Brussels, 01/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - SMEs are experiencing an increasing upsurge in administrative and regulatory barriers in Europe and are subsequently calling for implementation, as soon as possible, of the single market strategy. This message was delivered by Ulrike Rabmer-Koller, the new president of the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) on Wednesday 27 January when she came to the Commission to put forward her association's position.
Rabmer-Koller also warned the Vice President for Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Kataïnen, that they were experiencing a loss of coherence in the European internal market. She argued that it is therefore necessary to more systematically include SMEs upstream to the elaboration of European policies in this connection. Above all, she argued that implementing existing European legislation is urgent, which the European Commission said it intended to do in its strategy put forward last October (see EUROPE 11420).
In this perspective, the President is also highlighting the need to improve the effectiveness of European legislation, which is also another of the current Commission's priorities. She also calls for the results from the assessments currently being carried out on the body of European texts to be published as soon as possible. According to Rabmer-Koller, the Commission and member states should never lose sight of the “think small first” principle of prioritising SMEs, irrespective of the political or administrative level.
She also underlined the importance of the role played by banks in the funding of SMEs, particularly local banks that “suffer from overregulation”. She believes that it does not make any sense that these small-scale banks are subject to the same Basel III rules (see EUROPE 11390).
Rabmer-Koller highlighted the benefits brought by education systems that focused on vocational training. She pointed out that “experience effectively demonstrates that countries that have well devised apprenticeship programmes have lower levels of youth unemployment”, particularly for young people who are less qualified. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)