Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-552-000"
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"en.20110511.34.3-552-000"2
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"Mr President, ‘Action here and now!’ Mr Bendtsen said, and I strongly agree with his standpoint. We have heard that small and medium-sized enterprises are also major employers in the European Union and, after the economic crisis, examining and reviewing how we may be able to help them recover is especially important. The Hungarian Presidency believes in a work-based economy and society, and regards small and medium-sized enterprises to be among its key partners in this. The economic environment has changed dramatically since 2008; hence, a review really is needed. For our part, too, we welcome the six-party agreement which Mr Bütikofer mentioned, and we are also grateful that several speakers acknowledged the Hungarian Presidency’s endeavours and that the Hungarian Presidency is handling this issue truly as a priority.
Allow me to draw your attention to a few specific matters. After listening attentively to the Members, we are pleased to say that there is indeed complete agreement on the principles. The small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of European economic growth and employment. Therefore, improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises is a priority for the Council as well. To this end, and to reflect this, the Competitiveness Council is preparing to adopt the Council’s conclusions at its previously mentioned meeting on 30-31 May 2011, about which the Presidency is submitting a draft to the Council. The main elements of this intend to give answers to the problems identified as the result of the review of the Small Business Act. What are these? These are better access to loans and market access, both in European and global terms, as well as enhancing the conditions of market access and alleviating administrative burdens.
The Council believes that the transposition as soon as possible of the Late Payments Directive – which, as you are aware, has been adopted – is important, and this we note with pleasure. The Council is striving to achieve this and is encouraging Member States to do so because it would be a great weight off the shoulders of small and medium-sized enterprises and would greatly improve their liquidity. It is also a pleasure for me to announce that the Council is close to reaching an agreement on the Commission’s aims to reduce the costs of establishing a business. The essence of this is to be able to start up an enterprise in at most three days, for the cost of at most EUR 100, and for licences to be obtainable in under a month.
There are two other specific matters I wish to mention. One is the issue of the European patent. 23 Member States have already joined the enhanced cooperation and the Council is discussing the basic regulation now. We regard this as a major breakthrough from the aspect of EU competitiveness and, in particular, the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Mr Creutzmann wished to know about the matter of the European private limited company and asked it to be handled as a priority. We have made significant progress. Now only a very small group of Member States have not joined the consensus. The adoption of this would truly be a turning point for small and medium-sized enterprises, thus we are working on it very hard and also trust that Members will be able to exercise some sort of political pressure and motivate through their own channels in order to generate the necessary majority. We have talked about this to the eminent representatives of the Committee on Legal Affairs as allies on several occasions.
Lastly, allow me to mention the connection with the Europe 2020 strategy. Here, we believe that it is important to convert the objectives stated in the strategy into laws, actions and measures which improve the position of small and medium-sized enterprises, but, of course, the Member States must also do their own homework. The European framework in itself is not enough; thus, for example, we believe that tax systems need to be simplified and to be made friendlier for small and medium-sized enterprises. Several Member States are acting in this spirit. Among them is Hungary, currently holding the Presidency."@en1
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