CSU Lunch Debate
On Thursday, November 19th 2015 SME Europe of the EPP invited in collaboration with the Brussels Branch of the CSU party to a lunch debate in the House of Europe with the theme “family – home – heritage”.
Dr. Horst Heitz, Executive Director of SME Europe, and Dr. Udo Box, Chairman of the CSU party in Brussels, opened the lunch talk and gave two speeches on the subject “family – home – heritage” before Peter Jahr MEP, Member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, took over.
Peter Jahr MEP spoke about the concept of “family – home – heritage” and noted that there have been many attempts to abolish this term. However, this had never succeeded because people still related important values to its meaning. He emphasized that tradition connects and “Property is the root of happiness”.
Afterwards Herbert Dorfmann MEP raised the issue of society models. It is necessary to question these models and avoid parallel societies. The term “family – home – heritage” is not physically accessible and is represented best by family businesses. Based on this claim, the term is still well established because of 14 million family owned companies in Europe. Nevertheless, these businesses are in danger as the owners increase in age and successors are rare, due to change of priorities of the younger generation which increasingly found start –ups in other trade areas. This development should be limited by incentives such as tax breaks.
Towards the end, a discussion took place, in which the questions “Does a fair tax rate exist?” and “Could we solve the problem of lacking security for refugees by supporting family businesses in their home country?” were treated.
The first question was treated by Peter Jahr MEP, who claims that a tax is only fair if it solely affects the money owner, after all costs, possesses. It requires a differentiation between the cash, which is needed for the business, and the capital, which is leftover. Herbert Dorfmann MEP addressed the issue with the following words: “The question of justice is a question of the political view”. The second question was, in turn, answered by Peter Jahr MEP, who sees the root of the problem in the lack of development of the rural areas in these countries. Large enterprises are dominant in these areas, only hiring a few locals. In short, the broad masses have no chance, unless something is done about it.
To finish up, Dr. Horst Heitz emphasized that this lunch debate was a great starting point for the discussion and that the overall awareness for small and medium-sized family businesses, home and heritage has www.genericcialisonlinestore.com to be raised more frequently.
