Debate: State of the SMEs Union – Implementation of better regulation agenda / Reduction target for administrative burden
Date: MONDAY, 7 JUNE 2021
Speaker: Nicolas Schmit
Language: FR

Je le fais avec d’autant plus de plaisir que, en tant que commissaire en charge de l’emploi, je sais que les petites et moyennes entreprises jouent un rôle fondamental dans la création d’emplois, surtout dans le contexte de la relance. Mr President, I would like to express my gratitude to the European Parliament for its strong support to SMEs, earlier reports on the topic and for putting the state of European SMEs on the agenda. Since the beginning of its mandate, this Commission has put SMEs high on the agenda. The President, already in her first speech before this Parliament, committed to a new SME strategy, and we published it within the first 100 days, shortly after the world plunged into a pandemic and an unprecedented crisis that hit SMEs hard. The SME Performance Review shows that across the EU, value added in SMEs fell by 7.6% in 2020. 1.4 million SME jobs were lost. At all stages, our support to SMEs has been, and remains, central in the short term to facilitate immediate relief, in the long term to stimulate the recovery. We have approved state-aid measures allowed under the Treaty in special circumstances. This enabled a rapid response to companies’ liquidity needs, thus avoiding further layoffs and bankruptcies. We reinforced lending to SMEs with EUR one billion from the EU budget in order to help 100 000 European businesses and leverage EUR eight billion of financing. The demand to use these products was unprecedented across the European Union. The COVID Guarantee Fund by the EIB Group is expected to mobilise up to EUR 200 billion in financing for European companies, mostly SMEs. The SME Strategy remains our compass for the long-term recovery. Its priorities – digitalisation, sustainability and resilience – have only gained in importance. All 33 actions of the SME Strategy have started. The Recovery and Resilience Facility gives a major boost to the strategy. Member States are proposing reforms and investments that will benefit SMEs, such as for digitalisation, upskilling and vocational training, as well as through public procurement opportunities. We are now in the process of assessing the national plans. SMEs and start-ups should benefit from a stronger single market, increased resilience and the accelerated green and digital transitions, fostering SMEs’ potential for quality job creation. This is why SME dimension is strongly present in the updated industrial strategy. Let me give you an overview of the key actions, starting with the twin transition. First, digitalisation. Digitalisation is a key enabler. By 2030 we want 90% of SMEs to reach at least a basic level of digital intensity and 75% of companies to use cloud, AI and big data. We will support SMEs along the way close to their home. Their access points will be local European digital innovation hubs, the European Enterprise Network and industrial clusters. Together they will provide advice and lead any small company to specialised testing and experimentation to help deploy innovative products and services. Data is raw material for new business models. We work on making sure SME data is more secure and we incentivise data sharing and we reuse, while preserving our values and ensuring fair access to data for SMEs. Let me turn to the Green Deal. This is Europe’s growth strategy, and we should make sure that SMEs benefit from it. Start-ups and scale-ups offering clean tech solutions are facing a deployment challenge. To this end, we are developing a digital clean tech investment initiative to pool European, national and private funding for scaling up businesses in this area. We also look at hydrogen solutions – batteries’ life cycle, carbon capture solutions, device repair and refurbishment and electro-mobility – as business opportunities for SMEs. Setting rules that allow for technological advances and market entry for smaller companies is essential. That is also why we prepare the Intellectual Property Action Plan and offer IP vouchers for SMEs. Access to finance is key. SMEs will need to make substantial investments at times where many of them are short of liquidity. A dedicated SME window under InvestEU could trigger EUR 45 billion of investment in more than 170 000 SMEs by 2023. The Commission is also expanding support for scale-up capital and for initial public offerings to provide finance across all stages of an SME’s life, from start-ups to growth and to exits to public markets. Finally, let us not forget our Structural Funds, Horizon Europe and the European Defence Fund, with its built-in incentives and considerable resources to attract SMEs. I would just add also the European Social Fund+. A resilient and SME-friendly business environment is important. In that context, financial support alone is not enough. We also need the right framework conditions in which SMEs can prosper and fully benefit from the single market as their launchpad for growth. Not being paid on time can be an existential matter for SMEs, in particular in crisis times. The Commission is improving the effectiveness of the Late Payment Directive and monitoring SMEs’ liquidity through a new late payment observatory. Digital, green, innovative and socially-responsible procurement creates opportunities for SMEs. The Public Procurement Directives have considerably lowered the administrative burden for SMEs. Procurement eForms have introduced an SME-friendly label. It allows SMEs to spot specific business opportunities easily. Collaboration can boost SME performance. The important projects of common European interest, as well as industrial alliances and partnerships, will see increased participation of SMEs and start-ups. Let me now touch upon an important topic for this debate: the regulatory burden. Reducing this burden remains a key priority. The Better Regulation communication reinforces our commitment to evidence-based policymaking through improved consultations with stakeholders, better analysis of impacts, and a strong attention to efficient regulation. The ‘one-in-one-out’ principle allows us to better address cumulative burden. SMEs often experience burden more strongly than other companies do. This is why our Better Regulation efforts take into account the need to foster small business recovery and build their resilience. We will reinforce the SME test and complement it with the SME filter to identify those initiatives with significant impact on SMEs at a very early stage in the preparatory process. Careful assessment of the impacts on SMEs will ensure that our action is targeted, achieves its objectives and does not add unnecessary costs. Finally, SMEs need a strong voice in EU policymaking. The pandemic has hit SMEs across the industrial ecosystems in an unprecedented way. At the same time, SMEs will be the key to green and digital recovery. That is why we will reflect further on how to best design the mandate and role of the next European SME Envoy and how to structure the work of the network of the National SME Envoys to make sure our actions are anchored locally and respond to the realities and needs of small businesses. While the Commission shares the SME community’s eagerness to appoint an SME Envoy, we have decided to take some extra time to conclude the appointment. Let me assure you there is no void in the interim. The Network of SME Envoys is operating at full speed across borders and is chaired in the interim by the deputy EU SME Envoy. To conclude, supporting and embracing small businesses is both necessary and vital to recovery and twin transactions. It will take a concerted effort for all of us, and I know the European Parliament shares this sense of urgency, and I count on our continued and effective cooperation, our joint objective of promoting SMEs in the European economy.