Brussels, 09/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will vote on Tuesday 10 March on the own initiative report by Edit Herczog (PES, Hungary) on the Small Business Act (SBA), the Community action plan listing some one hundred measures to be taken at European and national levels to encourage the growth of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (see EUROPE 9690). While fully backing the SBA, Parliament nonetheless regrets that the action plan is not a legally binding instrument. The “truly innovative” part of the initiative is in its intention to put the “Think small first” principle at the heart of Community policies, Parliament says, calling on the European Commission and the Council to make it binding to take account of this principle, in a form which remains to be decided. Following the example of European SME organisations, it calls for a follow-up mechanism to monitor the implementation of initiatives that have already been launched.
MEPs will be voting on a number of iconic measures included in the SBA. They welcome the proposal for a directive covering the application of reduced rates of value added tax (VAT) on a number of labour-intensive services on which the Ecofin Council will try to reach agreement on Tuesday of this week (see EUROPE 9856), and on the proposal introducing the statute of European private company (SPE), which will be put to the vote on the same day (see EUROPE 9826). This statute should focus on SMEs which intend to devote themselves to cross-border operations and avoid being used by large companies to undermine and circumvent member states' legal provisons on company governance, they say. MEPs welcome new European provisions on wider exemption from notification of state aid to SMEs. Pointing out that one quarter of bankruptcies among SMEs result from lateness of payment, they call for the Commission's forthcoming proposal to amend the specific directive (2000/35/EC) to stipulate a harmonised shortened deadline for payment of SMEs. They also say it is necessary to have the same date for coming into effect for the European legislation on companies and a unified start-up time for companies of less than two days.
Access to funding. In these times of financial and economic crisis, the report calls for a joint effort from financial institutions, the Commission and member states to ensure that SMEs have access to funding and to give them the opportunity to consolidate their capital by re-investing in their company. They welcome both the decision of the European Council to increase by €30 billion the amount available from the European Investment Bank for guarantees and financial instruments for SMEs and the recent launch of the joint action JASMINE on micro-credit. Use of the venture capital and mezzanine financing markets should also provide precious aid to companies seeking funding, the report says. (M.B./transl.rt)