Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-10-Speech-2-202"
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"en.20090310.28.2-202"2
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"Mr President, I supported this report because – as we have already heard – small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Many Member States’ plans for economic recovery stress the important role small businesses can play in bringing us out of the present crisis.
99.2% of my region’s businesses employ fewer than 49 people. The West Midlands has the highest proportion of small businesses of any region in the UK. Providing that proper consideration is made of Member States’ competences in areas such as collective bargaining rights, this report will go a long way towards making sure that we all think small first.
I especially welcome the emphasis in this report on the difficulties that small businesses are facing in accessing credit, time and resources for education and training, and – most importantly – for research. National borders, increasingly, are irrelevant to small businesses, which are doing more business with partners across Europe. However, we do need to protect them when they engage in cross-border trading through measures such as my recovery of debtors’ assets report.
The EU also has a key role to play in ensuring that SMEs have access to funding, which means we should ensure that non-bank microcredit is made available. We can do this by using structural funds and developing microcredit institutions without taking money from the taxpayer. This initiative can curb unemployment and restart our economy."@en1
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