Report from the Commission - European Charter for Small enterprises - Annual implementation report
Date: 2001-03-07
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European charter, activity report, small and medium-sized enterprises

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

Brussels, 7.3.2001
COM(2001) 122 final

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The  European  Charter  for  Small  Enterprises,  adopted  by  the  General  Affairs  Council  on
13 June 2000 and welcomed by the Feira European Council on 19-20 June 2000, called upon
Member  States  and  the  Commission  to  take  action  in  a  number  of  areas  to  support  and
encourage small enterprises. Recognising the crucial role that these types of enterprises play
in  the  growth  of  the  European  economy,  the  Charter  aimed  to  focus  the  minds  of  policy
makers on the factors that are critical to their development and prosperity.

The  Charter  identified  the  following  as  key  areas  for  improvement:  education  for
entrepreneurship; cheaper and faster start-up; better legislation and regulation; availability of
skills; improving online access; getting more out of the Single Market; taxation and finance;
strengthening  the  technological  capacity  of  small  enterprises;  making  use  of  successful
e-business models and developing top-class small business support; and developing stronger,
more effective representation of small enterprises’ interests at Union and national level.

In  order  to  follow-up  the  recommendations  in  the  Charter,  the  Commission  undertook  to
report annually on progress to the Spring Summit.

Action in favour of SMEs takes place under a variety of headings, which  are  reviewed in a
number of different Commission reports1. This report can only make a brief reference to these
other  publications,  as  it  is  not  possible,  for  reasons  of  space,  to  reproduce  all  their  findings
here. It should also  be  noted  that  the  current work programme of  the Enterprise Directorate
General  and  the  Commission  in  areas  affecting  SMEs  coincides  broadly  with  the  priorities
identified in the Charter.

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An exercise to evaluate and summarise the progress of Member States and the Commission in
improving  the  environment  for  businesses  was  already  underway  at  the  time  of  the  Feira
European  Council.  Following  its  completion,  a  detailed  report2,  along  with  a  paper
summarising results from other best practice-related activities3, was submitted to the Industry
Council on 5 December  2000.  This  report made a number  of  recommendations  as  to  where
Member States could  better  their  performance, and highlighted thirty-one  examples  of  good
practice  from  individual  countries  that  could  be  replicated  elsewhere.  Importantly,  it  also

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See, for example, Benchmarking Enterprise Policy: First results from the Scoreboard, SEC(2000) 1841
of 31.10.2000, the reports of the European Observatory for SMEs (every 18 months), and the bi-annual
report on Activities in favour of SMEs and the craft sector.
Report  on  the  Implementation  of  the  Action  Plan  to  Promote  Entrepreneurship  and  Competitiveness,
SEC(2000) 1825 of 27.10.2000.
Summary  of  Results  of  Best  Practice-related  Activities 
SEC(2000) 1824 of 26.10.2000.

the  field  of  Enterprise  Policy,

in 

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enabled  the  Commission  to  verify  that  Member  States  are  acting  in  accordance  with  the
recommendations in the Charter.

The  report  provides  a  good  basis  for  bringing  about  lasting  improvements  to  the  business
environment,  but  this  will  only  happen  if  Member  States  implement  its  recommendations,
and, where necessary, learn from the good practices of others. In particular, progress has been
made  in  the  area  of  better  legislation  and  regulation,  where  almost  all  Member  States
introduced  initiatives  to  improve  the  regulatory  framework  for  businesses.  Most  Member
States have put emphasis on making start-ups for SMEs easier and faster by establishing on-
line  access  for  registration  and  the  introduction  of  one-stop  shops.  Efforts  have  also  been
made to strengthen the technological capacity of small enterprises by the majority of Member
States, but these will need to be further improved. In the areas of education and training and
availability of skills, much work has yet to be accomplished. The European Union presents a
patchy  picture  for  the  time  being:  some  Member  States  put  a  great  deal  of  emphasis  on
education, but most unfortunately do not. More attention also needs to be given to tax systems
and financial matters.

For its part, the Commission has acted on the recommendations addressed to it in the Action
Plan to Promote Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness, and has ensured that the objectives of
the  new  Multiannual  Programme  for  Enterprise  and  Entrepreneurship4  are  compatible  with
those in the Charter.

The  Commission  is  also  launching  11  projects,  in  co-operation  with  the  Member  States,  to
identify best practice in areas that correspond to the Charter’s guidelines. These projects cover
the  following  themes:  transfer  of  businesses;  promoting  entrepreneurship  amongst  women;
education  and  training  for  entrepreneurship;  benchmarking  the  management  of  incubators;
business  support  services;  benchmarking  the  administration  of  start-ups;  business  impact
assessment;  evaluation  of  the  economic  impact  of  conformity  assessment  procedures;
Business Angels; skills shortage in ICTs; and benchmarking national policies in support of e-
business for SMEs.

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Progress by Member States will continue to be monitored through the Best Procedure annual
report, which will be presented to the Industry Council at the end of each year, beginning in
2001. This will draw together the results from all the different activities aimed at identifying
and benchmarking best practices.

Although  last  year’s  reporting  exercise  was  initiated  too  early  to  match  exactly  the
recommendations contained in the Charter, it did give detailed coverage to many of the same
priority  areas.  In  future,  the  two  reports  will  be  more  closely  aligned,  and  the  relationship
between  them  made  more  explicit.  In  addition,  the  establishment  of  the  “professional
chamber” of the new Enterprise Policy Group will be a substantial step towards meeting the
consultation  objectives  of  the  Charter  at  EU  level.  Moreover,  the  Commission’s  Interactive
Policy  Making  (IPM)  initiative,  an  Internet  based  feedback  mechanism  which  receives
information  about  the  experiences  and  opinions  of  business,  in  particular  SMEs,  will
significantly  help  the  decision  making  process  in  a  number  of  actions  in  the  Charter  to  be
more inclusive and take account of the concerns of small enterprises.

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Council Decision of 20.12.2000 on a multiannual programme for enterprise and entrepreneurship, and
in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (2001-2005) (2000/819/EC).

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