Brussels, 08/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - An own-initiative report of the European Parliament, which was adopted on Tuesday 8 September, stresses the problems facing family businesses in Europe and underlines the need to bring European legislation forward.
The report, which was adopted by a comfortable majority (590 votes in favour, 49 against and 69 abstentions), and which was overseen by Angelika Niebler (EPP, Germany), puts forward a number of proposals to the European Commission and the member states to make life easier for family businesses.
First of all, the European Parliament calls on the Commission to make a legislative proposal to simplify administrative and tax procedures, to improve the legal framework governing transfers of family businesses and to introduce specific instruments for such transfers to be financed, in order to avoid liquidity gaps. “In many cases, transfer costs are high. More than 150,000 businesses have had to fold as they were unable to find a buyer”, said Deirdre Clune (EPP, Ireland), during the plenary session vote.
To this end, the MEPs call on the Commission to draft a comparative study of the situation for family businesses in the EU and, on this basis, to draw up a list of the obstacles to the activities of these businesses. The European Parliament also calls for a clear and consistent definition of family businesses to be decided upon for application at European level, as well as an expansion of the definition of the concept of SME dating back to 2003 in order to include, as well as quantitative criteria, qualitative criteria focusing on the notion of company ownership, the personal nature of the company management, particularly as regards the involvement of the staff in the management of operations.
The MEPs also call on the Commission to set up a permanent internal working group to deal with family businesses alone, and to create a 'single window' to serve as “interlocutor at European level for family businesses and the interest groups representing them”.
With a view to this, the MEPs call on the Commission to publish a communication as soon as possible on the role of family businesses and the European economy up to 2020.
Family businesses, which include SMEs and large multinationals alike, represent nearly 85% of all European companies and 60% of private sector jobs, according to the figures put forward by the EP. They have an important role to play in the economy, as their strategies are based on the longer term, as they are not subject to changing shareholder expectations. (Pascal Hansens)