Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-304"
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"en.20020410.9.3-304"2
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"Mr President, I wish first of all to praise the rapporteur, Mr Skinner, who has done very well in describing a large number of measures which must be taken if the supply of risk capital in Europe is to be increased. If we are to be able to attain the very optimistic objective set in Lisbon two years ago, according to which Europe is to be the world’s top economy by the year 2010, measures must be taken quickly to increase companies’ access to risk capital. Time is running out, and the United States is increasing its lead.
As the rapporteur also points out, it is especially important to review the conditions governing small and medium-sized enterprises, for it is among these that regeneration and technical development take place. It is also small and medium-sized enterprises that can give rise to new job opportunities.
We know that risk capital investments have fallen in Europe. In such a situation, it is easy to revert to the solution applied in the past: public funding. However, that would lead not to strong and healthy companies but to companies which, though certainly new, would be dependent upon subsidies. It is therefore important to emphasise that state support can only be justified in exceptional circumstances.
The overall business climate is crucial to the success or otherwise of the European economy and the economies of the Member States. One clear example of a country that is deficient in this area is Sweden, which has experimented a great deal with state aid and so excluded healthy competition. Since 1960, not a single large company has been started up in Sweden.
The report discusses much that is important to small and medium-sized enterprises, and what clearly emerges from this discussion is that there are still administrative, legal and cultural obstacles to be overcome and that too little has been done to remove these. It is essential that the work required continue at a brisker pace because access to risk capital is a prerequisite of companies’ growth and development.
It must be possible for companies which go bankrupt to be given another chance. To try and then fail must not lead to companies’ being stigmatised due to bankruptcy legislation. Otherwise, no one in the end will want to go out on a limb. People who are prepared to do just that, together with the availability of risk capital, are the indispensable features of a growing economy."@en1
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