Brussels, 01/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - European ministers in charge of competitiveness held an exchange of views on Monday 1 December on the measures planned in the Small Business Act for Europe, a communication that contains 92 measures aimed at stimulating employment and growth potential of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (EUROPE 9749). As well as the conclusions they adopted, they drew up a plan for the SMB consisting of three sections for priority action to implement in the medium term. This includes “a hierarchy of measures to respond to the economic slowdown affecting the all our economies”, explained the acting president of the Competitiveness Council, Hervé Novelli.
These priority actions are as follows: a) improve funding access: encourage banks to not restrict funding by using, when necessary, a flexibility of European rules on state aid, to support EIB action for 2008-11 (volume of lending raised to EUR30bn, simplification of procedures, better cover of requirements, risk sharing), strengthen directive through delayed payments, facilitation of cross-border risk capital investment, simplification of Community co-funding); b) simplify regulatory environment: apply the “think small first” principle during the elaboration and implementation of European and national policies(SME tests in Commission impact assessments), possibility of special measures for small and micro-companies (transition periods, even total exemption for the application of certain rules), authorization of Member States to adopt less restrictive accounting requirements for companies operating under specific thresholds, only demand certain information once, step up efforts to reduce administration charges by 25% by 2012, set common dates for entry into force of Community and national legislation, bring the deadline for setting up a company to three working days, facilitate the transfer of companies, promote second chances for entrepreneurs; c) facilitate market access: promote more effective functioning of the internal market (monitoring of certain sectors, coherency of national rules on consumer protection, access to SOLVIT network), guarantee implementation by 2009 of the services directive, stimulate e-mail signing, promote public procurement access in and outside the EU, increase efforts to create Community patent and an integrated legal system for settling disputes on patents, adopt the Private European Company (PEC) status, create European business centres in high growth third countries. (M.B./trans/rh)