Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-10-02-Speech-1-071"
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"en.20001002.6.1-071"2
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"Mr President, risk capital is essential for job creation, since between 80% and 90% of funds raised from venture capital goes towards hiring people. SMEs account for 66% of total employment in the Community, SMEs and start-up businesses and venture capital therefore need to have easy access to each other. Although European venture capital has grown rapidly, we still remain considerably behind the US.
With this in mind, I welcome the importance attached to the Lisbon Summit on venture capital. Although progress has been made, it is also less focused on the high growth and job creation sectors of information technology, biotechnology and healthcare. Coordinated action is needed and necessary at both EU and Member State levels in these areas. In order to achieve this, we need to create a regulatory environment conducive to risk capital. A number of regulatory measures need to be introduced. A directive on supplementary pension funds needs to be considered urgently and not put on the back burner; we also need an update on EU accountancy rules, a single prospectus for pan-European capital fundraising and the directive on late payment in commercial transactions needs to be implemented on time. Similarly, the reform of the European patent system seems absolutely essential in this area, as an early adoption of this directive is needed to create an online database to help SMEs check whether or not patents exist and how they can apply for them themselves. SMEs – foolishly perhaps – disregard the patenting system.
We need to lighten the administrative burden on SMEs, and measures to reduce the stigma on bankruptcy are long overdue because, although there is a wide range of funding instruments available, SMEs and entrepreneurs seeking funding for their new ventures continue to face difficulties. A website could be created to help overcome this at European level.
There needs to be a review and rationalisation of Community instruments supporting risk capital. This needs to be more coherent and better integrated between the Commission, the Member States, the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. The EIB, the EIF and the European Commission also need to broaden their support for risk capital investment to a wider range of institutions and more innovative instruments, for example, business angels. Evidence in the US suggests that informal venture capital provided by such people is up to five times as much as with formal procedures. Similarly a Community-up approach to risk capital is essential.
Risk capital investment needs to go out to everyone, to all regions and to all communities. Public authorities here as in elsewhere also have a key role to play in providing risk capital and financial support in areas where the private sector will fear to tread. Initiatives such as mentoring have helped in these areas. I praise the Prince's Trust in the United Kingdom for the work they have done.
Finally, the lack of entrepreneurial culture and insufficient human resources and training and the lack of high-tech SMEs are all factors which need to be addressed in order to develop risk capital. It is my belief that the EU has far more potential than is being realised at present. In order to unlock this potential we need to make changes, not only to the regulatory environment but also to the culture. It is essential that we realise the importance of risk capital to growth and employment and review the ways in which risk capital can be rationalised, simplified and made more accessible.
Essentially, we need to take the measures which I have outlined and which have been outlined by the Commission and others in order to achieve a joined-up approach to raise the level of risk capital in the European Union and to extend the job-creating benefits to all parts of the European Union.
As regards the new amendments which have been resubmitted after the committee vote, I am not in favour of Mr Tannock's Amendment No 1, but I approve Amendments Nos 2 to 9. Of Amendments Nos 10 to 20, I only approve Amendments Nos 14, 17 and part of Amendment No 18.
I welcome the views of everyone in my committee and I believe we have a real consensus. I hope to maintain that by supporting the amendments I have just mentioned."@en1
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