Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-323"
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"en.20071211.38.2-323"2
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"On the first question, I would like to confirm that all the SME organisations are indeed fully involved, and that we have finalised a project that will create a network for small business support everywhere in the European Union. One of the most important elements of that network will be precisely the ICT uptake in a broader sense.
We have clearly identified one of the reasons for European SMEs being less dynamic, for instance, than American SMEs, which is that American SMEs grow faster, are more profitable, are more innovative and on average employ more people. One of the causes of this – and we have analysed this clearly – is that ICT uptake is much much better in the United States. In particular, they use the most modern technology available. In Europe we are happy if the owner of a small family business is on-line at all! That is a matter of fact. The reality of the European enterprise is that it is a very small micro-business with less than 10 people. It is not normally growth-oriented, but is a business that exists to guarantee the income of a family. That is why it is there. It is therefore difficult to convince such enterprises that they have to modernise, that they have to be market players and that they have to grow.
I fully share your views and can only say that we have many, many initiatives already in place to support these enterprises – some of them, by the way, together with the relevant industries, which of course have an interest in selling their products. We therefore combine the two, and the initiatives are not aimed solely at SMEs. The problem of ICT uptake for SMEs has to be seen in combination with the problem in rural areas of the network and the infrastructure not existing. The Commission is working on this important area too. This is certainly also part of the Charter process, and will be part of the reporting system.
On the second question, from Mr Harbour, he knows that I am always pleased to answer his questions but, as far as the Small Business Act is concerned, this one comes a little bit early. The Charter is a process, as you know, and it would be wise to concentrate on what it is now – a network of cooperation in the area of new ideas and best practices. I am hesitant to create too many instruments, but it is obvious that in the process of preparing the Small Business Act we have to examine all the existing ones, whether they are appropriate or not, and decide whether we can improve them or not in the context.
In principle, I must say that I am very happy that everywhere in Europe it is now accepted that SMEs really have the strongest potential for innovation, growth and job creation. All the initiatives which we are preparing will help SMEs to fully use that potential and to unlock it.
We have known what the basic problems are for a couple of years, and you will be well aware of what these are: the problem of insufficiently strong innovative capacity; the problem of not having access to financial instruments, especially venture capital; the problem of the transfer of the business – a very important aspect which is highly underestimated in some Member States. We are losing hundreds of thousands of enterprises every year in Europe which could easily continue to exist if the transfer from one generation to the next could be organised in a better way. That is a highly important question. The whole tax environment for SMEs is an important one, and my favourite issue of course – over-regulation – is much more important for SMEs than for big companies.
Big companies can live with very heavy and difficult regulation. They have legal departments and they do it. By the way, I am also convinced that big companies do not need the internal market as much as smaller companies do. Bigger companies would use the right of establishment and would be everywhere. The whole internal market philosophy, in my view, must be focused on the SMEs, and unfortunately I have to tell you that only 8% of European enterprises do cross-border business.
If you analyse that, you find that the potential of the European internal market is greatly under-exploited, if only 8% of our enterprises – normally the bigger enterprises – participate. So we have a lot of work still to do."@en1
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