Brussels, 30/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the UEAPME (an employers' organisation for craft, trades and SME sin EU and accession countries) says that 'revised EU rules on state aid might have a negative impact on financial instruments for SMEs and endanger the provision of advisory and innovation support services.' It was referring to Commission reviews, expected to be published later this year, of 'de minimis rules', state aid for risk capital and SMEs, and state aid for R&D and innovation. UEAPME welcomed the announced raise of the threshold for aid under the 'de minimis' rule to 200,000 euros over a three-year period, but warned that 'the exclusion of 'non-transparent aid' (i.e. aid of which the net effects cannot be calculated precisely ex ante) would rule out most of the current credit guarantee schemes and mutual guarantee schemes from the scope of the regulation.' 'This proposal lacks any rationale,' said Hanns-Eberhard Schleyer, chair of the UEAPME Economic and Fiscal Affairs Committee. 'The current wording hinders the most important existing instruments for the support of SME finance, which are not only promoted, but also financed by the European Commission itself.' As far as advisory services to SMEs are concerned, the UEAPME regrets that the Commission is suggesting allowing state aid 'only at the level of the single beneficiary, while forbidding it for intermediate service providers. In most EU Member States, intermediaries receive public funding allowing them to set their prices at an affordable level for SMEs.' 'We believe the proposals… UEAPME… has put forward could bring the revised set of laws on state aid more in line with the needs of European SMEs,' concluded Schleyer. (UEAPME's comments can be accessed at http://www.ueapme.com/docs/pos_papers/2006/060524_SMEStateAid_final.pdf .