Brussels, 11/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - There are some 20 million SMEs in Europe, employing 65 million people and accounting for 99% of all businesses and providing 53% of jobs. This is why the European Council of Feira in June 2000 endorsed a Charter for Small Enterprises, committing itself to support them. But are the European Commission and the Member States actually respecting their pledge? It was in order to reply to this question that the European Commission will be publishing its second report into the implementation of the Feira Charter on Wednesday. The report outlines that while significant progress has been made in the last two years, particularly in terms of training in entrepreneurship, complex problems still exist, particularly when it comes to financing startups and ensuring more effective representation of small enterprises' interests at EU and national level.
Among the positive changes listed in the report, the Commission puts the spotlight on progress in terms of education for entrepreneurship since preparation for business now features in one way or another in secondary schools in approximately two thirds of Member States and a similar picture is evident in tertiary education. The report regrets, however, that some Member States "still apparently make no provision whatever to promote entrepreneurship through the education system". The Commission welcomes progress in the simplification of regulation - a sole proprietorship can be set up in two days in eight Member States at a low cost. For private limited companies, a business can be established in less than two weeks in ten Member States (in several of them in less than a week), while the costs are below EUR 500 in six Member States. The Commission explains that when it comes to simplifying regulations, more than half of the Member States either routinely apply business impact assessments or are in the process of setting up systems to do so. At the EU level, this issue (discussed at the Laeken European Council) will be the subject of an Action Plan to be presented by the Commission in June 2002.
Access to finance has been the trickiest issue facing SMEs in recent years, with the supply of early stage risk capital increasing through either public or private sources but the Commission notes that the problem of finance for startups and SMEs has become more acute over the last six months, given the economic crisis and the restructuring of the banking sector. In addition, risk capital has become shyer and even good proposals for small enterprises may not receive finance if they cannot offer guarantees or a higher share of equity. The Commission feels the issue that has been least satisfactorily addressed is how to ensure more effective representation of small enterprises' interests at EU and national level, asserting that "small business interests, as set out in the Charter, need to be kept to the forefront of policy making. There needs to be constant pressure for their interests to be taken into account. Better representation of their interests, however difficult it may be, is an urgent necessity in all policy fields".