strict economic and social progress conditionality; 10. Stresses that the vital role of SMEs for the Union’s economy should be reflected in a comprehensive and consistent strategy which provides European SMEs with a business- friendly environment and fosters their international trade and investment opportunities; reiterates its call on the Commission to assess and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the various initiatives supporting SME internationalisation, including under the Partnership Instrument, in relation to private and Member State initiatives as well as other Union funding instruments supporting SMEs such as COSME, with a view to ensuring complementarity and European value added; calls on the Commission to further finance SME internationalisation programmes and to endeavour to provide a rules of origin calculator tailored to SMEs that should specifically enable them to use the preferences available under existing agreements with a view to increasing the preference utilisation rate; observes that SMEs’ access to external financing instruments should be improved through less complex and more user-friendly regulation, which can facilitate more agile use of funds available, and at the same time help SMEs acquire international experience; underlines the need to improve information and awareness among SMEs about existing instruments, in particular at national level; 11. Recommends the creation of solid and consistent monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, including those required to fulfil obligations under trade and sustainable development chapters (TSD), within the future financial instruments architecture in order to ensure better accountability, transparency, democratic oversight by Parliament and improved targeting of expenditure; calls for higher and sufficient budgetary resources to be secured under the future financial instruments architecture and for personnel to be assigned to the Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade to carry out its increasing number of tasks, for the monitoring of the implementation of trade agreements and the deployment of trade defence instruments, in particular to defend and promote multilateralism in the development of global trade rules and regulations, for the reform the WTO and for the better integration of trade policy and rule-making in the framework of the United Nations system; demands additional Union support for the parliamentary dimension of the WTO, including increased financial and personal support for the responsible secretariat; stresses the importance of providing adequate financial resources to allow for regular and efficient monitoring of obligations arising from TSD chapters by international organisations such as International Labour Organisation missions, and surveillance and fact-finding work by other UN organisations; 12. Calls on the Commission to earmark sufficient funds through the external financing instruments for cooperation and technical assistance with third countries, especially developing countries, for the necessary accompanying measures for trade-related legislation such as the regulation laying down supply chain due diligence obligations for Union importers of tin, tantalum and tungsten, their ores, and gold originating from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, the Kimberley Process, as well as the Commission’s flagship initiative on the garment sector and similar initiatives, and the UN Global Compact; 13. Considers the European Guarantee Fund for external actions to be an efficient and effective mechanism for provisioning for risks related to Union lending operations in

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