FHI is a member of MKB-Nederland and René Dijkstra represents our federation in the main board. This main board consists of delegations from various trade associations, ranging from Horeca Nederland to bakers, butchers and accountants. It goes without saying that the interests of all these trade associations do not always align, so that MKB-Nederland focuses primarily on topics that concern all companies.
As FHI, we have two spearheads. The first is a practical approach in the field of 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 give a practical interpretation to the challenges that await us. The other spearhead is technical education. With the current tightness on the labour market, it is of great importance that the next generation of technicians is trained. Here, specific attention is also paid 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 are a good couple and, especially behind the scenes, they arrange many things that concern us all. Much of this does not even make the news, or should we say, not at all. As Jacco puts it: “If you see me in the news, the case has actually already been lost.” This is the fate of the lobbyist: if he is successful, you do not really notice much. As an example: the Minister of Education, Culture and Science planned to combat internship discrimination by having educational organizations assign interns to companies without the company having any further say in the matter.
In many cases, data is indispensable and your help is also indispensable. MKB-Nederland has set up an entrepreneur panel for this purpose where short surveys are held on specific topics. Register for this at the SME Entrepreneurs PanelIt is a small effort and helps the business community to substantiate and thus realize its wishes and objectives.
Some other important themes besides education and the energy transition are regulatory pressure, wage development, fiscal 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 topic, this initially applies to larger companies, but since they will be responsible for the entire chain, SMEs will certainly also be affected by this.
Before each board meeting, Andreas Meijer and René Dijkstra have a preliminary meeting. Here, the agenda and documents are reviewed and it is determined what the FHI wants to contribute and what we more or less 'vote along with'. 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 addressed at MKB-Nederland level, we would like to hear from you. This can be done via info@fhi.nl.
Nederlands