The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced at the European Parliament on Wednesday 14 September a new package of support measures for SMEs, the ‘SME Relief Package’.
“We must remove the obstacles that still hold our small companies back. They must be at the centre of this transformation – because they are the backbone of Europe’s long history of industrial prowess. (...) But inflation and uncertainty are weighing especially hard on them. This is why we will put forward an SME Relief Package”, she said, referring to the energy crisis currently affecting Europe.
The President did not go into detail - this should be shared with us by the end of the week, we were told. However, she listed two main actions: - a proposal for a “single set of tax rules” - which has been dubbed ‘BEFIT’ (see another article in this newsletter); - and a revision of the Late Payments Directive.
In fact, the latter has been expected since February 2020 and the announcement of the SME strategy. As a reminder, the strategy also included the creation of a new observatory on late payments (see EUROPE 12431/11). This should be in place by 2023, according to the European Commission.
The series of announcements was “applauded” by SMEunited and its Director, Gerhard Huemer, in particular regarding the revision of the Late Payments Directive. “One out of four bankruptcies of SMEs is caused by late payments from their customers... This has to be improved and means that private (large) companies have to be tackled effectively by a revised directive”, he said. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)