FHI is a member of MKB-Nederland and since January René Dijkstra has represented 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.
By: René Dijkstra
As FHI we have two spearheads. The first is a practical approach to the 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 provide practical solutions to the challenges that await us. The other spearhead is technical education. With the current shortage on the labor market, it is very important that the next generation of technicians is trained. Specific attention is also paid here to the share of women in technology.
The main board meets every month under the chairmanship of Jacco Vonhof, supported by Leendert-Jan Visser and the MKB-Nederland team. Jacco and Leendert-Jan make a good couple and, especially behind the scenes, arrange many matters that affect us all. Much of this doesn't even make it into the news, or should we say it doesn't even make it into the news. As Jacco puts it: “If you see me in the news, the case is actually already lost.” This is the fate of the lobbyist: if he is successful you don't really notice it. As an example: the Minister of Education, Culture and Science planned to combat internship discrimination by educational organizations assigning interns to companies without the company having any further control over this.
First and foremost, SME Netherlands and the vast majority of companies support the minister in his fight against internship discrimination. The only question is whether this 'solution' would lead to the desired goal or whether many entrepreneurs would generally withdraw from their internships. MKB-Nederland succeeded in convincing the minister to withdraw this part of the plan. This does not alter the fact that we as a business community have an important task to tackle this problem, which does exist.
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.
Before each board meeting, Paul Petersen, Andreas Meijer and René Dijkstra have a preliminary meeting. The agenda and documents are examined and it is determined what the FHI wants to contribute and what we more or less simply 'agree' to. It is not always easy to get our points across properly, but we see 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.
Nederlands