18/04/2019 (Agence Europe) – The European Parliament as a whole supported, on Thursday 18 April, by 448 votes to 18 with 71 abstentions, the interinstitutional agreement reached in March (see EUROPE 12208/13) on the proposal for a regulation to facilitate access of European SMEs to capital markets and, in particular, to SME Growth Markets, a new category of trading platform specialised in small issuers (see EUROPE 12026/5). The text reduces certain administrative and regulatory requirements for companies accessing "SME growth markets" and allows an SME, after two years, to transfer its shares from a growth market to a regulated market. Of the 20 million SMEs in Europe, only 3,000 are currently listed on the stock exchange. These new rules should make it easier for SMEs to obtain financing on the stock markets. (MF)