Wake up call to defend the collective interests of Europe to avoid ending up in misery and poverty

Speaking at the Tripartite Social Summit on 19 October, in presence of President Tusk, President Juncker and Slovak Prime Minister Fico, BusinessEurope President Emma Marcegaglia underlined that the challenges facing Europe are unprecedented and that we need to increase growth and employment, improve security, tackle migration issues and deal with the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. Ahead of the European Council meeting on 20-21 October, President Marcegaglia stressed the importance of trade, saying “If we don’t bring home the agreement with Canada and shoot our common trade policy in the foot, we cannot win our battle for competitiveness, growth and employment“. Together with the other social partners, she also clearly said that “companies and workers must not pay the price for Brexit. We want to maintain as close as possible economic relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom, but not at the expense of the integrity of the Single Market. There can be no cherry-picking between the four freedoms”. As manufacturing industry is the central growth and job creation driver for all sectors of the economy, including services, President Marcegaglia also called for the inclusion of a structured European roadmap on EU industrial policy strategy in the Commission work programme 2017. “If we do not wake up now to defend the collective interests of Europe again, we will all end up in misery and poverty” concluded President Marcegaglia. Speech - Photos - Photo copyright: European Union