The president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), Stavros Andreadis, last week called for the formation of a single lobbying agency for employers that would represent employers in proportion to their contribution to the national economy.

The proposal is right and the government should help in its realization if it wishes to have a credible partner in dialogue for the nation’s problems, rather than a restricted interest group.

The so-called dialogue with social partners – that is, the government’s consultation with the representative bodies of employers and workers – is the surest way to build consensus and avoid harmful clashes over the economy. The European Union has made institutional provisions for the application of the principle of consultation between social partners. The Greek Constitution also requires it (Article 82) and all main interest group agencies are represented in the Economic and Social Committee (OKE), which has now been assigned with the task of organizing the difficult dialogue on social security reform.

The important issue which arises is how representative these agencies are of the opinion of business as a whole. The Greek economy has changed considerably in the last 20 to 30 years – from an agricultural-manufacturing economy it is now a service one. Whereas in 1960 farming made the biggest contribution and was overtaken by manufacturing in 1970, now the country’s largest sector is tourism, followed by commerce, shipping and financial services.

The country now has a developed economy, where the services sector accounts for more than 70 percent of it. Professor Panayiotis Pavlopoulos, the director of the Institute of Tourism Studies, estimates tourism contributes 18-20 percent of gross domestic product and has long supported the idea which Andreadis is now pressing again. However, in spite of this extensive change in the economy, the government’s interlocutors in the social dialogue process remain the same, resulting in a slanted representation of business interests.

For instance, the other day the prime minister invited the social partners to speak at his party’s parliamentary group session. The Federation of Greek Industries (SEV) and its president, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, again held center stage. He was strongly critical of what he claimed were timid reform efforts – not because industry is in danger but because the Competition Commission is preparing a report condemning his company, Vivartia, for participating in a cartel in the market for fresh milk.

But why should SEV have a stronger voice than SETE, for instance, which represents the economy’s most dynamic sector? Besides, to be sure, SEV is not even satisfactorily representative of Greek industries (the biggest firms are not even members of it, and it has been forced to enroll banks and state-run businesses).

It is time for the government to expand its circle in order to be better informed about the economy’s real problems.