Brussels, 04/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 October, French Economy and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde declared that the institution of a Small Business Act (SBA) at European level would be one of the industrial policy priority dossiers of the French presidency of the European Union. This kind of measure promotes SME access to public procurement. In the USA an SBA enables American SMEs to benefit from preferential allocation of public procurement, and every public administration must grant a minimum of 23% of its purchasing to small businesses. “The external dimension of competitiveness” is the second of the priorities announced by Ms Lagarde, who was speaking to several parliamentarians on France and Europe's industrial policy. It is a question of identifying the way in which our competitors, outside Europe, “support competitiveness in their enterprises (...) particularly through state aid policies, appropriate monetary policies, and social policies which particularly differ from our own”, the minister explained. (lc)