Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-22-Speech-2-017-000"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20120522.4.2-017-000"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, much can be said about the need to develop the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector and make it grow. Much can be said about how crucial SMEs are to helping economic growth and job creation. Whatever might be said, what is certain is that implementing so-called austerity measures leads daily to the strangulation, asphyxiation and destruction of thousands of SMEs.
Until we break with and reverse the path of recessive policies, it will be impossible to promote economic growth and job creation. The statements being made in political circles – from the right to the centre-left – of the intention to make austerity incompatible with growth are nothing short of illusory; an attempt to push blindly ahead, and to use fine but ineffective words to hide the tragic and material consequences of austerity policies.
The very measures imposed by the troika in Portugal provide a good example of this social tragedy. Since these measures were implemented in Portugal one year ago, 203 500 jobs have been destroyed, equating to 558 jobs per day. Many of these jobs have been lost from SMEs because the companies in question went out of business, but it could not have been any other way; and that is so logical that a child could understand it. Wage and pension cuts and increased indirect taxation on the products sold by small and medium-sized enterprises lead to reduced consumption and then to SMEs going out of business.
However, it is the same European Commission that fixes – along with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – the measures ravaging Portuguese SMEs that is now telling us about the need to support SMEs. It is true that it is important to support SME creation, but it would also now be logical to stop applying political measures that are condemning existing SMEs to go out of business as we speak.
Support for SMEs should involve State aid, made available by reversing the process of monopolisation of the economy, which has been exacerbated by the creation of the single market and which has benefited big capital within the Member States, as well as multinationals. There is a need to regulate key factors of production, such as energy or banking, so that SMEs will not, as customers, be subjected to unbearable monopolistic prices, such as the interest rates that they have to pay to access credit. EU funding must be made more accessible to SMEs, by cutting red tape and streamlining processes, by ensuring timely payment, and by positively discriminating in favour of areas and sectors facing particular difficulties."@en1
|
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples