Campaign Manifesto

ALDE Manifesto for a European SME policy

The approximately 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU make up 99% of all businesses and provide two-thirds of all private sector jobs. More than half of the value creation of European companies is attributed to SMEs. SMEs are the main driving force for economic growth, innovation, employment and social integration.

We, the signatories of this manifesto, want to boost successful entrepreneurship in Europe and further improve the framework conditions for SMEs to enable them to reach their full potential as the core of a highly competitive social market economy.

As part of the implementation of the Small Business Act, the EU has already initiated many important improvements to promote SMEs. However, a lot still remains to be done to reduce bureaucracy, simplify access to financial instruments and improve SMEs' access to European and international markets.

(Manifesto : Link to .PDF version) 

Smart regulation and simplification of rules

1. We call on the Commission to intensify the application of the SME Test in accordance with the "Think Small First principle" and to report the results of the Test in its impact assessments. We also need better monitoring both to enforce the consistent application and to enhance the quality of the SME Test in all relevant legislation. We also call for the SME Test to be applied during the legislative process, as appropriate.

2. We are in favour of taking account the specific needs of micro-entities as part of the SME Test. However the exclusion of micro-entities from the scope of proposed legislation should only be the last resort where their specific needs cannot be addressed with adapted solutions and lighter regimes. 

3. We support a "fitness check" of existing EU legislation to wipe out inconsistencies and outdated or ineffective rules. We support the application of the "One in, One out" rule to EU legislation, i.e. no new legislation which imposes costs on SME can be brought in without the identification of existing regulations with an equivalent value that can be removed

4. We call for a rapid agreement of the Member States to simplify the European basic requirements for annual and consolidated accounts of limited liability companies.

5. The current VAT system must be simplified and modernised to lower the administrative costs for cross-border operating companies in Europe.

6. The Intellectual property rights framework must be improved Europe-wide, so that SMEs derive greater commercial advantage from their inventions and have more incentives to invest in innovation and to become active in cross-border business.

7. The mutual recognition of professional qualifications across the EU should be more effective and must be possible for highly specialised occupational groups in particular. Cross-border mobility, especially for self-employed persons and SMEs, gains more and more importance. To this end, we advocate amongst others the introduction of optional European professional cards where this is useful and feasible.

8. We are committed to creating an efficient and transparent legal instrument for an alternative resolution of cross-border disputes. Compared to the usual legal remedies the alternative dispute resolution provides a faster and more cost-effective resolution of conflicts between companies or between companies and end customers.

9. We believe that it is crucial to develop an effective second chance policy that enables formerly bankrupt honest entrepreneurs to restart a business.

It should concentrate among other things on reducing discharge times in various Member States and providing early support and advice to SMEs that areencountering difficulties.

Easier financing

10. EU instruments for SMEs must be simplified and made more easily accessible. Furthermore, EU programmes supporting research and innovation are still too bureaucratic to be exploited fully by innovative companies and support strategies must be more targeted towards skills, innovation and growth. 

Funding should also target innovative businesses in a broader sense such as user-based innovation, which constitutes the major part of all innovation and which is largely financed at the grassroots level though cohesion funds. A maximum target of 10% co-financing of EU SMEs within EU funds should be promoted. 

11. We call for a European statute for cross-border operating venture capital funds, so they can satisfy the credit needs of innovative SMEs in other Member States more easily. Sufficient protection of private investors must be assured.

12. While defining increased capital requirements for banks as part of the implementation of Basel III, and in view of deleveraging process currently carried out by a number of banks, efficient safeguards for SME portfolios must be implemented. Moreover, the cumulative effect of financial services legislation should be considered.

13. Any revision of financial markets regulation should aim to encourage SMEs to increasingly finance through capital markets in order to be less dependent on bank loans.

14. Cross-border debt recovery needs to be simplified in order to create legal certainty, reduce bureaucracy and therefore increase the confidence of SMEs in the Internal Market. Hereby sufficient protection of debtors must be ensured.

15. We call on the Member States to anticipate the transposition of the late payments Directive into national law, which was originally foreseen until January 2013, to give additional liquidity to SMEs in the current economic crisis. 

16. We call for the situation of SMEs to be taken into account in the ongoing reform of structural funds in order to enable SMEs to benefit more from these funds. Red tape needs to be reduced, for example by reducing auditing and reporting requirements and by introducing common rules for all funds and programmes. We propose to include revolving funds, loan guarantees or similar systems in all cohesion policy instruments to enable SMEs to access credit, especially in rural areas.

Improved market access 

17. We advocate a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base in order to simplify tax rules, reduce compliance costs and remove tax obstacles currently faced by cross-border companies. 

18. We demand the creation of a fair and transparent EU regulatory framework for public procurement, so that SMEs gain better access to public contracts, both within the EU and in third countries. Here, the "only once" principle should apply, according to which authorities should not ask for evidence that has already been provided to them in the course of other procedures. Additional bureaucratic requirements, such as mandatory tender criteria, should be avoided. Furthermore, public procurement rules must not establish favourable conditions for public enterprises that create unfair competition for SMEs. 

19. We are committed to ensuring that SMEs get more say  in the definition of standards and that existing standards are made more accessible to them, for instance by means of the publication of abstracts and package discounts. 

20. We advocate a Common European Sales Law, to which companies can resort voluntarily in order to reduce cross-border transaction costs for SMEs. It should be possible to apply such optional regime to business-to-business transactions if at least one of the participating parties is an SME. 

The necessary provisions must be taken to ensure that SMEs benefit as much as large companies from the application of the new regime. 

21. We call on Member States to agree as soon as possible on a statute for a European Private Company as an alternative to national company statutes.

22. EU SMEs must receive better support in access to third country markets at the EU, the national and the regional level, particularly regarding the protection of intellectual property rights, public procurement, standardisation and regulatory issues. We are in favour of creating single points of contact for SMEs in order to facilitate their access to international markets.