A4-0139/96

Resolution on the Commission Communication 'The European Observatory for SMEs' - Comments by the Commission on the third annual report (1995) (COM(95)0526 - C4- 0202/95)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the third annual report of the European Observatory for SMEs,

- having regard to the Commission's comments on this report (COM(95)0526 - C4-0202/95),

- having regard to its previous resolutions on the policy for the benefit of SMEs and, in particular, its resolution of 19 January 1995 on the second annual report of the European Observatory for SMEs ((OJ C 43, 20.2.1995, p. 76.)),

- having delegated the power of decision to its Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy pursuant to Rule 52 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy (A4-0139/96),

A. having regard to the decisive role, amply corroborated by the statistics available, of small and medium-sized enterprises in creating employment, which gives particular importance to the efforts being undertaken to assist the growth and development of SMEs in the European Union,

B. noting with satisfaction the intensification of efforts in the Member States to simplify the administrative environment in which SMEs have to operate and to improve training for management and workers, access to credit and investment in equity capital,

C. noting that the proportion of SMEs engaging in export activities is increasing strikingly, and that the level of exports by businesses is not in direct correlation with their size, which confirms that exporting is not a privilege reserved for large businesses,

D. whereas growth-orientated SMEs are more productive and more likely to contribute to the medium-term development of employment, training, social welfare and competitiveness,

1. Welcomes the growth of cooperation between firms as encouraged, for example, by the BC-Net, and notes that European Economic Interest Groupings (EEIGs) satisfactorily meet the need of SMEs to forge stable links with partners in other countries of the Union while at the same time retaining their independence;

2. Notes with concern that the possibilities for access by SMEs to public contracts continue to be extremely limited, particularly in the case of small-scale transnational contracts, which are those likely to be of the greatest interest to SMEs, and calls on the Member States in consequence to disseminate more widely all information relating to calls for tender falling below the present level for automatic public tendering;

3. Takes the view that public intervention for the benefit of SMEs, whether it takes the form of administrative assistance, gathering and dissemination of information or the implementation of specific policies or financial contributions, must strike a fair balance between growth-orientated firms and micro companies, while allowing the latter to benefit fully from a lightening their bureaucratic load without affecting social protection;

4. Notes that SMEs contribute significantly to job creation and geographical equilibrium in Europe, takes the view that the development of industrial activities by the SMEs plays a decisive role in regional development and the growth of stable employment possibilities, particularly in the assisted regions, and considers that the Member States should pay more attention to eliminating all obstacles to the establishment of businesses in those regions where they are most likely to play an employment-stimulating role;

5. Notes that SMEs play a major role in the process of innovation, in both high-technology and traditional industries, and calls on the Commission and the Member States to support by all appropriate means the founding and assistance of new technological businesses and to provide for greater participation by SMEs in the major Community research and training programmes in order to encourage innovation, the application of new technologies and the spirit of enterprise throughout the Union;

6. Notes that SMEs still have much greater difficulty than large companies in obtaining bank loans at reasonable rates or capital on the markets, and takes the view that the creation of a genuine European capital market for fast-growing SMEs is essential as a means of enabling them to make the best possible use of their assets in the context of the global competition with which they are faced and points out that a multitude of European capital markets targeted towards SMEs will dilute the availability of capital and will be detrimental to the liquidity of any such markets, but stresses nevertheless that a pan-European capital market for internationally oriented growth SMEs can and should be complementary to existing national SME markets;

7. Takes the view that the development of stock-market funding for a greater part of the economic structure represented by the largest SMEs is not only possible but desirable, and calls in consequence on the Member States to eliminate any fiscal distinction between borrowing and issuing shares as a means of raising capital, and to encourage accounting transparency and the dissemination of economic information by these companies with a view to eliminating the factors which act as a brake on the interest of investors in a market in which the lack of proper information creates an excessive factor of uncertainty and in this context also calls on the Member States to eliminate current restrictions on pension funds to invest in equity markets which would significantly enhance the availability of capital in and liquidity of such markets;

8. Takes the view that in a context of curbed inflation and a drop in real interest rates, the financing of SMEs would be facilitated as much by the granting of guarantees as by interest-rate subsidies and welcomes the recent Commission initiative for a 'European Loan Insurance Scheme for Employment¨ and calls upon the Council to establish this new instrument as soon as possible;

9. Calls in this context upon the Commission to come forward with a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive to deal with the problem of late payments, which has become pressing and urgent for numerous SMEs whose clients (the public authorities among them are often the worst late payers) use delaying payments beyond an agreed payment date as a very cheap and easy way of short-term credit, a problem which has threatened the very existence of many of them;

10. Considers that the development of specific applications for SMEs could make a useful contribution towards encouraging SMEs to increase their use of information technologies, but takes the view that the availability of generic services of immediately apparent usefulness will do most to encourage SMEs to become part of the information society;

11. Considers that the reports by the European Observatory for SMEs effectively meet the need which has been expressed for relevant information and a thorough analysis of the situation and prospects of European SMEs, and takes the view that the approach adopted by the Commission has proved to be the right one, but could still be improved in a number of ways, and therefore calls on the Commission to:

- continue its work in this area, with a view inter alia to achieving more extensive utilization of the reports and ensuring that they are able to reach a wider public;

- look at possible ways of stimulating cooperation between the Observatory's network and other Europe-wide organizations likely to help increase the usefulness of the project;

- encourage greater use of the most recent information available in the Member States, particularly any information relating to assessing the impact of the single market on SMEs;

12. Considers it essential that the employment and growth potential of SMEs should be maximized and put to full use, and calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement the measures best suited to:

- simplifying the administrative environment in which SMEs and especially micro-companies have to operate without dismantling the current system of social protection;

- reducing the structural distortions caused by excessive bureaucracy which stand in the way of the establishment and development of SMEs;

- ensuring that SMEs and their organizations play a greater role in decision making;

- facilitating financing for employment-creating SMEs;

- facilitating the creation and operation of a European capital market for growth SMEs complementary to existing national SME markets;

- promoting the use of information technologies by SMEs;

- encouraging SMEs' access to the information society;

- eliminating obstacles to market access and reducing the distortions resulting from State subsidies;

- promoting research, innovation and training for SMEs;

- strengthening transnational cooperation between SMEs;

- helping to make SMEs more competitive and international;

- coordinating national policies for SMEs among themselves and with others in the Union;

13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.