The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) presented its quality systems scheme at an event hosted by the Lisbon Network at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. The focus of the event was public procurement and SMEs in relation to the Lisbon Strategy, and chairman Peter Skinner MEP welcomed PCG’s overview of an ISO9001 certification scheme designed to help small freelance businesses tender for public contracts.
PCG believes that one of the most direct ways of increasing the competitiveness of the economy is to open public procurement — which represents 16 per cent of the European Union’s gross domestic product — to smaller businesses and the self-employed. PCG estimates that there are as many as 12 million freelancers in the EU, and says that, with this growing trend set to continue, policy makers should recognise and embrace the contribution that self-employment can make to greater labour market flexibility and EU competitiveness.
“As a young and dynamic organisation representing the freelance community in the UK, we welcome the chance to share our ideas for encouraging growth and to inject some real impetus,” said PCG chief executive, John Thomas. “Policy makers must move on from the rhetoric and start promoting practical initiatives if the EU economy is going to be able to compete globally. PCG (QS), our innovative quality scheme, is about empowering SMEs to compete in markets from which they were previously excluded. This can have a dynamic impact on the Lisbon Strategy, and I firmly believe that this is an opportunity that has to be grasped.
“We need to change the culture within public institutions. Only by opening up their contracts to smaller businesses will they be able to meet the challenges of a changing world and improve their public services. We also need to influence all those policy makers who are accustomed to thinking of work in terms of ‘employers’ and ‘employees’. One in seven workers in the UK have chosen to work for themselves, and the time has come for this ‘third way’, as we call it, to be recognised, encouraged and valued, rather than being dismissed as atypical or undesirable. We will continue in our efforts to develop alliances with counterparts throughout the EU and ensure that the voice of the self-employed is heard by policy makers across the continent.”
Peter Skinner said, “Like so many good ideas, PCG’s quality scheme is very simple, but it also represents just the kind of imaginative and direct approach that we need if Europe is to create jobs and growth. That’s why I am delighted to welcome PCG to Brussels to raise awareness of the obstacles that freelancers and small businesses encounter in accessing public contracts, and to showcase this effective, pragmatic solution. As co-chair of the Lisbon Network, I’m looking for new ideas that will contribute to Europe’s competitiveness in a practical way.”