Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-10-Speech-1-123"
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"en.20011210.6.1-123"2
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". – Mr President, we received with great interest the report by Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs concerning the second annual report on growth and employment initiatives. I very much appreciate the spirit of cooperation with the rapporteur and the favourable comments made on the annual report. In particular, I know that the committee's report – and I quote: "welcomes generally the content and analysis within the thorough and more comprehensive 2000 report and commends the Commission and the EIF where progress has been made".
I would like to address the main points raised by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in the report prepared by Mr Bushill-Matthews and have grouped my comments under three headings: provision of information to Parliament and its timing, geographical coverage and an updating of the instruments.
Firstly on the provision of information. All the completion of the formal Commission procedures for the adoption of such a report may appear too long and, frankly, sometimes it is. The Commission has helped the rapporteur by providing an advance copy of the report before publication. We intend to continue this practice of keeping the rapporteur informed prior to the completion of the formal Commission procedure. We also explored to what extent we can share with the rapporteur the quarterly information received from the EIF without the need for a formal Commission procedure. It should be noted that this quarterly information is mainly used for operational purposes. It is to ensure appropriate monitoring of the programmes by the Commission services and cannot be relied upon to provide the same degree of accuracy and detail expected by the annual report.
Secondly, on geographical coverage. The geographical distribution of the project signed under both the ETF start-up and the SME guarantee programmes varies considerably. The difficulties of implementing ETF start-up in all countries of the Union stems from the different stage of development of the venture capital market in various countries, coupled with the requirement that ETF start-up only invests
with at least 50% of capital provided by the private sector. In those countries where little venture capital activity exists it is difficult, if not impossible, to meet the second condition. In the meantime the take-up of the facility has successfully continued with another foreign investment signed and three more being processed, all together corresponding to a geographical coverage of eleven countries.
As you can see from our annual report the distribution for SME guarantee is most satisfactory. The initial high take-up in Germany and France was attributable to the existence of well-developed national guarantee programmes in those two countries which were able to take advantage rapidly of this facility.
Thirdly, on the instruments. The three instruments of the growth and employment initiative have been integrated into the new multiannual programme for enterprise and entrepreneurship and in particular SMES 2001-2005. A change in market conditions prompted the Commission to suggest a refocusing of ETF start-up further upstream: seed, early stage and incubators. Similarly, it led the Commission to propose diversification in the SME guarantee portfolios, for instance towards microloans in favour of the smallest enterprises and ICT loans that allow small enterprises to take advantage of the potential of electronic commerce.
Finally, with regard to the simplification of joint European ventures, our legal and budget experts have come to the conclusion that the Council decision on the multiannual programme for enterprise and entrepreneurship does not allow simplification in significant terms. To achieve this, a new Council decision would be required and such a decision would also need a new budget appropriation. Before submitting an appropriate proposal to the Council on which Parliament would be consulted, the Commission services are working on a full assessment of a joint European venture.
In the light of this assessment, the competent Commission services may submit a proposal to reduce considerably the life of the joint European venture programme and so that the whole budget will not be used. But I and my services will keep you informed accordingly of any developments in this regard."@en1
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