A4-0022/94

Resolution on the Commission communication on the implementation of an integrated programme in favour of SMEs and the craft sector

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Commission communication to the Council on the implementation of an integrated programme in favour of SMEs and the craft sector (COM(94)0207 - C4-0038/94),

-having regard to its opinions of 20 April 1993 on the proposals for Council Decisions on I. a multiannual programme (1993 to 1996) of Community measures to intensify the priority areas of policy for enterprise, in particular SMEs, in the Community, and II. a multiannual programme (1994 to 1997) of Community measures to ensure the continuity of policy for enterprise, in particular SMEs, in the Community,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment and the Committee on Budgets (A4-0022/94),

A.having regard to the importance of the small and medium-sized enterprise sector for the economy of the European Union,

B.having regard to the problem of continued, unprecedentedly high levels of unemployment within the European Union and the important role of SMEs as employers in the social and democratic fabric of the Union,

C.whereas SMEs, owing to their small size, are at an inherent disadvantage compared to large companies which can afford in-house facilities for research and development, design, finance, management training, etc.,

D.whereas the Union should aim to create an environment conducive to the starting up, consolidation, growth and transfer of SMEs,

E.whereas measures undertaken so far, typically at the level of the Member State, would appear to have met with only limited success,

F.whereas there is a need for new initiatives to be taken and implemented with a minimum of delay,

1.Welcomes the growing recognition, as demonstrated in this Commission communication, of the important role of SMEs in reviving the economy of the European Union, and creating employment; rejects, though, the Commission's assertions that SMEs are well-equipped to meet the challenge facing them;

2.Feels that measures of a very concrete and practical nature need to be undertaken to ensure that this linkage is translated into heightened economic activity and the creation of more jobs at the level of the SME;

3.Welcomes the choice of an integrated approach, as requested in the White Paper on Growth and Employment, by which it is possible to strengthen the European Community's and Member States' actions in favour of SMEs; hopes that this will imply better coordination, transparency, efficiency and consistency of initiatives and will serve to avoid wasting resources in the future;

4.Calls on the Commission to submit concrete proposals for measures that will enable SMEs to benefit from the opportunities provided by the Single Market; emphasises in this connection the importance of the Commission ensuring that Union policies having an impact on SMEs are entirely consistent and coordinating measures at the Union level with new or existing measures at Member State level;

5.Stresses the importance of exploiting the dynamism of the internal market with a view to improving the competitive position of SMEs; calls therefore on the Commission to facilitate access by SMEs to public procurement;

6.Reminds the Commission and the Council that the term 'SME' applies to a vast number of firms of greatly disparate size (number of employees ranging from 1 to 499), and urges the Commission to indicate in its proposals precisely which sub-groups it is targeting; urges also the Commission to propose new criteria for defining SMEs, not based exclusively on the number of employees, as a means of ensuring the success of job-creation measures;

7.Points out that SMEs are not a homogeneous group and calls on the Commission to examine and explain, in respect of each proposal, whether each segment of the sub-group targeted is adequately reached, with particular reference to small and very small enterprises which play a particularly important role with regard to employment;

8.Takes the view that Union-level initiatives in this field need to be more clearly focused, particularly in cases where national provisions are failing to have the desired effect, because they are too diffuse, uncoordinated, or little known;

9.Finds in this connection that it is essential for the success of these initiatives that they are seen by their beneficiaries to be integral parts of a coherent, macro-economic programme;

10.Calls for a significant simplification of the bureaucracy facing SMEs, whose managers in many cases neither have time for nor fully understand the reporting requirements placed on them by public authorities (here a leaf might be taken out of the book of the Uniform Customs Document);

11.Regrets that the Commission's Communication (COM(94)0207) in considering enterprises' needs when compiling legislation omits any consideration of the burdens imposed on SMEs by Member State administrations implementing EC directives into national law;

12.Believes that national parliaments can play an important role in monitoring the way in which national administrations 'gold-plate' EC Directives;

13.Calls on the Commission to instigate a study of the way in which Member States impose extra burdens on SMEs which are not required by EC directives, when implementing them into national law;

14.Requests that steps be taken to ensure that the implementation of EC directives into national law does not result in further burdens being placed on SMEs;

15.Calls for concrete measures to be introduced to ensure that SMEs are made aware of the range of facilities available, whilst recognising that this will require identifying, on a country-by-country basis, the most appropriate means of doing this;

