The ALDE Group welcomes today's announcements by the European Commission for an Action Plan to improve finance to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Philippe DE BACKER (Open VLD, Belgium), who is responsible for ALDE on EU Venture Capital, said:
"I am very satisfied that the Commission finally made a proposal to create an internal venture capital market. To this regard I fully support the introduction of a European passport for venture capital funds. It will enable investors from one member state to work much more easily across borders and in other member states of the EU. This is a big step forward to a real internal market. At the same time, we have to ensure that the flexibility and diversity of venture capital funds are guaranteed, as otherwise it is not certain that especially smaller companies will actually benefit from future new rules."
 
Olle SCHMIDT (Folkpartiet, Sweden), who is responsible for ALDE on EU social investment funds, said: "Access to funding for investments is one of the main challenges for SMEs, especially for the smallest and the newest enterprises in Europe. We need creative entrepreneurs to boost European job creation and growth. All efforts to enable those entrepreneurs to realise their ideas are therefore most welcome. I am especially pleased to see the Commission's proposals on increased efficiency of relevant financial instruments and on decreased reporting requirements for SMEs."

The Commission proposals will now start their way through the EU legislative process with the European Parliament and the Council negotiating on final new rules.

Note to the editor
The Commission Plan presents the various EU policies and measures to make access to finance easier for Europe's 23 million SMEs. It covers actions to improve the venture capital market and facilitate access to financial resources. It contains also financial products to ease access to bank lending, for an amount of at least € 20 billion allocated to SMEs from the new Multiannual Financial Framework.