Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-02-14-Speech-1-153-000"
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"en.20110214.16.1-153-000"2
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"Mr President, this evening’s discussion has, as could also already have been inferred from the text of the draft resolution, highlighted the perfect agreement that exists between the wishes of Parliament and the Commission to put the real economy at the heart of economic policy in order to emerge from the crisis, and to pay particular attention to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the lifeblood of our economy.
The European Commission is absolutely committed to trying to convert a policy choice into concrete action, and it is not pure chance that, thanks to the support of Parliament and the Council, we have adopted the text of the Late Payment Directive, which is of fundamental importance for small and medium-sized enterprises. At present, it is up to us to urge the Member States to speed up the rate at which they transpose the directive into their domestic law (they have 24 months from this October), even if I personally wish that the Member States would put more urgency into transposing a directive that also has a direct effect on opportunities for recovering outstanding debts so that they can be applied to innovation. When the directive enters into force, approximately EUR 180 billion will be released into circulation.
That is not enough, however. As far as aid to small and medium-sized enterprises is concerned, on 23 February, the Commission will adopt the revised Small Business Act, which contains a series of important measures, including the point of single contact for access to funding, which will be one of the proposals that we shall be putting to the Member States. What is more, we shall be inviting all Member States and all local authorities to nominate a Mister or Miss SME.
On 16 February, I shall be appointing Daniel Calleja, as Deputy Director-General, to a new office in the European Commission. He will be responsible for monitoring and verifying the application of the Small Business Act and acting as a contact point for European SMEs on Commission policy. In the text of the Small Business Act, which, please note, we shall be adopting on the 23rd, all Member States are invited to do likewise, just as we shall be inviting local communities with lawmaking powers to do.
As far as funding is concerned, the problem of access to outstanding debtor balances, to which we have already referred in the context of the Late Payment Directive, and of access to loans requested or wanted by small and medium-sized enterprises, can only be solved by trying to activate links between lending institutions and business, but also the European Investment Bank. I therefore acknowledge the declarations of those who agree that it is necessary to grow these relationships, as well as to clear the bottlenecks that have, in the past, especially during the crisis, delayed the disbursement of the famous EUR 30 billion intended for small and medium-sized enterprises and which, due to the difficulty in making transfers to national credit institutions, have delayed their receipt by SMEs.
I must say that at the first meeting of the SME Finance Forum, attention was paid precisely to this bottleneck that exists between the European Investment Bank and national credit institutions. The sherpas are at work, and at the next meeting, a series of proposals will be put forward to try to facilitate access to credit by small businesses.
We are, of course, working to simplify specific issues already, and what follows is one such example. As regards the REACH Regulation, I have had translated into every European Union language the application rules for a regulation that is rather technical. This has been a strong signal to small and medium-sized enterprises that they do not have to employ an expert in technical English or in chemical technology. In point of fact, we have virtually abolished the registration fee: we have achieved a 90% reduction for REACH registration by micro-enterprises and a 60% reduction for small enterprises. These are some of the specific things that also relate to simplification.
Of course, the test for small and medium-sized enterprises, which came into being with the Small Business Act, continues to exist. We shall continue with it and apply it strictly. The competitiveness test, known as the fitness check, which we introduced with the paper on industrial policy, which also affects competitiveness and existing legislation, will clearly and certainly also help small and medium-sized businesses. I must congratulate Mr Rübig, and I am delighted at the invitation and the support of Parliament to commit to increased funding for the next CIP II.
Finally, I can only assure you of my commitment, inasmuch as I agree with everything that has been said. As I have always averred whenever I have had the opportunity to state my views on SME policy, I can confirm that I shall make it my absolute priority to contrive that bureaucratic barriers, access to credit and a policy of support for small and medium-sized businesses will be the principal agenda of the Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship in the next few years, that is, until the end of the current Parliament. For me, the support of the European Parliament is of fundamental importance also because, as I said at the beginning of my reply, there is a perfect identity of views between you and me."@en1
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