Brussels, 14/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Presenting her report on the implementation of the European Charter for SMEs to the EP committee on industry on Tuesday, Dominique Vlasto (PPE-DE, France) regretted the fact that the Charter is applied inadequately by the Member States. “We can only deplore the lack of political will in the implementation of the European Charter on SMEs. Five years on from its adoption, and despite the fact that it was signed by 35 countries, thereby going beyond the European Union framework to be applied also in candidate and neighbouring countries, progress has been unequal and patchy, particularly at Community level”, said Ms Vlasto, regretting the fact that “the Charter for SMEs remains a declaration of good intentions without critical follow-up and without strong involvement of public authorities”. Ms Vlasto believes that it is impossible to legislate better without taking account of the 25 million small enterprises and micro-enterprises (almost 99% of the enterprises in Europe) and the 95 million people employed by them. “The Charter proposes dialogue and appropriate legislation in response to the specific needs and capacities of SMEs. Not using it is therefore a grave error”, the French MEP insisted. She also has concerns about the future of the Charter. “The European Commission seems to want to dilute it into the Lisbon strategy instead of making full use of all its opportunities. Let us not sacrifice the content of the Charter for new programmes which entrepreneurs do not know and will not use because it will take five years to put them in place”, Ms Vlasto said. “The Charter is operational and appreciated by professional organisations. It also allows Member States to exchange best practices in policy for SMEs and micro-enterprises. Rather than changing this political instrument, we would do better to stick to the commitments it contains in order to offer a performing regulatory environment to small enterprises and micro-enterprises”, she concluded.