A4-0147/96

Resolution on a second report from the Commission on the implementation of the Decision regarding the provision of Community interest subsidies on loans for small and medium-sized enterprises extended by the European Investment Bank under its temporary lending facility (the SME Facility) (COM(95)0485 - C4-0594/95)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the second report from the Commission on the implementation of the Decision regarding the provision of Community interest subsidies on loans for small and medium-sized enterprises extended by the European Investment Bank under its temporary lending facility (the SME Facility) (COM(95)0485 - C4-0594/95),

- having regard to the proposal for a Council Decision on the provision of Community interest subsidies on loans for SMEs extended by the EIB under its temporary lending facility (COM(93)0577 - C3-0021/94) ((OJ C 10, 14.1.1994, p. 13.)), and its opinion of 24 February 1994 on this proposal ((OJ C 77, 14.3.1994, p. 46.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinion of the Committee on Budgets (A4-0147/96),

A. whereas unacceptably high levels of unemployment prevail in most parts of the European Union, putting its social and economic fabric at risk,

B. whereas most Member States benefitted from some economic recovery in 1995 but only a couple were able to translate this growth into a fall in the unemployment rate,

C. whereas the Commission is already reducing its forecast for growth in 1996 because of the current slowdown, and whereas this slowdown is now threatening the Union's goal of halving unemployment by the end of the century,

D. whereas there is widespread agreement that it is in the small and medium- sized enterprise sector, and particularly amongst the smaller enterprises, that growth and jobs are to be created in the future,

E. whereas, in order to invest and create jobs, small enterprises need to borrow funds; whereas they very often encounter difficulties gaining access to, and paying for, borrowed funds,

F. whereas, in its opinion mentioned above, Parliament rightly welcomed the proposal to make ECU one billion of the EIB temporary lending facility available to SMEs across the Union at an interest subsidy of two percentage points, this subsidy to be financed by the EU budget; whereas Parliament indeed took the lead in voting appropriations into the budget to fund the subsidy; noting that the present scheme fosters not only employment creation but also productive investment,

G. whereas the intermediaries play a vital role in reaching, communicating and facilitating the EIB loans to SMEs,

H. whereas the EIB is playing an increasingly important role in helping SMEs in the EU,

1. Welcomes this second report from the Commission on the implementation of the Decision; notes that the facility has been a remarkable success with 95% of the total amount available allocated at the time of reporting (31 July 1995);

2. Notes that, at the time of reporting, certain Member States, and not just the newly acceded ones, had committed only a small part of their allocation of the total amount, to the detriment of would-be borrowers in those Member States; calls on the Commission and EIB to examine why those Member States had committed such a small share of their allocation and to consider using other intermediaries for any future such schemes;

3. Notes that certain Member States had much higher job creation forecasts than others, beyond what must be expected from the differences in size between the Member States, and also that certain Member States are apparently able to create a job with a much smaller loan size than others, and calls for future reports to contain an analysis of why this might be the case;

4. Considers that the SME definition being applied in the framework of this initiative, i.e. companies with fewer than 500 employees, is far too wide; welcomes, therefore, the recent proposal to make four criteria central to the definition of an SME, namely the number of its workers (under 10 for very small firms, 10-50 for small firms, 50-250 for medium-sized firms) its level of independence, its turnover and its balance sheet total; points out that, as a general rule, smaller enterprises will have greater difficulty obtaining loan financing than large ones and that, for the purposes of this scheme, the larger the company, the greater the likelihood that it would have made the job-creating investment even without the interest subsidy;

5. Recognizes that, for the purposes of this scheme, the EIB has largely followed Parliament's recommendation that the interest subsidy should benefit only small enterprises with fewer than 250 employees; feels however that for any future such scheme the beneficiary group should be narrowed even further, to enterprises with fewer than 100 or even 50 employees;

6. Welcomes the Commission's assertion that, as at 31 July 1995, the SME Facility had supported the creation of 42,000 jobs; points out that there is of course no way of knowing how many of these jobs would have been created anyway, or how many of the jobs will still exist in, say, 3 years' time; requests the Commission and the EIB to investigate in which fields the job creation has happened and whether the jobs are structural in nature;

7. Notes that the initial allocation of ECU one billion from the EIB's temporary lending facility is now largely used up; calls therefore on the Commission to produce proposals for an extension of the scheme with some adjustments to take account of the shortcomings mentioned above, or for an alternative scheme with the same aim, namely to help SMEs to help the Union in its vital task of creating employment, particularly by facilitating access to sources of funding for investment and lowering the cost of these funds;

8. Believes that the Commission should examine the value of restricting the number of intermediaries in each Member State which may have the virtue of concentrating available resources, thereby increasing the effectiveness of reaching and helping SMEs with the SME Facility; comprehensive coverage of the EU, in terms of the availability of the SME Facility, is essential and should be ensured;

9. Believes that the intermediaries should observe the highest standards of probity, and not seek unfairly to attract business to themselves by abusing their role as intermediaries dealing with SMEs' accounts;

10. Supports the new Commission proposal ELISE (European loan insurance guarantee scheme for employment) as a possible alternative instrument for SMEs;

11. Believes the EIB needs to be made more transparent and accountable; this should be done by setting up a joint committee between the European Parliament and the EIB whose task, inter alia, would be to scrutinise the EIB SME Facility;

12. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments of the Member States and the Board of Governors of the EIB.