No C 102/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 18. 4. 91 
Opinion on enterprise policy: a new dimension for small and medium-sized enterprises—pro­
posal for a Council Decision revising the programme for the improvement of the business 
environment and the promotion of the development of enterprises and in particular small 
and medium-sized enterprises, in the Community (*) 
(91/C 102/07) 
On 15 January 1991 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, 
under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the 
abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for the 
preparatory work, adopted its Opinion on 6 February 1991. The Rapporteur was 
Mr Lustenhouwer. 
At its 284th plenary session (meeting of 27 February 1991) the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following Opinion unanimously. 
1. Introduction 
1.1. The present document and the Commission pro­
posal it contains on granting a supplementary budget 
for the enterprise policy to be pursued between now 
and the end of 1993 is a logical follow-up to the Council 
Decision of 28 July 1989. 
1.2. The Council decided on that occasion to grant 
the Commission a budget for the needs of its enterprise 
policy, particularly the promotion of crafts and small 
and medium-sized enterprises (SME); the sum amount­
ed to ECU 110 million for the period from 1990 up to 
and including 1993. The Council also decided to set 
aside a sum of ECU 25 million for a later stage if such 
action seemed necessary. 
1.3. The Economic and Social Committee supported 
the initiatives announced by the Commission in its 
Opinions of 26 April 1989 and 16 November 1989. The 
Committee had already drawn attention many times to 
the need for action by the Community to help people 
set up and develop SME, and for the social partners to 
be involved in policy development. 
2. Enterprise policy: an interim report 
2.1. The present document offers the Committee a 
good opportunity to draw up an interim report on 
enterprise policy as pursued over the past two years. 
For the Committee, it is an important premise that 
small firms in the various sectors should be treated 
(!) OJ No C 13, 19. 1. 1991, p. 5. on the same footing and that consequently support 
measures, projects and programmes should be open to 
firms for all sectors. 
The Committee notes with approval that the Com­
mission's enterprise policy concentrates on small and 
medium-sized enterprises. In the Committee's view it 
should involve measures directed at small and medium-
sized firms in all sectors of trade and industry, and 
particulary the small firms in the sectors of crafts, 
commerce, hotels and catering, tourism, transport, 
industry, services and where appropriate the pro­
fessions. 
It is apparent that the Commission has made a start in 
a number of fields on implementing initiatives 
announced in the past and the initial assessments of a 
number of pilot projects have already been completed 
or are under way. The Committee thinks it is a good 
thing that the Commission's initiatives are regularly 
tested from the point of view of their suitability, 
especially as some of these projects are of a completely 
new kind and so the relevant experience still has to be 
acquired. 
The Committee takes a generally positive view of the 
initiatives developed by the Commission, but also 
believes that the Commission's policy, as presented in 
the document under consideration, needs to be sup­
plemented on certain points. 
In the explanatory note to the Commission's proposal, 
some new projects are announced. However, since it is 
limited to a brief announcement, the Committee cannot 
yet comment on the desirability of these new activities. 
Nonetheless the Committee trusts that the new activi­
ties will be implemented in close consultation with the 
organizations concerned including the relevant wor­
kers' organizations. 
2.2. Thus the Committee would have liked the Com­
mission's document to go deeper into the so-called 
'integration policy' and to indicate how the 'SME 
lD5^1 Officialjournal of the European Communities ^oClt^lB 
dimensions is taken into account in all Community 
policy areas. In its Opinions of ^ April and 1^ 
l^o^ember l^^theCommittee specifically drew the 
Commissions attention to its integration task. The 
Committee would also ha^e liked the document to 
explain how the Commissioner responsible for business 
policy carries out the coordinating and monitoring role 
ad^ocatedby the Committee, so as tointegrate^AiE 
policy into all aspects of Community policy. 
^. The Committee feels that the factor of labour 
deserves moreattentionthanitreceivesintheCom 
mission proposal.The Committee has pointed out ina 
number of Opinions the importance of involving labour 
in processes withinbusinesses.But the importance of 
human potential within the firm is generally accepted, 
andshouldthereforebetakenintoaccountinCom^ 
munity^AiEpolicy.The Commission correctly devotes 
attention to the training of entrepreneurs especial refers 
ence must be made here to the need to be familiar with 
innovative developments^, but the fact remains that the 
training and instruction of employees in ^AiE should 
be among the priorities of Community policy,precisely 
because ^AiE need such support here inanumber of 
situations. The Committee therefore hopes that the 
labour factor will receive more attention intheComD 
mission^sintegration policy. 
^. Asimilar comment can be made with regard to 
the lackof attentionpaid to theposition of women 
entrepreneurs and women who want to start up a 
business. Although the recent Community initiative to 
promote equal opportunities for women in the field of 
employment and vocational training ^O^ initiative, 
Ol^oC^^of^roecemberl^^rightly makes 
resources available to support programmes to help 
women set up small firms and cooperatives, the Com 
mittee still thinks that careful attention should also 
bepaid in the longer term to women entrepreneurs. 
Certainly, the relevant policy should not only be a 
matter allocated toPoirectorate^CeneralV,andthere^ 
fore onlyconsideredfromasocial angles Loirectorate^ 
Ceneral^^Hl should also be involved structurally,to 
ensure that projects aimed at women dncluding projects 
designed to improve conditions for women working in 
small firms^ fit in with business policy asawhole. 
^.Bo. By far the most attention is paid by the ComD 
mission to its experiences with the so-called Euro Info 
Centres and the BCl^et.The Committee agrees with 
the Commission that these instruments make a very 
useful contribution to spreading information among 
^AiE and fulfil the ^^viE essential need for information 
and advice. 
