The EU Commission presented on 11th March a dedicated strategy for SMEs aiming to reduce red tape and help Europe’s numerous SMEs to do business across the single market and beyond, access financing and help lead the way on the digital and green transitions. The initiatives also include concrete steps to address barriers to a well-functioning single market, Europe’s strongest asset to allow all businesses to grow and compete in Europe and beyond.
A new SME Strategy
SMEs play a key role in Europe’s industrial fabric, providing two out of three jobs, and are central to the success of this new industrial approach. The Strategy aims to help SMEs to lead the twin transitions, which also means securing access to the right skills. To build SMEs’ capacity for these transitions, the Commission will upgrade the European Enterprise Network with dedicated Sustainability Advisors. It will also expand Digital Innovation Hubs across every region in Europe to empower SMEs to integrate digital innovations. It will open up possibilities for volunteering and training on digital technologies.
To make it easier for SMEs to operate in the single market and beyond, the Commission proposes actions to remove regulatory and practical obstacles to doing business or scaling up. Among them, the Commission is stepping up its efforts to ensure prompt payment, in particular through a new virtual Observatory, as well as through alternative dispute resolution. To make it more accessible for SMEs to go public in Europe, the Commission will also support an SME Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) Fund under the InvestEU SME window. It will also empower female entrepreneurship by stimulating investment in women-led companies and funds. Furthermore, the Commission invites Member States to ensure one-stop shop assistance to companies. The objective is to make Europe the best place to start a business and grow. It will work with Member States on an EU Start-up Nations Standard to share and adopt best practices to accelerate growth of high-tech SMEs and start-ups. To ensure political commitment for these measures, a high-level EU SME Envoy will guarantee close partnership and coordination with EU Member States through national SME envoys, as well as with regional and local authorities. It will also strengthen the SME perspective in EU legislation.
A single market that delivers for our businesses and consumers
The single market is one of Europe’s greatest achievements and provides Europe’s businesses with a large domestic market. It stimulates competition and trade within the EU. It provides EU citizens with a wider choice of goods and services and more employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. It gives European companies the leverage they need to become leaders on the global stage.
Nevertheless, Europeans continue to experience barriers that prevent them from fully exploiting the potential of the single market. Estimates show that removing these barriers could bring up to €713 billion by the end of the decade. The Report on barriers to the single market published today identifies a broad range of obstacles in the single market taking the perspective of Europe’s businesses and consumers. It points to the root causes of such barriers: restrictive and complex national rules, limited administrative capacities, imperfect transposition of EU rules and their inadequate enforcement.
To address these barriers, the Commission adopts an Action Plan for Better Implementation and Enforcement of single market rules, which aims at addressing obstacles that arise from violations of EU law. The Action Plan is based on a renewed partnership between Member States and Commission in their shared responsibility to ensure that single market rules are properly enforced and applied. In this context, the Action Plan launches a Joint Task Force of the Commission and Member States to strengthen cooperation on enforcement of single market rules. The Commission, for its part, will support national and local authorities in their efforts to implement correctly European law and will not hesitate to take firm action against violations of single market rules.
Source : EU Commission
