The 5th Craft, Trade and SME Summit took place on 7-8 April in Graz, Austria. The Summit, which was attended by 100 representatives from SME and craft organisations from 23 different European countries, focused on two key issues: the European social model and flexicurity.

Mr Martin Bartenstein, Austrian Minister for Economics and Labour, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Austrian Presidency of the EU. He discussed with the audience the results of the recent EU Spring Council and their relevance for SMEs.

The first working session focused on Economic Reforms and the European Social Model. The general consensus among speakers, Marcel Canoy from the Bureau of Policy Advisers at the European Commission and Prof. Karl Aiginger from the Austrian Economic Research Institute, was that there is no contradiction in terms between economic reforms and social models. However, each social model must be analysed to check if it either supports or hinders economic reforms. References were also made to the UEAPME position paper "The European Social Model and the European economic reform agenda - a contradiction or complementary policies?".

 Prof Karl Aiginger, WIFO: Economic Reforms and the European Social Model: A Contradiction?

The second working session, entitled "How to combine flexibility and security", signs the beginning of a debate between trade unions and SMEs on employment issues. Trade unions have traditionally focused on employment in large businesses, without fully understanding the issues SMEs face in this field. Due to their size and economic position, SMEs cannot provide security exclusively at company level; social dialogue and tripartite coordination are the only workable way to get a good mix of flexibility and security in the SME sector. Both speakers agreed that there is a need to further debate flexicurity and dealing with associated issues such as undeclared work, integration of low qualified workers and lifelong training.

 Reiner Hoffmann, ETUC: SMEs and the European Economic and Social Model
 Gerhard Huemer, UEAPME: Flexicurity – why it’s useful for crafts and SMEs?

The second day started with a presentation by Françoise Le Bail, SME Envoy and Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise at the European Commission. Ms Le Bail spoke about the new support measures by the European Commission for Crafts and SMEs. She underlined the importance of partnership with SMEs to achieve workable policies, which cannot be made by the Commission alone.

The third working session dealt with "Co-operation between Craft and SME associations in Europe". The following presentations are available:

 Christine Faes, UNIZO: UNIZO projects in Central and Eastern Europe
 Prof. Ovidiu Nicolescu, CNIPMMR: Support offered by Public Authorities to Romanian SMEs and CNIPMMR collaboration with organisations from the “old” member states
 Oliver Loebel, UEAPME: Lessons from the PHARE Business Support Programme
 Hans-Werner Mueller, UEAPME: Co-operation between Craft and SME associations in Europe