Brussels, 17/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to a Eurobarometer flash survey carried out in April, the heads of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU are increasingly aware of the introduction of the euro, whereas only one SME in four are really ready. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for business, pointed out that "those companies which start the second half of the year reasonably well prepared will be in a much better position than their competitors". Yet, 62% of them believe that the introduction of the euro will have no effect on their competitiveness. This is the fourth Eurobarometer flash survey on "SMEs and the euro". It was conducted in the euro zone, amongst 2,832 companies employing less than 250 people.
The survey reveals that "awareness" has grown these past few months, in the sense that those who believe that it is not necessary to prepare themselves now only represent 15%, whereas they were 32% in September. However, the number of companies who say they are actually prepared (24%) is down on January (26%). Furthermore, 10% of SMEs still answer that they will only able to carry out all their operations in euros after 1 January 2002, a deadline that many companies do not seem to perceive as being the ultimate one beyond which all written operations will have to be carried out in euros. A majority of SMEs have a tendency to push back invoicing operations in euros to the end of the transition period. Hardly 37% are considering doing so in 2001. In Greece, this percentage had dropped (from 56% in January to 29% in April). Those companies already working in euros are increasing in number in systematically invoicing in euros (16% against 10% in September). The Gallup Europe institute relativizes this somewhat worrying picture, taking account of the fact that the feeling of urgency is really growing. It can be seen in the fact that an increasing number of companies are preparing an operational plan for the changeover to the single currency. They were 51% in January and are 63% today, an improvement that focuses on increasingly detailed action plans, whose implementation is progressing in the sense that one company out of four has already carried out all the measures decided upon. The hierarchy of concrete measures is as follows: 74% of SMEs have chosen the person responsible for operations (67% in September), 71% have defined the adaptations to make to computer applications (65% in January), 63% have informed their staff (57% in January), 61% have begun establishing their prices in euro (52% in January), 44% have informed their partners of their intentions (36% in January) and 48% have identified the impact of the euro function by function (39% in January).The less frequent measure, as we stand, remains the opening of a bank account in euro (25% against 17% in September), except Belgium (43%), the Netherlands (34%) and Finland (67%). The attitude of employers has developed positively in all countries. The percentage of them that do not admit to the need to prepare their companies has now fallen significantly in eleven of the twelve countries, the exception being Italy. However, the feeling of being prepared is evolving in both senses, which leads to stagnation for the twelve countries as a whole. The adoption of detailed plans in progressing everywhere, except for the Netherlands, where is has fallen from 22% to 18%, and Portugal, where it has gone from 21% to 18%. Gallup Europe notes that these two countries are now, with France (15%), in the trio of those who are preparing the details of the changeover to the euro the least. Although the smaller companies remain the least convinced that they need to make efforts now, it is they that most feel the need to move.