European Union

Advocacy and lobbying in the EU is vital for Finnish businesses, as over half the regulations affecting businesses originate in the EU. Suomen Yrittäjät participates both in the preparation of EU law in Finland and lobbies at the EU level in Brussels.

In Finland, we make an impact on EU law through the government’s preparative sub-committees.

Suomen Yrittäjät has a permanent office in Brussels, where it lobbies on EU affairs in cooperation with the Finnish transport trade organization Finmobility. Suomen Yrittäjät focuses its advocacy on the EU’s key initiating and decision-making bodies: the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament. In this, we take advantage of our broad enterprise stakeholder and influencer network in Brussels.

An important support for the EU advocacy of Suomen Yrittäjät is the European SME organization SMEunited, which lobbies on EU legislation from a European SME perspective. It represents 70 SME organizations in 30 countries, who in turn have 12 million SME members. Suomen Yrittäjät actively participates in SMEunited’s working groups and committees, which decide on common advocacy positions. The Chairperson of Suomen Yrittäjät chairs the Social Affairs Committee and is a vice president in the organization.

Suomen Yrittäjät has a representative on the EU’s European Economic and Social Committee, which brings together employer and employee organizations and other stakeholders. The committee’s key task is to bring the view of civil society to the EU’s legislative initiatives through its opinions to the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission.

Read more about EU affairs in our EU information pack: