Brussels, 23/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - During a plenary session debate on Tuesday 22 May, the members of the European Parliament unilaterally stressed the extent to which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to access the funding made available by the structural funds. They also all argue that SMEs are vital for keeping the economy healthy and creating jobs, yet SME access to funding is even more limited in times of crisis. The discussion, which will however not give rise to a resolution during this plenary session, came just at the right time, on the eve of the informal Council to discuss the issue of growth.
Cutting through red tape. The MEPs clearly indicated that SMEs should be supported by the structural funds, but that the administrative burdens to achieving this were far too discouraging. The MEP Bendt Bendtsen (EPP, Denmark) argued for “the European programmes to become more user-friendly. It very often seems that they are written too much for civil servants, not for business people, and too many business people therefore abandon them. We must cut through the red tape and make the application procedures easier.” Fiona Hall (ALDE, UK) directly pointed her finger at the Commission by stating that it must “go further now and help SMEs by integrating renewable funds, loan guarantees and similar systems in such a way that they are part of all of the cohesion policy instruments”. European Commissioner for Regional Development Johannes Hahn pointed out that funds had already been redirected into employment, and therefore indirectly to SMEs, but that it is now up to the member states to put forward concrete projects.
Risk-sharing. It is also worth noting that on the same day, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, and the Danish minister for European affairs, Nicolaï Wammen, on behalf of the Council, signed the agreement to set in place a risk-sharing mechanism, in the presence of Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), the chair of the parliamentary committee on regional development. The mechanism will make it possible to redirect structural funds as guarantees for projects requiring private investors, in order to reassure them as to the viability of the projects. (MD/transl.fl)