Introduction

CEBRE - Czech Business Representation to the EU in Brussels was founded by three most important cross sectoral Czech entrepreneurial and employers organizations - Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs' Associations of the Czech Republic, Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and Czech Chamber of Commerce. Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic together with its trade promotion agency CzechTrade provided support to this joint effort. CEBRE operates in Brussels in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic to Belgium.

Priorities of CEBRE founders and currently discussed European legislation determine CEBRE activities. Priority themes are set for the period of 6-12 months and on their basis a lobbying strategy and concrete activities are prepared.

In 2011, the priority themes are:

• Single Market Act (including an evaluation of Service Directive)

• Industrial policy

• Taxes – revision of VAT system, Common Consolidate Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB)

• Consumer Rights

• Transport – White book “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area“

• Trade Policy

• Smart Regulation / administrative burden reduction

• Evaluation of SBA implementation and SMEs policy

CEBRE - Czech Business Representation:

• Is a united representation of the Czech business community.
• Provides entrepreneurs and their organizations with the information and services facilitating their functioning on the Internal European Market.
• Represents various Czech business and employers' organizations at their pan-European counterparts based in Brussels.
• Promotes the interests of Czech businesses vis-a-vis the EU institutions and European associations.

CEBRE focuses on helping Czech business community to succeed in the enlarged EU by providing up-to-date relevant information, customized training for managers and analyses of EU affairs. Besides that CEBRE represents its founding organizations vis-a-vis European organizations and associations they participate in. These include BusinessEurope (former UNICE), Eurochambres, UEAPME and Eurocommerce. CEBRE is also a member of NIROC (Network of Interest Representation Offices from Candidate Countries) and Cercle Tcheque (informal platform for bringing together representatives of Czech entities operating in Brussels). Since 2008 CEBRE has been registered with European Transparency Register under identification number 9412010322-35.

To find out more about activities of CEBRE and its founding organizations as well as about current economic developments in the Czech Republic you can have a look at our magazine Czech Business Today. If you are based in Brussels and would like to receive Czech Business Today by post, let us know your mailing address at brussels@cebre.cz.