BUSINESSEUROPE

BUSINESSEUROPE was established in 1958, after the World War II in order to monitor the political consequences of the Community created by the Rome Treaty. The basic motivation for functioning of BUSINESSEUROPE has remained unchanged since the foundation of the organization. The main goal was to unite the central industrial federations in order to strengthen mutual solidarity; encourage competitive European industrial policy, and to act as spokesman of the business community towards European institutions. BUSINESSEUROPE has never been a sectoral organization, but an organization that is constantly working in relations with the official institutions; it is dealing with current problems, coordinating responses, namely all times at the genral horizontal level.

The Croatian Employers' Association has been a member of BUSINESSEUROPE in the observer status since 1994 and in the associate member status since 2004.

Today the objectives of BUSINESSEUROPE are: to unleash the energy of entrepreneurship, foster innovation, develop the internal market of Member States, to improve labour market functioning, to make environmental policy more effective and efficient, to encourage investment in international trade. As the EU has expanded, BUSINESSEUROPE has grown as well - today the organization has 41 members (European industrial and employers' confederations) from 35 countries, representing more than 20 million companies. They are working together to achieve growth and competitiveness in Europe, and BUSINESSEUROPE is also a very active organization in the European social dialogue (social partners at the European level) and fosters proper functioning of the labour market.

The current structure of the organization includes 7 main committees composed of experts (these are thematic committees: economic and financial affairs, international relations, industrial issues, social issues, legal affairs, entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as the internal market) Organised by the seven main policy committees, and composed of experts nominated by the member federations, there are also working groups with a total of 45 employees. They are extremely important since they are established according to the need for analysis of a specific area relevant to employers' activities and debate proposed EU legislation and come to a consensus view of the impact on enterprises of these proposals. The views are issued as official documents (position papers, consensus papers) that reflect the position of the business community in Europe, on any relevant issue or proposal. There are issued about a hundred of these papers a year.

Management structure comprises of the Council of Presidents whose members are presidents or employees of confederations on higher functions, of all members. It is the highest management body that decides on the general strategy of BUSINESSEUROPE.

Executive Committee comprises of CEOs of member organizations. It transposes the same strategy adopted by the Council of Presidents into activities and tasks to be carried out by the organization. In doing so, the assistance is provided by the Executive Bureau, consisting of representatives of the members of the five largest countries, the country currently holding the EU Presidency, as well as five representatives of and representatives of smaller countries, on a rotation basis.

The role of BUSINESSEUROPE is also highly important because it represents one of the recognized social partners at the cross-sectoral level. Other social partners on the employers' side are: European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – UEAPME, and European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public services (Centre Europeen des entreprises and participation publique et des entreprises d'interet Economique general - CEEP). In fact, agreements of social partners at the cross-sectoral EU level, so-called. Framework Agreements are: Framework agreement on parental leave, 1996th, revised in 2010; Framework agreement on part-time work, 1997, and the framework agreement on fixed-term work, 1999, and they have been transformed into directives and thus have become part of the acquis communautaire. The importance of social dialogue and the impact of the social partners to the European legislation can be seen exactly based on these agreements, In addition to the framework agreements, implemented by the Council's decisions, there are also, so called. voluntary framework agreements that apply at the national level (meaning implemented according to practice of social partners in the Member States), and these are: Framework agreement on telework, 2002., Framework agreement on work-related stress, 2004, Framework Agreement on harassment and violence at work, 2007, and Framework agreement on inclusive labour market, 2010, concluded between BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME, CEEP and ETUC.
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