BIRMINGHAM, England (AFP) - Britain's business leaders gather for their annual conference in the country's second city Birmingham this week, with the thorny issues of European bureaucracy and jobs outsourcing set to dominate debate.
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the country's biggest business association, was to hold a two-day conference in this central England city, beginning Monday.
Its 28th annual gathering was to feature keynote speeches from Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, EU trade commissioner designate Peter Mandelson and CBI director general Digby Jones.
It takes place amid mounting speculation that Britain's Labour government, seen as business-friendly nowadays despite its socialist roots, would call a general election early next year as it looks to win a third consecutive term.
"This is a conference about the future," Jones said ahead of the gathering.
"Can the European Commission foster a more positive relationship with British business?... How should we respond to the offshoring challenge in an increasingly globalised economy?
"And how will the political parties develop a meaningful pro-business agenda as we enter the run up to a general election?" he added.
Britain's economy is in "good shape", the CBI acknowledged last week, amid a backdrop of strong economic growth as well as low unemployment and inflation.
But the business grouping is worried about increasing Brussels bureaucracy, arguing that it risked damaging Britain's economy by eroding the country's flexible labour market.
"There are dangers and continual and growing signs that the EU intends to take labour market protection too far and in a way which could be extremely harmful to the UK economy," CBI deputy director general John Cridland said.
The CBI is unhappy at recent Brussels proposals to reform EU laws on working hours, aimed notably at cutting abuse by Britain of rules which cap the working week at 48 hours across the 25-member bloc.
"The concern of business is that our competitive edge on labour market flexibility is being chipped away at increasingly by European social policy which is tending to harmonise a labour market in a way which is unhelpful and indigestible to UK business," Cridland said.
Also likely to cause lively debate at the conference was the move by British businesses to increasingly relocate thousands of jobs abroad, notably to Asia, where companies are finding skilled, mainly back-office, workers for cheaper wages.
The CBI supports outsourcing, increasingly being carried out by the financial sector, arguing that it actually leads to companies having to better train staff at home in order to remain competitive.
The two-day conference was meanwhile expected also to touch upon the state of Britain's public services and the increasing need for business to be aware of security concerns amid worldwide terrorism dangers.
"The war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism has pushed security to the top of every business agenda," the CBI said.
11/07/2004 - 09:42 GMT - AFP