General director of RGDATA Tara Buckley was in Brussels last week to represent the interests of independent Irish shops and supermarkets in advising MEP Dennis de Jong on what the EU must do to help their businesses survive and compete in the EU marketplace.
Dutch Socialist Party representative, de Jong organised the meeting alongside Independent Retail Europe to call on retail groups to present him with a practical ‘shopping list’ of how to best support small shops.
Topics debated ranged from better regulation for smaller independent shops and what EU regulators are currently doing to assist smaller retailers, to how groups of independent shop owners can face the challenge of online retail.
Confirming RGDATA’s planned contribution to the list, Buckley stated, “The revival of rural town centres and the survival of locally owned shops are key issues throughout the EU. The Commission needs to adopt policies and regulations that contribute to their survival and must stop adding to the red tape burden for SMEs.”
Along with RGDATA, contributors to the meeting included representatives from the EU Commission; the UK’s Better Regulation Delivery Office and MEP de Jong, as well as from different independent retail associations and Independent Retail Europe.
The industry representatives presented practical information to the EU Commission representatives on the how EU regulations impact on small independent businesses, while there were also presentations on some of the tools being used to assist SMEs to be compliant with business regulations. [Photo courtesy of Kurt Raschke]
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Jenny Whelan.
