Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-303"
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"en.20020410.9.3-303"2
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"Mr President, the Skinner report provides a sensible response to the October 2000 Commission communication to implement the risk capital action plan which dates back to the 1998 Cardiff Summit and dovetails neatly with the financial services action plan which Barcelona has made a priority.
SMEs in Europe face much greater difficulties than their US counterparts in raising loan or equity finance, which may help in part to explain the extraordinary success in US economic growth over the last ten years. Although there is now rapid growth in venture capital funds in the European Union, there is enormous variation in performance. The City of London, which I proudly represent, leads the way at 0.4% of UK GDP devoted to this cause. But even here, most funding comes from US sources. Pension funds are the prime source of capital, and I have advocated UK-style self-select pension plans for the self-employed being permitted to make such investments on a pan-European basis, although this was rejected in committee, unfortunately.
I agree with the call for US-style EU-wide insolvency laws along the lines of the American Chapter XI bankruptcy procedures which afford a number of advantages, particularly in so far as they do not disrupt the continuity of trading in failing companies.
I also lament the lateness in bringing forward the much-needed Community patent, due to excessive sensitivity on the language issue which will only add to the cost for SMEs and make the procedures unworkable. Not radically tackling the language issue now will only get worse after enlargement when there are 40 million Polish speakers who also want their language to be given the same priority as, say, Italian or Spanish.
Member States should also seriously consider promotion of funds through generous capital gains tax incentives to mitigate the risk to investors. I generally, though, reject State funding directly for SMEs as the State is generally poor at picking winners amongst competing demands for capital. Nevertheless Mr Skinner's suggestion of a one-stop shop risk capital website to facilitate the interface of SMEs and the finance-providers is a very good one.
This excellent report enjoyed considerable cross-party support in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and, in spite of originating from the other side of the House, deserves our full support."@en1
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substitute; Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3
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