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The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises or UEAPME is an umbrella group for associations of SMEs based in Brussels, Belgium. UEAPME represents the interests of European crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level. Its 82 member organisations from 34 European countries consist of national cross-sectorial SME federations, European branch federations and other associate members. Its members combined represent more than 12 million enterprises, which employ around 50 million people across Europe. UEAPME is a recognised European Social Partner. ==History== UEAPME was founded in 1980. The first headquarters of the association were in Munich, Germany. After some years in Germany, the organisation moved its headquarters to Brussels, Belgium, where it was established in 1991 as an international not for profit association under Belgian law (AISBL). The acronym UEAPME was made official in this incorporation and stands for “Union Européenne de l’Artisanat et des Petites et Moyennes Enterprises”, i.e. the European Union of Crafts and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The aims of UEAPME as written in its statutes are as follows: * Monitoring the EU policy and legislative process and keeping its members informed on all matters of European Union policy of relevance to crafts, trades and SMEs; * Representing and promoting the interests, needs and opinions of its member organisations to the EU institutions and other international organisations; * Supporting its members academically, technically and legally on all areas of EU policy; * Supporting the idea of European integration and contributing to European co-operation. In 1996, with the support of the European Commission, UEAPME was one of the founding members of the European Office of Crafts, Trades and Small and Medium sized Enterprises for Standardisation, or NORMAPME in short. NORMAPME was created as an international non-profit association under Belgian law. The aims of NORMAPME are to improve the participation of SMEs in European standardisation, to increase the influence of small enterprises in standards making and to help them understand and implement standards. As of 1998, UEAPME is a European Social Partner alongside BUSINESSEUROPE (previously UNICE), the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). In 1996, the first negotiations between UNICE, CEEP and ETUC led to the conclusion of a framework agreement on parental leave. UEAPME challenged the validity of the directive implementing the agreement before the European Court of First Instance, claiming a violation of its own right to negotiate. The complaint was dismissed in June 1998, but the court case created political momentum for the opening of discussions with UNICE, according to the principle of mutual recognition. In November of the same year, the two organisations reached an agreement, further to which UEAPME became a recognised participant in the European social dialogue. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「UEAPME」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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