Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-12-10-Speech-1-118"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20011210.6.1-118"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, many thanks, Mr Bushill-Matthews, for this excellent report. I would like to present briefly the opinion of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and I do not want to devote myself to long explanations about why small and medium-sized enterprises are the economic backbone of European society. SMEs find access to finance ever more difficult, and a look at the agreements that Basle II will bring with it leads us to assume that this finance will become even more problematic. New methods of finance, such as venture capital, initial public offers, or all the other things currently being tried out or referred to, certainly represent a feasible way ahead, and one to which we in Europe will have to give thought, but not one to be used similarly by all SMEs. It is for that reason that I am glad that the Commission is taking up this issue on Europe's behalf.
I would like, on the basis of my practical experience and of my discussions with many owners of SMEs, to tell the Commission of my principal concern, which is that future promotion of SMEs should also be tailored to their needs. Many owners of SMEs have no idea, or it is very hard for them to find out, where any kind of support at a European level is to be had. Support is meant to be transparent. Then I often hear complaints that support at a European level is very complicated, that compliance with the requirements imposed on SMEs is very difficult and that this often made the whole thing very expensive.
Thirdly, all this should also be calculable in good time. Very lengthy application procedures stretched over many years result in small entrepreneurs quite simply running out of breath and not making it through to the final stages of the process. This means that everything possible needs to be done by the Commission to ensure that support for SMEs meets the needs of applicants from the target group, that is, the owners of the enterprises themselves. At a European level, though, we can ease the burden on SMEs or do justice to them not only by offering finance, but we should also consider how we might remove the burden from them by avoiding additional bureaucracy and regulation, which weigh down on them more and more. I believe it would be highly appropriate to put in place a screening procedure in the Enterprise Directorate-General which would make it possible to lodge a veto in good time, permitting the passage of regulations beneficial and appropriate to SMEs and excluding those detrimental to them."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples