Brussels, 19/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - It is on Wednesday 25 June that the European Commission will, in all likelihood, present the Small Business Act (SBA) for Europe, a horizontal action plan to unlock the growth and jobs potential of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe (see EUROPE 9668 and 9673).
The SBA will contain three flagship legislative initiatives. The first is the block exemption of SMEs from European rules on state aid. The draft regulation will bring together in one single text all the various legislative acts on state aid for SMEs (regional aid for investment and employment, environmental protection, consultancy, capital investment, research, development and innovation, training aid, aid for disadvantaged or handicapped workers). The amount of public aid that SMEs can receive will be increased, from 7.5% to 10% for medium-sized companies and from 15% to 20% for small companies. The future regulation will harmonise bonuses that SMEs can receive, capping them at 20% for small and 10% for medium-sized companies. It will also cover capital risk aid and provide a formula for the calculation of how much can be granted in the form of a public guarantee. The Small Business Act's second legislative proposal relates to reduced value added tax (VAT) for labour intensive and/or locally supplied services (see EUROPE 9638). The draft directive, which is likely to be adopted in early July, will allow member states the opportunity to decide whether or not to apply permanently reduced VAT rates to the services in question. Catering services will be included in the proposal. Finally, the third proposal brings in a European private company statute to facilitate cross-border trade for SMEs (see EUROPE 9680).
To follow up on the implementation of the Small Business Act, a monitoring mechanism will be set up under the revised Lisbon Strategy. (M.B./transl.rt)