Brussels, 06/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - To coincide with the start of European SME Week (which runs from 6 to 14 May), the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (UEAPME) has published an initial assessment of the measures put in place under the European Small Business Act (SBA). Conducted by means of questionnaires completed by UEAPME member and affiliate organisations in 18 countries, the survey sought to measure the level of respect for the “Think Small First” principle in the areas of legislation, administration and business support services, and also to take stock of how well national and European institutions were applying the measures contained in the SBA “”SBA Implementation Scoreboard”). The main lesson to be drawn is that there is a wide gap between measures taken and their concrete effects on small businesses. The results “show that measures have been taken during the last year, but their impact on the ground is limited. …in some areas, such as administration, the situation is now relatively worse. This proves that the better regulation agenda has not reached small businesses yet,” said Gerhard Huemer, UEAPME's Study Unit Director.
The organisations surveyed said that the Parliament is doing better on administration and business support measures, but fares less well when it comes to legislation (because of amendments deemed prejudicial to SMEs on issues such as protection of the environmental, consumers and workers). The Commission ranks worst in administration (because of the impression of weightiness of European programmes and the additional administrative burden resulting from all new legislation). Entrepreneurs feel that, while member states perform better on support to internationalisation and innovation, and also state aid, there remains much for them to do to secure access to finance and public tenders. The full study is available at: http://www.ueapme.com/spip.php?rubrique121 (A.B./transl.rt)