Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-22-Speech-2-032-000"
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"en.20120522.4.2-032-000"2
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"Mr President, it is obvious that, in the current crisis, the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for restarting the economy and for combating unemployment, particularly youth unemployment. That is why I think, like many of my fellow Members, that their access to Structural Funds should be simplified and increased, but also promoted through training and support related to the procedures that are inherent to accessing these funds.
I also recognise that the legal framework in which they are developing must be adapted to the resources they have available to them in order to face up to their obligations, and that is where the definition of SMEs becomes important, as this will determine the law applicable to a company. The current definition would cover more that 67% of workers in the EU. It is therefore an important sector of our economy and of the labour market.
As is often the case in our legislative decisions, we need to find a balance. As for SMEs, their legal framework should combine both the objective of effectiveness, allowing for their development, and the objective of adequate protection of workers’ rights and the general interest. However, an unbalanced reduction of SMEs’ administrative burdens could entail a risk, for example, in terms of health and safety at work – workers cannot be subjected to different risks, particularly with regard to measures aimed at improving workers’ health and safety in the workplace; health and safety in the workplace cannot be considered an administrative burden – or even in terms of reducing accounting and financial obligations for some SMEs, which is particularly worrying for workers’ representatives, and rightly so in my view. How can we involve workers in company decision-making processes if they do not have the information based on which decisions about restructuring, for example, are made? A minimum level of transparency for workers and third parties is needed.
Therefore, in the hunt for excessive administrative burdens on SMEs, let us not lose sight of the objective of these burdens and let us not discriminate against the workers in these companies."@en1
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