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The further development of trade and business, including SMEs, and an increase in prosperity are key to advancement of the Eastern Partnership and ensuring peace and stability in the Eastern partner countries of the European Union. This was emphasised today by the organisers of the Eastern Partnership Business Forum – the President of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia, Vitālijs Gavrilovs, and the General Director of the BUSINESSEUROPE European Business Confederation, Markus J. Beyrer – as well as the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn.
The patron of the Forum is the President of the Republic of Latvia, Andris Bērziņš, who in his keynote speech emphasised the need to create an economically integrated common trade and investment space within the framework of the EU. In the context of the Eastern Partnership, this provides an opportunity to develop trade and transport infrastructure by joining the dynamic Baltic and Black Sea regions. The President also highlighted the need for joint efforts to create modern regional transport corridors, in order to join the prospective Euro-Asian multimodal connections and seize opportunities for further cooperation with the Central Asian countries with which Latvia has already established close and mutually beneficial contacts.
Commissioner Hahn, in announcing a new financial support programme for the Eastern partner countries, emphasised the leading role of entrepreneurship and stated that a sufficiently prosperous society is a pre-requisite for ensuring stability in the region. At the same time, the Commissioner stressed that Eastern Partnership cooperation does not just flow in one direction, so the commitment of the Eastern partner countries and their contribution to implementing reforms are also of key importance.
The President of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia, Vitālijs Gavrilovs, emphasised that: "Europe is looking at the Eastern Partnership as a political and economic tool to promote European values in a wider region, and that is the right approach. However, looking from the business perspective, meeting business organisations from the Eastern partner countries and being aware of the processes going on there, it is quite clear that we have not used the full potential of this partnership to facilitate business and trade within the region.”
Acknowledging that need, the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia and BUSINESSEUROPE have developed recommendations for political leaders, calling on them to facilitate trade and improve the business environment within the region and promote systematic public-private sector dialogue. The recommendations also highlight the need to strengthen the capacity of entrepreneurs and employers’ organisations and to contribute to good governance, as well as to promote development of the transport, energy and digital sectors and access to finance for business.
The Employers’ Confederation of Latvia emphasised that Business Cooperation Councils are a useful tool to promote entrepreneurship. The Confederation has already set up seven bilateral Business Cooperation Councils between the Confederation and similar employers’ organisations in non-EU countries. The Councils serve as useful fora for business networking, identifying administrative barriers faced by businesses, and looking for appropriate solutions in the interests of international trade. A similar cooperation mechanism would be needed at European level as well, by creating such councils between BUSINESSEUROPE and other business organisations in non-EU countries.
The Director General of BUSINESSEUROPE, Markus J. Beyrer said: "Two years have passed since the previous Eastern Partnership Business Forum, giving us sufficient time to look back at what has been done and what should be done in the future. The level of communications between the EU and its Eastern partner countries has definitely deepened, as has communication among the Eastern partner countries themselves, and that is good. However, we have to understand that business growth is a key factor that definitely requires reforms in those countries, including improvements in investment safety and the business environment and the facilitation of public-private sector dialogue. Experience shows that in countries where the dialogue is intensive and works well, economic development is also much more active.”
The Business Forum was organised by the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council, the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia and BUSINESSEUROPE. The strategic partners of the event were the Employers’ Group at the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Investment Bank, and the partners were the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), Lattelecom, Latvenergo and EastInvest.
In the margins of the forum, the delegates also hold bilateral meetings in order to facilitate partnerships between businesses and companies from the EU, the Eastern Partnership countries and countries around the world.
