MEP urges "holiday" from EU Regulation to help business
05 December 2008
Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament on the global economic downturn and particularly its impact on small and medium sized business, Traditional Unionist Jim Allister challenged the EU to do something radical to help by introducing a "holiday" from EU Regulation for small business. With EU regulation costing businesses across Europe a huge outlay, equating to 5% of the EU's total GDP, the MEP identified such as an immediate way to lift the burden off industry and allow it to breathe and grow. "The sky would not fall in", he chided the Commission, "if we lifted this burden of business."
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
Jim Allister (NI). – Mr President, the title of this question speaks about improving the environment for SMEs. Could I suggest that, if the EU really wants to help, rather than indulging in predictable rhetoric, there is something meaningful and immediate which could be done. Why could we not initiate a ‘regulation holiday’ for SMEs during the current global crisis? Compliance with tier upon tier of EU regulation is so demanding, so onerous and so expensive that it is stultifying EU output and prosperity. The cost is unbearable. It amounts to billions per annum. At a stroke, through a ‘regulation holiday’, we could save businesses billions per year and allow them to breathe and grow."
