU-Presidency a great pleasure and honour to welcome you all cordially at today’s dialogue between EU-entrepreneurs and Prime Minister Marcinkiewicz.
Particularly I would like to express my profound gratitude to you, Mr. Prime Minister, for having accepted the Austrian Presidency's invitation to come to today’s dialogue with entrepreneurs from EU-member states and to give a keynote speech on the framework of economic activities in Poland and on the reforms of this framework your government wants to introduce. For this we are really very grateful to you, Mr. Prime Minister.
I would also like to thank Mr. Rudolf Thaler, the Austrian Commercial Counsellor and head of the commercial section of the Austrian Embassy, and his collaborators, for the initiative and the organisation of today’s meeting.
Today’s dialogue is to bee seen in the context of the coordinated efforts of the European Union and the Member States to create jobs and growth in Europe. Promoting jobs and growth is currently the most urgent task of European policy, at national and EU level. All the surveys show that it is especially in this area that people have particular expectations towards the European Union. For the Austrian EU-Presidency it is therefore of particular importance that the European Council on 23/24 March 2006 in Brussels was able to step up efforts in implementing the European Strategy for Growth and Jobs, the so-called Lisbon strategy, and to agree on concrete measures. Priority areas of these efforts are research and development, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and increasing employment opportunities for certain categories of persons.
The European Council agreed on the target to bring about an increase in European employment of at least 2 million jobs yearly until 2010. In addition by the end of 2007 every young person who has left school and is unemployed should be offered a job, apprenticeship or other additional training within six months, and within no more than 4 months by 2010.
The so-called “flexicurity” approach – flexibility through security, that is maximum flexibility for employers and at the same time high social security for the employees - should serve as a strategic reference concept for the employment policy in order to achieve more open and responsive labour markets and more productive workplaces.
The targets set by the European Council should be achieved by creating a more favourable business environment, especially for the 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union, which are the backbone of the European economy. To this end administrative costs for enterprises and in particular for SMEs should be reduced.
By 2007 a “one-stop-shop” for setting up a company in a quick and simple way should be established and the average time for setting up a business, especially an SME, should be reduced to one week anywhere in the European Union.
In view of the importance of R&D for future growth the European Union established the overall target of R&D expenditure of 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
