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Stronger regional partnerships must be at heart of EU policy for SMEs
07.12.2007, 09:41
As published on the www.cor.europa.eu , the EU needs to focus much more on regional-level partnerships if it wants to create a more business-friendly environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe. This was one of the key messages to emerge at the ‘SMEs and Entrepreneurship Conference’, organised by the European Commission and Portuguese Presidency, in association with the Committee of the Regions (CoR), in Porto on 6-7 December.Leading CoR member David PARSONS, representing President Michel DELEBARRE at the event, praised the Commission for its efforts in support of small business but said it could achieve more by doing less more effectively.“At the moment the Commission is trying to do too much on its own. We appreciate its goodwill, but we’d like to see it tapping into resources like the Committee of the Regions much more than is the case now. If it really wants to embrace SMEs and entrepreneurs, it needs to ensure that stronger partnerships at the regional level are at the heart of its policies. The CoR can help it do just that.” Mr Parsons, chairman of the East Midlands Regional Assembly and leader of Leicestershire County Council (UK), underlined that local and regional authorities are “primarily responsible” for creating the right conditions for businesses and communities to flourish. “That’s why a partnership approach is a must,” he commented. Mr Parsons, author of the CoR’s outlook opinion on the single market, adopted last March, said he was happy that progress was being made in the area of procurement. “We are experimenting with new EU legislation which allows up to 20% of public contract values to be split and encourages SMEs to bid. My own council is spending about EUR 1.5 billion a year on goods and services. If we can parcel these contracts up into bite-size pieces, we open up a whole lot of opportunities for smaller players.” He also highlighted the work of the CoR’s Lisbon Monitoring Platform (LMP), a network of 104 regions and cities which are pushing for stronger involvement of the regional and local level, in both the governance and implementation of the EU’s Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs. As part of its remit, the LMP will be producing a report on ‘partnership for growth and employment’, to be presented at the Spring European Council in March 2008.
The conference was opened by Françoise LE BAIL, European Commission SME Envoy and Deputy Director General for Enterprise and Industry, who declared that the EU needed to take a “quantum leap” where SMEs are concerned. “We are not going to do SME policy from Brussels alone,” she added.
Antonio CASTRO GUERRA, Portuguese Assistant Secretary of State for Industry and Innovation, told the conference that the EU should “think small as a basic principle” in support of entrepreneurship. He also called for regulatory burdens to be minimised. “An SME might have to pay EUR 10 per worker to comply, whereas it’s EUR 1 for a big company,” he added. The SMEs and Entrepreneurship Conference preceded the 2007 European Enterprise Awards ceremony in Porto, in the presence of Günter VERHEUGEN, Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible for Enterprise and Industry. The awards recognise regional excellence.
Speaking ahead of the ceremony, CoR President Michel DELEBARRE praised the “unsung heroes in local and regional authorities, who can make such a huge difference when it comes to creating the right conditions for business to flourish and for achieving social growth”.