European elections: EUROCHAMBRES declares key challenges for next term of European Parliament

“The low turnout at last week’s elections and high level of support for Eurosceptic parties, at least in certain member states, underlines the importance that the new European Parliament responds to economic, environmental and social needs in a balanced, pragmatic, transparent and effective manner,” EUROCHAMBRES Secretary General Arnaldo Abruzzini has declared.

Following the elections for the 8th legislative term of the European Parliament last week, EUROCHAMBRES has highlighted some key issues for new and returning MEPs to address when they convene in July:

• Having committed itself over a decade ago to the better regulation agenda, the European Parliament must accelerate its so far limited efforts to instil a philosophy of evidence-based policymaking across the committees. Central to this must be a more systematic and responsible approach to assessing the impact of their amendments to Commission proposals.

• In parallel to its involvement in the drafting of new legislation to tackle remaining barriers to free movement, the European Parliament should play an enhanced role in the ex post assessment of existing internal market legislation. Through its relations with national parliaments, it should also pressurize member states to implement existing law rigorously and without gold-plating.

• The European Parliament should promote the development of a European Economic Diplomacy, safeguarding our economic interests on global markets. A green paper on this topic, looking at the various trade and investment negotiations and the SME internationalization strategy, should be a first step.

As it did so effectively with the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, the European Parliament, according to EUROCHAMBRES, should exercise its ‘power of the purse’ to instigate creative and pragmatic pilot actions to stimulate entrepreneurial skills and a dynamic start-up culture across the EU.

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