Brussels, 05/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said he felt confident forthcoming EU enlargement would engender considerable growth in trade on an enlarged internal market of over 500 million consumers. He said it would also benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), even through increased competition after enlargement by new Member States could bring real problems for some SMEs.
"I am convinced that the accession of new market economies to the EU will be a positive process which will facilitate exchanges, generate new jobs as a result of further growth and raise the standards of living by spreading the benefits of EU integration", declared Mr Bolkestein on Thursday in Brussels during a conference organised by the EPP. In his view, it is important that the EU should continue to remove bureaucratic and administrative cross-border trade barriers, to allow companies - and mainly SMEs - to fully benefit from the new opportunities provided by enlargement of the internal market. In so doing, the EU will automatically become a safer and more attractive market for foreign investors, which is an additional asset of enlargement that should not be underestimated, he said.
Enlargement, however, will not only bring advantages to SMEs, admitted Mr Bolkestein. "There is no doubt that enlargement will also bring with it competitive challenges and threats" for some SMEs, he said, acknowledging the fact that "a number of businesses are at risk and unlikely to survive in their present form without improving quality, cost competitiveness and management practices". Nonetheless, 60% of EU's SMEs view enlargement of the Union as beneficial, concluded Mr Bolkestein.