Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-18-Speech-3-429"
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"en.20060118.25.3-429"2
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"Mr President, there are 25 million small enterprises employing almost 100 million people. These small enterprises provide well over half of private jobs in the EU and are of great importance to regional, cultural and social development, including in rural areas. They deserve to see their opportunities for innovation and competitive prospects discussed every year. As my fellow Members have already pointed out, the importance of these enterprises was underlined today by Wolfgang Schüssel during his presentation of the programme of the Austrian Council Presidency, when he called for us to ‘wake the sleeping giant’. I fully agree with him.
There has also been criticism of the Charter from many quarters, however, on the grounds that it contains too many non-binding appeals. I, too, should like to see substantial measures at Community and, as Commissioner Verheugen said, Member State level. At any event, the 10 lines for action in the Charter are important orientations for enhancing the exchange of best practice, promoting the setting-up of new enterprises and generally creating a positive environment. This starts in school lessons, and we have to set the tone for it from primary level onwards. Once again, Finland is a good example of this. The Netherlands is exemplary with regard to the simplification of regulations, particularly on account of its standardised impact assessments. We agree that work on dismantling the considerable bureaucratic and tax obstacles in the Member States must continue. It is important that subsidies be fully exempt from corporation tax.
A very good report has been drawn up by Mr Bushill-Matthews in our advisory committee, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. I am thinking in particular of the suggestion to draw up a Green Paper on the reduction of these barriers, and of the call for better access to the Structural Funds and to risk capital funds. Personally, I consider it important that small enterprises promote their apprentices and other staff more through transnational exchanges within the framework of programmes such as the Leonardo da Vinci apprentice exchange programme. This will increase mobility and at the same time create one of the preconditions for small- and micro-enterprises to work together very much better in future."@en1
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