16.Calls for the high level of innovation and employment efficiency of SMEs to be supported by European Union measures to make the conditions for applying for and managing patents less bureaucratic and simpler and by substantially reducing the costs for SMEs;

17.Calls for special measures for the continuing training and specialization of employees and the self-employed from SMEs to adapt them to industrial change and to new research and technology in order to maintain the competitiveness of SMEs;

18.Expresses its surprise that so few SMEs apparently want to expand (as few as 5-6% according to the Commission); requests that an investigation be undertaken into why this should be the case and, should it turn out that the expansionary plans and ambitions of SMEs are being thwarted in some way, calls for efforts to be directed at removing such constraints;

19.Underscores in this connection the importance of not allowing this situation to detract from the urgency of improving the environment for SMEs;

20.Points out, however, that a sound policy on SMEs would take account of every stage in the life of enterprises, and notes that the principal concern of the majority of enterprises is their continued existence;

21.Calls for the institution of a programme of assistance for SMEs in identifying export opportunities in non-Union markets; suggests, furthermore, that the embassies of the Twelve, as well as the regional development banks, might be involved in such a project;

22.Calls on the Commission to examine ways in which the services of the export credit guarantee agencies of the Member States might be extended to encompass SMEs facing difficulties with payments from abroad;

23.Calls on the Commission to improve its procedures for assessing the business impact of legislation and to consider whether the procedures are appropriate, for instance whether they involve the sounding out of actual SME businesspeople, national and European craft or SME organizations on their experience of the implications of Community legislation, and calls for all proposals for directives to indicate which organizations or businesspeople have been consulted in connection with drawing up the proposal;

24.Welcomes the idea of setting up a group to examine the question of administrative simplification but points out the necessity of ensuring (a) that all segments of SMEs are properly represented in this group and (b) that the group's powers, assignment and timetable are clearly defined;

25.Calls on the Commission to submit proposals of a binding nature on how to deal with the problem of terms of payment and late payments; points out that there is also a need to work on the harmonization of legal procedures and on urgent measures concerning the costs and terms of trans-frontier payments; asks to be consulted on the recommendation on late payments before adoption by the Council;

26.Observes that it would be appropriate were the Union institutions and national administrations themselves to be in the vanguard of improvements in this direction, by improving their own bill-payment records;

27.Calls on the Commission to bring forward plans to identify and diffuse ideas for creating jobs in areas such as local services and protection of the environment, which are so far not very well exploited, and to examine how SMEs can be involved in such programmes;

28.Requests an explanation of why existing Union financial instruments, under the Structural Funds, European Investment Bank global loans or interest subsidies linked to such loans are not being fully exploited, and requests that steps be taken to remedy this problem, for example by taking better account of organizations which specialize in funding SMEs and which have to act as the EIB's national 'intermediaries' or 'correspondents'; calls on the Commission to simplify the process of accessing funds from the EU by SMEs;

29.Calls on the Commission to examine ways of improving commercial financial institutions' understanding of the problems facing SMEs, possibly by promoting a scheme for the temporary placement of bank officials in SMEs;

30.Calls on the Commission, when it takes further steps towards developing the information society, to focus on creating a framework of specific measures for SMEs so that the latter have the same encouragement as large businesses to share in existing advanced telematics services and are helped to adapt to the opportunities and needs of the information society;

31.Draws the attention of the Commission to the crafts sector, which is nominally one of the subjects of its communication but which appears to have been overlooked in the document itself, and requests that the problems peculiar to this particular sector (skills, etc.) be addressed;

32.Refers, with regard to the fiscal environment of SMEs, to its resolution of 24 October 1994 on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament concerning the improvement of the fiscal environment of small and medium-sized enterprises, accompanied by a recommendation concerning the taxation of small and medium-sized enterprises;

33.Insists that adequate resources be devoted in the Leonardo da Vinci programme on vocational training to ensuring that SMEs can acquire the qualifications and skills required for adaptation to industrial change and changes in production systems, and benefit from the dissemination of new technologies;

34.Calls further on the Commission to take steps to bridge the gap between the needs of SMEs in respect of product design, financing methods and other management techniques, and the facilities that are already available at Union level;

35.Insists that the fact that no budgetary impact is foreseen should not be taken as an excuse for not introducing practical and effective measures with a minimum of delay;

36.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.