Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-25-Speech-3-175"
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"en.20050525.18.3-175"2
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".
Madam President, I should like to start by congratulating the rapporteur, who, by focussing on the right issues, has secured an increase in funding. It must not be assumed, however, that more money automatically means a better programme.
I was present at the special meeting held in Strasbourg when the Commissioner spoke for the first time about his personal experience of this multiannual programme for SMEs, and I paid very close attention to what he had to say on the matter. In a nutshell, he said that he had been shocked to learn of the cumbersome application process, particularly in view of the fact that the programme was intended to boost innovation. He had also been shocked to discover that the main recipients of funding were not the small and medium
sized enterprises that needed it most, but resourceful enterprises that knew the ins and outs of the programmes and were therefore granted money. In his opinion, it is for this reason that the programmes ought to be made more rigorous.
I should like to congratulate the Commissioner, as his analysis is entirely correct. I am glad to see that there appears to have been a shift in thinking on this matter, and he deserves thanks for having made SMEs the focus of initiatives for growth and increased competitiveness. We will be right behind him if he goes on to demand of his officials that programmes should exist not merely for bureaucratic reasons or because they have impressive names, but only if they concentrate on SMEs, or in other words on those enterprises that are in need of help. We have had enough of programmes that are nothing more than fancy names; what we need now are clear and innovative strategies for SMEs and new forms of financing.
In future, these programmes will be combined in the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. This is both a consistent approach and a step in the right direction, and I particularly welcome the fact that parallels will exist between this Programme and the Seventh Research Framework Programme. We must not repeat past mistakes, however, even if everything is now to be combined in a new document. What matters is that growth and jobs are the ultimate goals, rather than the ideological gratification of political groups. Yet we are running the risk of this being precisely what happens in the case of the CIP; one need only look at the heavy emphasis on eco
innovations and energy efficiency for proof of this. More questions need to be asked in this respect, and I will be able to ask some of these in my capacity as rapporteur.
We are about to adopt a new Financial Perspective, at a time when the citizens of all the EU Member States are being increasingly careful with their money. They will regard it as unforgivable if we, their legislator, miss the opportunity now available to us to opt for the provision of real support to SMEs and for priority to be given to creating more jobs, and if we instead indulge in ideological disputes."@en1
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