A conference in Brussels which discussed the European Small Business Act has concluded that while some progress had been achieved by EU member states in terms of implementing the provisions of the Act, much more needed to be done for SMEs in Europe for them to feel any kind of positive impact.

The Small Business Act for Europe was launched by the European Commission in 2008 to establish a comprehensive framework of common principles and legislative measures aimed at providing a stronger policy approach to SMEs in Europe.

The conference was organised by the Employers Group in the European Economic and Social Committee and was addressed by the president of the Employers Group, Henri Malosse, various Commission officials and leaders of European business organisations such as Eurochambres, Business Europe and UEAPME. Also addressing the conference as the keynote speaker was Joanna Drake, director responsible for SMEs and Entrepreneurship within the European Commission.

The three main business organisations formally put forward 10 key “business recommendations” to make the Small Business Act work. The proposals included calls for the further development of credit guarantee instruments, the launching of public SME finance schemes and for a stronger drive to help SMEs become more international.

During the debate a number of key items such as access to public procurement by SMEs, access to finance and better regulation from a small business perspective were discussed.

“The Small Business Act is two years old but I’m not too sure there is much to celebrate at the moment,” according to European Economic and Social Committee member Stefano Mallia, who attended the conference in Brussels aimed at discussing the progress and achievements of the Act.

Specifically addressing the issue of access to finance during the conference Mr Mallia said that access to finance was the number one priority for all SMEs especially those with 10 people or less. He said that unless SMEs are able to gain access to credit there is likely to be a much slower European economic growth if at all.

Mr Mallia said that the situation was being further exacerbated by the lack of liquidity within SMEs which was being made worse by public entities taking long to pay SMEs their dues. Here he cited the situation where Maltese SMEs in the health sector face a payment period of at least 120 days which is specifically stipulated in their contracts with government.

While acknowledging that the EU had responded to the crises and had launched financial instruments aimed at assisting SMEs, Mr Mallia asked the Commission: “Are we really sure that these financial instruments are within touching distance of our small enterprises?”.

He also referred to the difficulties faced by SMEs to benefit directly from the EU 2007-2013 funds. While stating that the situation had improved from the previous programming period, accessing these funds was still proving to be cumbersome. He concluded by saying that “the EU still needs to find the coherent balance between controls and simplified access”.

Mr Malosse closed the conference by saying: “It is high time that the European Commission replaced its strategies, acts and plans by concrete actions. The 23 million European SMEs would very much welcome a single positive action, like those on public procurement, vocational training, entrepreneurship, taxation and finance.”

The Employers' Group (Group I) of the European Economic and Social Committee has 113 members, and is made up of entrepreneurs and representatives of entrepreneur associations working in industry, commerce, services and agriculture in the 27 member states of the European Union.

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