Brussels, 25/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - One of the conditions needed for the success of cohesion policy is for it to be adapted to the way things really are, and to the needs and expectations of the economic and social players, including small business. To achieve this, the UEAPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) recommends creating a principle of multi-level and multi-actor governance, making the European Small Business Act the basis of cohesion policy and other Community programmes and funding, and revising the priorities and conditions of access of technical assistance.
In presenting the UEAPME response to the Commission's consultation on the 5th report on economic, social and territorial cohesion, Hubert Delorme, Senior Counsellor, Regional Policy and Cohesion of Territories, set out the general context in which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate: (1) more than 95% of European businesses operate on local markets, whether they are local markets or export, based on local skills and resources; (2) small and micro enterprises, and particularly micro and craft enterprises, are the biggest creators of jobs at local level, indeed at times the only ones in rural areas, sensitive urban districts or in areas with natural particularities or other handicaps; (3) barely 2-3 % of small firms benefit from European development policies and according to member states, they receive hardly more than 1 or 2 % of funds.
If there is to be a cohesion policy which works properly and effective funding, there has to be “a principle of multi-level and multi-actor governance, which guarantees an effective partnership between the public authorities, the economic and social partners, in particular the representative organisations of SMEs, micro and craft enterprises at every level and in every stage of the decision-making process and the implementation”, Delorme said, highlighting the importance of a cohesion policy which responds to territorial needs. The Commission should encourage member states and regional/local authorities to implement this principle, for example by using technical support to train players and set up the tools of partnership. “This principle could be an important criterion of conditionality”, itself based on real partnership, Delorme said. He argued that account had to be taken of reality, of territorial development.
Another UEAPME recommendation is simplifying access to structural funds and the other community funding programmes: in its proposal of 105 measures of simplification of structural funds, UEAPME underlines that the administrative and financial procedures of structural funds exclude de facto small firms (the whole socio-economic area is ignored, Delorme said) and suggests applying the principles of proportionality, of flat-rate support for low-cost projects, and the specificity of the administrators of projects and the beneficiaries. The UEAPME calls on the Commission and the member states to set up dialogue groups, at three levels of decision-making, involving the public authorities, the project managers and also the accounts monitoring services to define the measures to simplify the necessary checks.
In practice, technical support is hardly, if at all, accessible to intermediary organisations. Technical support should be used for training, informing all players, awareness raising and dialogue with the aim of simplifying procedures.
In its position on the 105 proposals for simplification of the structural funds, the UEAPME suggests various possibilities, in particular a system of alternative resolution of disputes between administrative authorities and project managers. To read the whole UEAPME position paper, go to h.delorme@ueapme.com (G.B./transl.rt)