mr president like the previous speaker i would also like to thank all the interpreters for having to listen to our speeches
i am sure it gives you much less pleasure than it gives us
two of my personal mottoes for reasons which may not be obvious are small is beautiful and size does not matter
i represent london which i think is the greatest city in the world capital of the greatest country in the world
even though we no longer have our smokestack industries we are full of small innovative businesses in the creative industries and fashion industry creating jobs all the time in a real growth area
as the previous speaker said we see a lot of european regulation aimed at supposedly helping business but quite often it is the result of lobbying by large businesses who want to keep small businesses out
there was one notable large business i had dinner with a few years ago that described small businesses as freeloaders
it is that sort of attitude that we need to tackle
we also need to help small businesses when it comes to public procurement and competing with large businesses but especially in the current times in dealing with the shortage of credit to make sure that viable businesses continue to grow and create wealth and jobs in the european union
