Brussels, 29/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 29 February, as part of the forthcoming European Council on 1-2 March, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) launched its initiative and manifesto to help provide a boost to the 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that make up two thirds of all jobs in the private sector in EU.
Jürgen Creutzmann (FDP, Germany), said that the ALDE initiative seeks to boost SMEs in Europe. He stated: “It is encouraging to see that ministers and indeed the Commission are waking up to the fact that SMEs need a simpler regulatory environment to operate efficiently and effectively across the EU. But much remains to be done to reduce bureaucracy, simplify access to financial instruments and open up new markets for SMEs. ALDE has identified 22 concrete measures that will speed up this process and we are committed to pushing both the Commission and national governments to move them along as a matter of urgency.” Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of ALDE, added that small and medium-sized enterprises are the main driving force for economic growth, innovation, jobs and social integration. He said that this is why they had to encourage the banks to fund them with the necessary start-up capital. (LC/transl.fl)