Brussels, 18/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - In the context of revitalising the Lisbon agenda, the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the UEAPME, calls on EU Member States to take on the Lisbon strategy and assume their responsibilities to implement the reforms that are essential to reactivating the programme. “The main problem with the Strategy, however, is that everyone is responsible for its implementation and, as a result, nobody takes proper responsibility”, Hans Werner Müller, UEAPME General Secretary, told the press. UEAPME believes that the Member States must improve the operational environment of SMEs and, in particular: (1) liberalise the internal market for services, cut red tape, harmonise quality requirements and ensure that the standards arising from the principle of country of origin are correctly regulated and controlled; (2) assess the impact of the various reforms on SMEs; (3) improve access to financing for SMEs by extending loan guarantee schemes, creating better conditions for self-financing and developing a market for risk capital for SMEs; (4) address the high costs of cross border tax compliance by introducing the one-stop shop for VAT obligations and agreeing the Home State Taxation Scheme; (5) and increasing the involvement of relevant stakeholders, notably the social partners and properly including them in the implementation process through “partnerships for reform”.