Brussels, 02/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - Member States have made progress in improving the small business environment in the three priority areas for 2003 of the European Charter for Small Enterprises: access to finance, innovation and technology transfer, and consulting small businesses. The fourth Implementation Report of the European Charter for Small Enterprises also shows that the Member States are increasingly learning from each other through good practices identified in the Charter process. EU Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen declared on Tuesday that this constituted, "real progress and the best way to bridge performance gaps in the EU." Nevertheless, improving the environment for small businesses is a continuous process. It remains crucial that Member States continue to take action in line with the Charter's recommendations.
The report illustrates that based on the experiences in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, Sweden a method is currently developing to measure administrative burdens. Following the example of the Netherlands, Belgium has set up a contact point for contradictory regulations and administrative costs where individuals and companies can report contradictory regulations or regulations that cannot be easily applied. Moreover, Spain ensures that results of Commission's projects get a response by sending summary sheets for each project to Ministries, regions, business organisations and SME experts and making the experts that participated in the projects aware of the need to act on the recommendations.
In the context of consulting SMEs, some encouraging developments have been observed in 2003 in the Member States. For example, the exchange programmes between officials and SMEs in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom introduce a new channel for listening to SMEs. However, while a number of countries have well established systems in place to consult SMEs, differences between the Member States still exist. The Commission points out that "constant pressure for improving regular and systematic consultation is needed."
The Commission notes that further progress in access to finance has been made in the past year. The Finnish "DIILI" scheme to attract skilled personnel to participate in company share capital, the Austrian seed capital financing model for public sector risk capital and the French local investment funds "FIP" are interesting examples. However, the Commission points out that businesses still see lack of finance as a major constraint and that future measures should focus on early-stage finance and increasing equity.
In connection with innovation and technology transfer, the Commission reveals that certain measures such as the Dutch "TechnoPartner" initiative and the Portuguese Innovation Agency are a signal towards better coordination of innovation programmes. Yet many SMEs still encounter significant problems to improve their innovation performance. Measures to facilitate technology transfer, clusters and inter-company networking are needed. The German "PROINNO" and the Austrian "STRAPAMO" schemes are good examples for trans-national cooperation.
In conclusion, the report illustrates that acceding and candidate countries are showing a clear will to fulfil their Charter commitments. Further progress has been made in the field of cheaper and faster start-ups, education for entrepreneurship, improving online access. The areas of innovation and access to finance remain issues of serious concern as does the representation of small businesses' interests in policy and lawmaking.
The countries of the Western Balkans "have picked up the Charter process with enthusiasm". In particular, they have been very active in taking measures in the Charter areas covering availability of skills, business support services, business consultation and bankruptcy legislation. Their future challenges include information and communication technologies, e-business, and taxation and financial matters.