Mrs. President,
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honor for me to close the 3rd subregional conference of the OSCE parliamentary assembly, which has been dedicated to the promotion of small and medium sized enterprises.

I am happy to bring you the greetings and best wishes of my federal parliamentary chamber, the "Ständerat" or "Senate", the upper chamber of our system, in which each canton is represented by two elected delegates. Some call it the "chambre de réflexion", a term which is difficult to translate adequately into English, but which tries to express the image, that this chamber's members have of themselves, namely that they ponder all of the difficult political questions in an different - and of course much better - way than the lowly lower chamber.... ! I hope my talk will convince you that this might indeed be true...!

Your debates have shown clearly, that in a tense international economic situation it is our duty as parliamentarians to do what we can to assure economic and political security and justice to individuals and to peoples. Security and justice are unattainable without stability. Stability depends not only on political conditions, but to a very high degree - and perhaps even foremost - on sustainable economic and social development. It is this insight which has brought you together to discuss, as OSCE-Parliamentarians, how to promote small and medium sized enterprises.

Small and medium sized enterprises are the backbones of all of our national economies. By sheer number, by the number of jobs they provide and also by the volume of their economic output, SMEs by far outweigh large transnational enterprises. They play the leading role in creating economic wealth, they provide work for most of the gainfully employed and are thus the main guarantors of a socially balanced, just and dynamic society. I welcome your initiative to dedicate your political attention to this sustainable sector of the global economy rather than to focus on the much more visible, but less socially constructive large transnational companies. By this statement I - as the senator of Basel, home of such global companies as Novartis or Roche - do not want to belittle their importance; they are very powerful players in the development of international trade and cultural exchange. But - to say it by extending my metaphor of just a minute-ago - they are the wings of our economies, whilst the SMEs are their backbones. Wings must be attached to the body's backbone, or they won't help you fly!

SMEs are mostly innovative, very competitive, very quick in adapting to changing economic conditions-, they are close to their employees, they have strong roots in local communities, they can use and promote solidarity with and among their employees in difficult times much better than the big players, whose most frequent reaction when in trouble is to downsize employment and output rather than to try to adapt and dive through the next wave of economic mischief that is coming upon them. SMEs are much less dependent on the global financial markets, on the many analysts of investment banks who can make or brake a company almost by flicking their fingers. With all of these tremendous assets they provide the economic stability and sustainability which our economies need soreiy particularly today.

One evident sign of this truth is the fact, that throughout the world large companies and their managements are - with a few exceptions of course - facing severe crises of confidence, brought about by atrocious misbehaviour of some and by mismanagement of many among them. The obvious lack of transparency of these economic elephants is one reason for this; the even more obvious abuse of this intransparency is the real reason, however. This could not have and has not happened in most of the SMEs, and if it did in some, it did not shake the global economy to the extent that it has been shaken by recent, very ugly and to me almost unbelievable events.

These observations are valid not only in developing, but also in developed economies; this economic truth governs Switzerland as a small and highly developed nation just as it governs that of much larger, but less developed societies. In my country, the number of SMEs is particularly impressive. There are only 1000 companies with more than 250 employees for the more than 275'000 that employ fewer than 10 people, with the remaining 35'000 employing between 10 and 250! SMEs thus constitute by far the majority of all enterprises; they are the very tissue of our economy, offering about two thirds of all of our jobs! Without them, our economy would simply not exist.

Swiss politics is plainly conscious of this fact. We have chosen to follow economic policies, which actively support and promote SMEs. In the last few years we have been preoccupied with improving the basic conditions of our regulatory body in their interest, particularly by keeping the fiscal burden as moderate as possible. A may be even more important aspect of these policies is to keep a sharp eye on non-fiscal burdens such as administrative, overly bureaucratic procedures, which weigh very heavily on small, not overstaffed businesses in particular. There are nowadays in my country so many rules and regulations to follow - regarding social justice, protection of the environment, ecological sustainability, international treaties and many other just causes - that an average SME has trouble just being aware of all of them, let alone interpreting and obeying them in a reasonable manner.

Therefore, in my country we begin to understand that legislation must not only be perfect in political and social theory, but more importantly that it must be applicable in practice in a reasonable, rapid and uncomplicated way. Sometimes this requirement leads to less elaborate, maybe less perfect, may be even outright imperfect legislation in the technical sense, but it certainly can lead to legislation which does not kill the cows whose milk we need and are all drinking day by day: the SMEs!

Of course, there are further steps which politics can take to help the SMEs. In Switzerland we are actually discussing in Parliament a law that aims at promoting the export of goods and services manufactured or offered by our SMEs. We do this because we believe, that SMEs must - in spite of their local roots - learn to expose themselves to the strong winds of global competition, if they want to stay creative and by that competitive even in their local markets. The law is intended to make the first steps of SMEs on the global market less of a risky adventure and more of a planable and safe journey.

Mrs. President,
dear Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Switzerland does not live in a haven safe from the economic turbulences of today's global economy. Nevertheless, it would be quite indecent to put our sorrows on the same level as those of countries that laboriously try to find their way into a free market economy. But even for us, the thirty glorious years of the „fin de siècle" economic boom are over. Our children's future may well be less prosperous than was mine when I was young. I do not complain about this; it is probably part of the development of the global economy towards more social justice among the many peoples; at least I hope that this is so, because the prime importance of global social justice is a cornerstone of my political convictions.

What can we do as Parliamentarians to promote social justice and to bring the global economy into a better, into a just equilibrium? We must provide a legal and political framework, which gives each individual's unique creativity a chance to develop into activities, that are for the good of ail of us. We must never relinquish our efforts in this task. We must be the guarantors of the essential cultural freedom to develop a person's best traits, we must give enough political and legal living space to create and entrepreneurial individuals, and we must constantly try to improve the framework in which they have to live. Without this continued effort, there will not be any end to the recurrence of grave crises, which - in the end - endanger not only our economic, but - as we sadly must realize these days - also our sheer physical existence. He who has nothing to lose will gladly offer his life in protest to injustice and repression, be it political or economical.

Ladies and Gentlemen

In the past two days you have led a very useful and even necessary dialogue, you have been able to exchange your experiences and to find common solutions to common problems. I have noted that you have worked out an excellent "Declaration of Berne". It is our duty as politicians and as economic players to work on its implementation, everyone at his or her place. I am confident that the 23 statements of Berne will soon become the economic complement of the 10 statements of Helsinki. The world would be that much the better for it!

I wish you a pleasant end of your conference and good weather to those who will take part in tomorrow's excursion into the lovely Gruyère region.

Thank you for your attention!