Brussels, 19/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - As part of the European Commission's preparations for the next Conference of European SME Ministers in Aranjuez, Spain, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen will be meeting on 20 February with representatives from SMEs to discuss the implementation of the European Charter for Small Enterprises, adopted at the Feira Summit in June 2000. This conference will also allow the Commission to unveil the results of benchmarking projects for the management of start-ups and business incubators.
Commissioner Liikanen declared that if Europe wanted to become the most "competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, we have to implement the Charter in full". He also emphasised that the Commission took the views of SMEs very seriously. The European Small Business Alliance (ESBA) has already condemned the lack of real progress in certain fields, particularly with regard to the implementing of the European Charter for Small Enterprises (see EUROPE 18-19 February page 17).
The report on the Charter demonstrates that recent enterprise policy developments show progress in certain areas, such as the reduction in costs and red tape for starting up new companies and simplifying legislation. Performance varies considerably from one Member State to another. The Commission is carrying out several benchmarking exercises to help improve performance by learning from good practices elsewhere in the EU. A press release has indicated that projects on start-up management, due to be presented at the Aranjuez Conference, is particularly encouraging: in 8 Member States it is now possible to set up a company employing 1-2 people in up to 2 days for less than EUR 100.
The meeting will also address other topics of interest to SMEs, such as a benchmarking projects on business incubators, a project on quantitative targets in enterprise policy, a report on enterprise policy in the Candidate Countries and the forthcoming Base II Capital Adequacy Recommendation. (For further information: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enteprise_policy/charter/index.htm).