Brussels, 14/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - By adopting the report of British Conservative, Philip Rodway Bushill-Mathews on "financial assistance measure for innovative and creative SMEs for jobs", the European Parliament is specifically requesting the Commission to: indicate how it is intends to re-orientate the clear "unilateral" interest of SMEs in the high-technology sector in order to ensure that loans available are not set aside for SMEs in these sectors but also go towards crafts, trade, tourism or the service sector; the Commission to submit possible a report on the theme of "SMEs and the promotion of social responsibility" to the Parliament as soon as possible; launch clear and simplified information campaigns to SMEs on the benefits they can gain from EU financial instruments.
The Parliament also calls on: 1) the Council and Member States to put the European Charter for Small Companies on a legal footing by way of an official Council decision; 2) the banking system in all EU Member States to be become more open to SMEs, particularly those hit by the unpredicted environmental disasters and which have to start up again from scratch; 3) the Commission and Member States to be particularly attentive and demanding in the choice of intermediaries for each financial instrument and to take into account the conditions in which SMEs find themselves.