FHI is a member of MKB-Nederland and René Dijkstra represents our federation on the main board. This main board consists of delegations from various trade organizations, ranging from Horeca Nederland to bakers, butchers and accountants. It goes without saying that the interests of all these trade associations are not always aligned, so MKB-Nederland mainly focuses on topics that affect all companies.
As FHI we have two spearheads. The first is a practical approach in the field of climate and more specifically the energy transition and the 'nitrogen discussion'. Many of our members play a role here for one reason or another and as such can give a practical interpretation to the challenges that await us. The other spearhead is innovation.
The executive board meets every month under the chairmanship of Marijke Vuik, supported by Leendert-Jan Visser and the MKB-Nederland team. Marijke and Leendert-Jan make a good team and, especially behind the scenes, manage to arrange many matters that concern us all. Much of this does not even make the news, or should we say, mostly not the news. As former chairman Jacco Vonhof puts it: “If you see me in the news, the case is essentially already lost.” This is the fate of the lobbyist: if he is successful, you don't really notice much. As an example: the Minister of Education, Culture and Science planned to combat internship discrimination by assigning internships to companies through educational organizations without the company having any further say in the matter.
In many cases, data is indispensable and your help is also indispensable. To this end, MKB-Nederland has set up an entrepreneurial panel where short surveys are conducted on specific topics. Register for this at the SME Entrepreneurs Panel. It is a small effort and helps the business community to substantiate its wishes and objectives and thus realize them.
Some other important themes in addition to education and the energy transition are regulatory pressure, wage developments, tax matters and (international) responsible entrepreneurship and the related CSRD obligations (Corporate Social Responsibility Directive) that will come our way in the short term. With regard to the latter subject, this initially applies to larger companies, but since they become responsible for the entire chain, SMEs will certainly also have to deal with this.
Prior to every board meeting, Andreas Meijer, Marc Berkouwer, and René Dijkstra hold a preliminary meeting. During this meeting, the agenda and documents are reviewed, and it is determined what the FHI wishes to contribute and where we will more or less simply 'vote in agreement'. It is not always easy to get our points across effectively, but we view this as a challenge.
If there are specific topics or questions that can be raised at SME Netherlands level, we would like to hear from you. That can be done via info@fhi.nl or via the member survey.
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