
This year's
EuroCommerce General Assembly was held in Rome at the ConfCommercio head
quarters and GRTU president Paul Abela attended. The meeting was presided by
EuroCommerce President Lady Neville-Rolfe and Director General Christian
Verschueren.
The General
Assembly concluded that the next five years will be decisive to regain a
situation of growth and employment in Europe. In this regard commerce can
provide an important contribution but
this only if the right political and economic conditions are created.
Despite
the crisis and the drop in consumption that have affected many countries it
remains a solid fact that the digital age is going through major
transformations. In Europe, one in four businesses pertain to this sector,
which is worth 11% of European value added and employs nearly 30 million
people. There are, however, still obstacles and difficulties which hamper its
development, such as the lack of effective implementation of the single market
for goods and services and the lack of flexibility of the labor market in some
EU countries.
EuroCommerce
has identified a number of proposals for the next five years mainly targeted at
the digital sector that support use of new technologies by entrepreneurs and
consumer in retail.