Debate: State of the SME Union
Date: THURSDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2022
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

First of all, short term: the data is clear. SMEs are under extreme pressure already after COVID and now with the war with extremely high energy prices and inflation. We have obligation to help them, short term. And I think that Ursula von der Leyen was very clear by presenting the solutions which should help in this current very critical situation. She also spoke very clearly – although not in detail – about the medium—term and longer—term measures. First of all, the SME relief package. What she had in mind was securing cash flow. That is why she announced the Commission to revise the Late Payment Directive. Then simplifying doing business in the single market. We will make a proposal for a single set of tax rules for doing business in Europe called BEFIT. And third, we need to look into skills and access to finance. It also resonated here in this debate that the access to finance should be much easier. I am always upset when I see that the rules for financing are extremely complicated. And honestly, I see more complications added by the Member States than in the original proposals of the EU. And then, OK so what is the solution for that? So let’s pay, from taxpayers’ money, the advisers to help. Why don’t we simplify? It would be much cheaper. So I think that these are the things we have to focus on. On behalf of the Commission, I want to say something on regulatory burden, because indeed we are now applying the one-in, one-out. We are assessing whether the new legislation is bringing new obligations and new burdens. And we are looking into the older legislation which should be amended at least to balance it or decrease the burdens. And it goes slowly but surely. And I can tell you, it requires a lot of vigilance, because in every new proposal, we have to test the impact and we are testing the impact on the SMEs and we try to apply the test of proportionality and necessity. But at the same time I have to say that throughout the legislative process I see the lack of this vigilance. What I see are invisible small steps which are adding more and more burdens on SMEs. And I think that it requires the vigilance of all of us that we have to say from time to time, let’s stop this madness, we don’t need this and that reporting from the companies around 10 employees or 20 employees. And I could give you very concrete examples, but due to the time shortage I will not do that. But it requires a proactive approach and proactive vigilance against this small, invisible process of adding the burdens. I would call it ‘killing me softly’, with reference to a famous song. We must be very much more active not to let this happen further. In my previous job I was the Minister of Regional Development. I spoke to many SMEs about the situation. Almost all of them were complaining about bureaucracy and regulatory burdens, and when I asked them as the Minister, what can I do for you? The answer was, very often, ‘forget that we exist, do not do anything for us. Just let us do the business. Give us clear and simple rules. That’s it. That’s all we need.’ If we do not do that, we will keep biting the hand which is feeding us because we heard many times here the data which show that SMEs are the biggest employers in the EU. So what I call, on behalf of the Commission, we try to do that, but also I call on the co-legislators to remain vigilant and to always do the test of proportionality and necessity whenever we are adopting new legislation.