Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-18-Speech-2-507"
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"en.20100518.34.2-507"2
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"Mr President, I have now been speaking in my new capacity for two years. Small and medium-sized enterprises continue to constitute a priority for the new Commission, which is convinced of the need to do everything it can to prevent the financial crisis becoming a social crisis that would chiefly affect small and medium-sized enterprises and their employees.
Access by small and medium-sized enterprises to credit has also improved, due to an increase in the sum of credit lines granted by the European Investment Bank to the intermediary banks that are responsible for reallocating the sums to small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of loans. In 2009, the European Investment Bank granted a total amount of EUR 13 billion to financial institutions; the equivalent of a 55% increase over the previous year. For your information, more than 75% of the EUR 21 billion granted in 2008-2009 reached the small and medium-sized enterprises to which they were destined, that is to say, 50 000 small and medium-sized enterprises all over the Union.
A few days ago, the Commission also organised a high level conference where banks, risk capital funds and small and medium-sized enterprises came together; a meeting also attended by representatives from the European Parliament. This allowed us to examine the current market situation and to explore new ideas and strategies to improve access to finances for small and medium-sized enterprises. It was an important occasion for discussing possible courses of action to be undertaken to help enterprises in order to sustain recovery and economic growth.
One of the courses of action that was decided upon was the establishment of a permanent discussion forum with financial institutions, risk capital funds and representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises. Quarterly meetings will be chaired by the European Commission. The conclusions from this forum will constitute the first stage of a strategy intended to establish a plan of action to provide access to credit and capital for small and medium-sized enterprises in our Union.
Finally, I shall take advantage of this debate to inform Parliament that as part of the first European SME Week, more than 1 200 national, regional and local events will be held, concerning a wide range of issues affecting this sector. The SME week will take place between 25 May and 1 June, at the same time as the 2010 European Enterprise Awards ceremony, planned for 31 May in Madrid.
All this is to confirm to you my personal commitment to ensure that employment in our Union can be defended by offering support to small and medium-sized enterprises. The necessary restructuring of large-scale private industry will cause some jobs to be lost, and the only way we can bolster employment is by supporting the development of the small and medium-sized enterprises that represent the backbone of our European economy.
Since the adoption of the Small Business Act in 2008, substantial progress has been made. The Commission has adopted five legislative proposals relating to the Small Business Act, two of which have already been implemented: the block exemption regulation on State aid and the directive on reduced VAT rates; the other three, the directive on late payment, the directive on VAT invoicing and the regulation on a European private company statute, are still under discussion here in Parliament and in the Council.
The Commission has also set in motion the required non-legislative actions; an ‘SME test’ has now been introduced across the board for impact studies, to improve the quality of legislation. To give an example: the directive on late payment, and the exemption of micro-entities from accounting burdens.
Member States have also demonstrated a strong political desire to implement the Small Business Act
for example, they have made the ‘SME test’ part of national decision-making procedures, and small and medium-sized enterprises were amongst the main beneficiaries of the measures adopted by Member States in the context of the European recovery programme to deal with the crisis. For instance, the creation and extension of loans and guarantees to small and medium-sized enterprises was among the measures adopted to improve access to finances.
However, the chosen methods and the results obtained differ between States, and we therefore need to continue working on the implementation of the Small Business Act at national level. I therefore consider it crucial to pursue the courses of action undertaken, and ensure that the principles and recommended courses of action are implemented at both European and national levels.
The policy in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises is fully supported by the Europe 2020 strategy, is an integral part of many lighthouse initiatives envisaged and will be subject to a specific check when the strategy is implemented in Member States. One of the 10 supplementary guidelines proposed by the Commission calls on Member States to implement a series of measures for small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the principles of the Small Business Act.
The next stage will involve ensuring that Member States incorporate these measures in their national reform programmes. By the end of this year, we will have carried out an in-depth examination of the implementation of the Act, to measure the progress made and identify new courses of action that also take into account the Europe 2020 priorities. The main areas of action will include improving access to credit and innovation, encouraging the spirit of enterprise and promoting the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, especially those managed by young entrepreneurs, will be among the main beneficiaries of these new initiatives.
Mindful of the difficulties that small and medium-sized enterprises currently encounter when trying to access finances, the European Commission has closely followed developments in the sector, collaborating particularly with the European Central Bank with the aim of carrying out regular surveys of the situation.
The Commission has also drawn up a series of programmes that offer financial support to help small and medium-sized enterprises to gain access to capital that they need to develop their activities. The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, for example, incorporates certain financial instruments developed in conjunction with the European Investment Fund, which provide incentives for risk operations and loan guarantee operations for enterprises. The Jeremie programme financed by the European Regional Development Fund offers a huge range of specific financial products to develop and strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises in European territory as a whole. Finally, the new European micro-finance instrument, a joint initiative between the Commission and the European Investment Bank, is specifically directed at micro-enterprises that have difficulty obtaining ad hoc financing."@en1
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