SMES : SMALL BUSINESS ACT NEEDS LEGAL FORCE, SAYS UEAPME.

Representatives of Europe's SME community have urged that the planned EU Small Business Act should be a proper legislative initiative, and not simply a policy paper, during a meeting organised at the European Parliament on 23 January.

The initiative, whose importance has been emphasised by Enterprise Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, is listed in the European Commission's 2008 work programme as a non legislative action/communication'. This prospect has raised concerns on the part of the employers' organisation UEAPME. These were expressed during a meeting in the EP organised by the SME Union, a lobby group attached to Parliament's EPP-ED group. According to Luc Hendrickx, UEAPME's enterprise policy director, "it needs to be a legal act".

The association's position is that it should set out binding principles to be followed by both the Commission and member states in their policy making, in order to ensure that SME interests are respected. The risk of a non-legislative action, Hendrickx believes, is that the initiative will fall foul of the same shortcomings as the existing EU Charter for Small Enterprises, which was adopted by EU leaders during the Feira European Council of 19-20 June 2000. The charter set out ten priority areas for member states to take action to support SMEs, on the basis that their performance would be monitored by the Commission. UEAPME's view is that this monitoring has been insufficient, and that implementation of the charter is hampered by an inability to hold member states to...