Belgium (Brussels Morning newspaper) The body representing small businesses in Europe has drafted a wish list of hopes for next year’s Euro elections.
SME representatives from across Europe agreed on their priorities for the 2024 European elections at the recent SMEunited General Assembly in Stockholm.
The SMEunited members put forward the following policy priorities allowing SMEs to what they call “drive the transition.”
The demands include the following:
- to allow SMEs to thrive in an entrepreneurial regulatory framework;
- to ensure competitiveness;
- to allow SMEs access to resource and finance innovation and investments;
- to give SMEs fair access to markets.
SMEs also say they want a “stable economic environment.”
A spokesman for SMEunited, said, “An effective EU policy for Crafts and SMEs requires a holistic approach that takes all policy aspects and the specific impact of rules for SMEs fully into consideration.
“This policy should address all SMEs, and respect their diversity with regards to size and characteristics (crafts, micro, small, self-employed, liberal professions, etc.), sector and position in the value chain. This policy should also cover the whole “lifecycle” of an SME from creation, development to transfer or second chance.
“Policy-makers as well as public administration should promote an entrepreneurial, business-friendly environment.
“Administration should be service-orientated and use digital tools to make procedures simpler, faster and cheaper.”
The spokesman added, “The past years have been demanding for all of us, and in particular for SMEs. The pandemic resulted in the deepest recession Europe has seen since the second world war.
“The war against Ukraine, the related sanctions and the energy crisis hurt the whole society when recovering from the health crisis. Support measures allowed companies and households to overcome both crises. Nevertheless, this came with costs resulting in high inflation, indebted companies and high public debt levels.
“At the same time, the European Union put in place an ambitious legal framework to drive the digital and green transition. These regulatory changes generate considerable adaptation requirements, especially for SMEs,”said the spokemsan.