But it should also not be forgotten that, as regards 
improving the business climate, which is the other major aim of policy,actioninanumber of areas has 
remained limited to good intentions. 
The easing of administrative burdens, which is the 
subject of a Council recommendation, has scarcely 
advanced at all.The Committee realises that such bur 
densare often theresultofnationalimplementation 
rules, but is certainly feels it is one of the Community^ 
tasks to ensure that as much red tape as possible is 
avoided when new rules are laid down. 
TheCommitteereiterates that this mustnotlead to 
employees^protection being reduced in law or in prac 
tice. 
^. ^cale and sectoral policy 
^.1. The Committee thinks the Commission is right 
to point out the need to take account of the scale 
questioninspecificsectors. Itisprecisely becauseof 
the strong ^AiE presence in sectors such as trading and 
tourism that this interactionbetweenbusinesspolicy 
and sectoral policy should be supported.The Commit 
tee also assumes thatastart will be made very soon on 
an action programme for the trading sector. 
The Committee also takes the view that the Com 
missionshouldencouragethe^iember^tatesalsoto 
take enough account of the position of small firms in 
these sectors. 
In addition, the Committee wouldrefer to thecon 
elusions of the conference held in Avignon in the 
autumn of l^^O on Communitypolicy concerning crafts 
and very small businesses. 
The Committee calls upon the Commission to say 
something very soon about these conclusions and indi 
cate how it thinks these should be included in its pro 
gramme of activities for the ne^t few years. 
^L As far as sectoral policy is concerned, the ComD 
mitteealso notes that thepolicy concerning what is 
known as the^o^o^^o^A^ is wrongly considered 
by the Commission to be a component of sectoral 
policy. In the Committees view, ^o^o^^ ^o^A^ 
firms are characterised first and foremost by their spec 
ific legal form,which, more often than not, is that of 
a cooperative associations such firms are found in a 
number of sectors, so the term^sectoralpolicy^is out 
of place here. 
^3. As well as taking stock of ongoing activities, the 
Commission announcesanumber of new projects.Of 
interesthere are, fore^ample, the idea ofaEuropean 
subcontracting forum and that ofaguarantee fund for 
certain investments by ^^iE, especially in central and 
eastern European countries.^fhis last idea ties in with 
one of the conclusions of the crafts conference inAvig 
No C 102/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 18. 4. 91 
non, where a call was made for a study into a possible 
European export credit insurance scheme. 
The Committee would add that the question of the 
future financing of SME will require more attention 
from the Community. 
4. Statistics on SME 
4.1. The Committee is pleased that explicit attention 
has been paid in the Commission document to gathering 
Community-wide statistics on developments in SME. 
The Committee emphasized this point in its Opinion 
of 16 November 1989 (point 1.2). 
Although the initiatives announced in this area are still 
somewhat vague, the Committee would like to stress 
right now that any 'European monitoring centre' which 
is set up should not overlap with networks of research 
institutions which already exist or are being set up in 
the Community, or indeed with the activities of the 
various national statistical offices. 
The Committee thinks that the gathering of Com­
munity-wide statistics is, first and foremost, something 
which calls for coordination between the various 
national statistical offices: this is a task for Eurostat. 
The analysis of developments and their expression in 
the form of statistics is a matter for the research insti­
tutions specially set up for this purpose in the Member 
States. Priority should be given to supporting cooper­
ation in the form of networking between these insti­
tutions. 
5. Cooperation with non-EEC countries 
5.1. The Committee agrees with the Commission's 
view that systems such as the Euro Info Centres and 
the BC-Net should be opened up to participants from 
non-EEC countries (especially those in Europe) as far 
as possible and as long as projects are not held up. Such 
an opening proves that the Community is not a closed 
Done at Brussels, 27 February 1991. system but forms part of a greater economic entity. 
Perhaps in the years ahead, if there is further integration 
in the Community, the non-EEC dimension should be 
given even more attention in a policy designed to pro­
mote SME. 
6. Conclusion 
6.1. The Committee appreciates the fact that the 
Commission has set out in which areas it intends to 
continue its policy to promote crafts and SME in the 
years ahead. However, the Committee is not in a pos­
ition to say whether the budget requested by the Com­
mission is really sufficient to achieve the aims laid down 
by the Council in its 1989 Decision. In any case, the 
Committee does not consider this its taks. What matters 
for the Committee is that mention should be made in 
its blueprint of a structural policy at Community level 
geared to the needs of SME, which has the flexibility 
to adapt to changing circumstances and which can be 
tested for its effectiveness. The Committee endorses the 
statement in the Commission document that the social 
partners, too, will be involved in the formulation of 
SME policy (for instance through seminars and other 
meetings). In this respect the Committee agrees with 
the main lines of the document now presented by the 
Commission, although it would point out here that 
progress still has to be made in this very area of improv­
ing the general business climate. 
6.2. Against this background the Committee declares 
its satisfaction with the fact that enterprise policy is 
now linked more than in the past to other important 
areas of Community policy. The integration of SME 
into the Commission's economic policy, as it appears 
from the recent Commission document on the subject 
(Doc. COM(90) 556), rightly shows, in the Committee's 
view, that SME policy is one of the instruments for 
ensuring that the socio-economic goals of economic 
growth and job creation can be achieved. From this 
angle the Committee feels that the interim report on 
enterprise policy can be regarded as positive. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Francois STAEDELIN