Tomorrow the WORKING DOCUMENT N° 8 on “Economic Exit Strategies : Financial and Monetary aspects, SMEs, Innovation and New Opportunities for sustainable growth” (Regina Bastos) will be discussed in the CRIS committee of the European Parliament.
Some random observations:
- A shift from “competitiveness” to “competition” language, I highly appreciate that.
- SMEs as the backbone of the economy.
- The proposal embraces SME policies but then endorses questionable projects like the “Small Business Act” which are of course just SME branded efforts of the former Commission Enterprise directorate and followed a classical industry agenda. The term “act” reveals for all to see that the proposal had a transatlantic origin.
- The proposed text embraces the controversial service directive.
- Text mentions tax competition as a problem for SMEs
- The call is for a new SBA
- Diffuse, “Lisbon strategy style”, innovation language
But most interestingly:
(e) The Information Society
The Information Society is also challenged to contribute to a sustainable development. Beyond existing participation inequalities in different parts of the globe, information technologies have the potential to mobilise large parts of the society and help emerging new type social movements. Well- informed citizens get networked in the “global village” and are thus enabled to seek out local solutions in global challenges. This is due to the notion of knowledge as the capacity to act and the ability to make the right decisions for a sustainable world.
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