WRITTEN QUESTION E-3422/01

by Gerard Collins (UEN) to the Council

(13 December 2001)

Subject: The Belgian Presidency and actions for SMUs and micro-undertakings

Will the Council indicate the measures it has taken under the Belgian Presidency aimed at promoting the development of small and medium-sized undertakings and micro-undertakings during the last six months, in particular those of advantage to less-developed and island regions, and will it state what initiatives in this area will need to be further considered during the Spanish Presidency?

Reply

(18 March 2002)

1. In line with the conclusions of the Lisbon European Council, the Belgian Presidency made SMEs, in particular small enterprises and start-ups, a

central concern. Under the Belgian Presidency numerous events focusing on the role of SMEs were accordingly organised, including a conference on Financing SMEs: the European approach at Louvain-la-Neuve on 24 and 25 October 2001.

2. At the Energy/Industry Council meeting on 4 and 5 December 2001 the Council dealt with the specific problems of SMEs in various sets of conclusions:

- Council conclusions on the implementation of the Lisbon objectives in the area of enterprise policy, in which the Council invited Member States to:

review the experience of those Member States that have had exemplary growth and productivity performance since the mid-1990s, to see what lessons can be learned regarding ICT use and diffusion and what actions have contributed to making easier and faster the uptake of ICT by European enterprises, notably by SMEs,

- and invited Member States and the Commission to:

continue their work in the area of benchmarking enterprise policy, in particular in relation to SMEs, and in producing the relevant Scoreboards.

- Council conclusions on SME access to finance, in which the Council invited the Commission to:

- encourage professionalism of the various players in the field of equity finance by identifying good practices in the field of public and private training;

- facilitate contacts between banks, other financial providers and SMEs in order to draft a European code of conduct between banks and SMEs and thus strengthen their understanding of each other, and determine best practices for reducing the complexity of the administrative procedures involved in financing or government guarantees;

- measure on a regular basis SMEs' access to finance;

- explore ways of reducing the informational asymmetries between capital supply and demand, looking in particular at risk assessment methodologies that are accessible, transparent and suited to SMEs' requirements;

- explore ways to increase liquidity of capital markets;

- submit an initial assessment of progress in 2003.

- Council conclusions concerning State aid, in which Member States were invited, among other things, to:

reorient aid towards horizontal objectives, including cohesion and, where appropriate, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

3. At the same meeting, the Council also noted information given by the Austrian delegation on the potential effects on SMEs' access to finance of the new Basle Capital Accord due to be adopted shortly.

4. The Spanish Presidency has already planned to put an item on the European Charter for SMEs on the agenda of the Industry/Energy Council on 6 and 7 June 2002 as part of the follow-up to the conclusions expected from the Barcelona European Council on 15 and 16 March 2002.