Activities of Neoklis SYLIKIOTIS related to 2014/2210(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Family businesses in Europe (A8-0223/2015 - Angelika Niebler) EL
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on family businesses in Europe
Amendments (21)
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas family businesses differ in terms of values from non-family corporations as regards long-term orientation, have a special degree of commitment to their local community – rooted in the European tradition of the ‘honourable merchant’ – and are generally slower to close down and put workers out of jobs;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas it is impossible, due to the lack of a definition, to gather comparable data in the EU Member States in order to draw attention to the special situation and contribution of family businesses;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. WelcomNotes the work being undertaken on an EU definition of ‘family business’, and calls for the specificities within Member States’ definitions to be taken into account, in particular with regard to guaranteeing social rights, social security, pension entitlements and health and safety at work;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that family businesses should not constitute a separate category from existing definitions of Micro- and SMEs; notes that a majority of family businesses have less than 5 employees and calls on the Commission to protect and define their activity accordingly;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses the importance of supporting micro, small and medium enterprises not only by funding, but also through a fair and progressive taxation, and a fairer and more even distribution of tax burden across labour, profits and consumption;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses that, because of their history, family businesses are very rooted in a particular location and thus also create and maintain jobs in rural and in less attractivefavoured areas; calls on the Commission and the Member States, therefore, to provide the necessary infrastructure in order to ensure the competitivenessviability, continuity, renewal and growth of such businesses;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that highly specialised family businesses in particular play an important role as suppliers and innovators to larger companies and that, given their long-term and intergenerational approach to business, they provide the companies they supply with material security and thereby make a significant contribution to economic growth;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Member States, with this in mind, to ensure that national rules on the taxation of inheritance and gifts and on corporate taxation do not discriminate against equity financing which is so vital for family businesses; points out, in this connection, that in Hungary inheritance tax on business assets has been abolished;
Amendment 89 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Draws the Commission’s attention to the need for equal treatment of big multinationals and family businesses so as to ensure a balanced level playing field in terms of competition, while respecting the unique nature of family businesses, in particular in those Member States in which such businesses were destroyed after 1945.
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission to improve access to credit for family businesses, avoiding securitisation as proposed in the Capital Markets Union Green Paper.
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Recognises that the fiscal, legal and administrative environment in which family businesses operate is defined by the combined effect of corporate legislation and private law;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission and especially the Member States therefore to improve the legal framework forand create financing instruments supporting the transfer of family businesses, and create special financing instruments for transfers and thus prevent liquidity shortages so as to ensure the survival of family businesses and prevent distress saless well as promote family business specific education on topics such as business transfer, governance structures, ownership strategies and implementing innovation;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Member States to ensure that tax practices, shown to be conducive to long-term family entrepreneurship, through exemptions on gift and progressive inheritance tax, are applied and are not eroded through short sighted reforms adopted under the pressure of the current debt crisis;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Calls on the Commission to acknowledge the necessity of a progressive access to internationalisation of the family businesses, avoiding total exposure to international markets risks, while maintaining territorial added value attributed to this kind of business;
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission to commission studies that analyse the importance of ownership for the success and survival of a business and, highlight the specific challenges facing family businesses; calls on the Commission and develop a statistically workable definition of family businesses in cooperation with Eurostat; calls on the Commission to set a framework to identify and measure positive externalities generated by family businesses and also to collect enough data on family businesses in the various Member States both, to allow a comparison of the situation of family businesses, as well as between family businesses and non-family businesses and to promote exchanges of examples of good practices;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to conduct an impact assessment of the extent to which a revision of the European SME definition from 2003 would be possible, moving away from purely quantitative criteria to qualitative criteria that also take into account the ownership of a company, bearing in mind the interdependence of ownership, control and management and, generally, the personal aspect of running a business, and the consequences this could have on family businesses, for example, with regard to state aid and the eligibility of such businesses;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission in the meantime, as part of its regulatory impact assessment, to establish a ‘family business test’ modelled on the SME test, in order to be able determine the effect of certain legal acts on family businesses in advance and thereby avoid unnecessary red tape for family businesses, paying special attention to the combined effect of corporate legislation and private law;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to strive to strengthen entrepreneurship throughout the EU and to create an favourable environment for business excellence;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission to urgently draw up a communication analysing the role ofon family businesses with a view to boosting the competitiveness of the EU’s economy by 2020, and to produce a road map listing the measures likely to strengthen the economic environment and development of family businesses in the EU and raise awareness on the family businesses specific characteristics and challenges to be addressed ;
Amendment 210 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission in the meantime to urgently launch calls within the framework of HORIZON, COSME and ERASMUS (for young entrepreneurs) programmes focusing on the specific problems faced by the family businesses that are SMEs ; calls on the Commission and the Member States to coordinate specification and activation of the Partnership Agreements and related Operational Programmes within the EU Cohesion Policy current Programming period to the benefit of family businesses that are SMEs, especially in the Member States devastated by the crisis;