EFES

Dear Deb,
Congratulation, this is a first main step.
What are the practices? What are the laws or policies and how are they
changing? There is already a big lot of changes in most European countries
since the matrix you found in the PEPPER II Report of 1996-1997.
In Belgium, my country, we have now a strong support from our new
government, and we have already a new law on stock options which is in
application from begin 1999; many companies have already taken this
opportunity to set up plans.
At European level, for the first time this year, we convinced the European
Parliament to add an amendment to the Budget 2000, so there will be a
budgetary line to promote PEPPER policies throughout Europe.
We hope that the support of the European Commission could become more real in the
future, and we hope that they will publish their programme in this sense, as
the European Parliament asked them.
A first main step is to organize and promote the exchanges of information on
what happens in our different countries. This is what the PEPPER Report
already saw as a priority, some ten years ago. Clearly, a permanent matrix
on laws and practices is one of the basic needs.
The second basic need is that we have to set up, in each country (and at
European level) a national institute to promote this and to organize these
exchanges really, not only as a private initiative like ours, but as a
collective, political one. This is what the European Parliament called for.
Thank you very much and congratulation again to make it real!
With very best wishes

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