Activities of Elisabeth SCHROEDTER related to 2012/2042(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs): competitiveness and business opportunities
Amendments (11)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recognises that if Member States are to deliver on the targets for an innovative, smart and inclusive Europe contained in the EU 2020 targetsstrategy, SMEs and microbusinesses must be taken into account;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Emphasises that SMEs are the main actors in bringing together the objectives of innovation and sustainability, but that they need a stable, long-term and ambitious regulatory framework as a prerequisite to fully exploiting the potential for employment offered by a sustainable economy and therefore calls on the Commission and Member States to define long-term environmental standards and financial incentives and thus to establish a secure climate for investment;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Recognises that SMEs play an important role in achieving social stability, cohesion and integration, particularly in areas that are faced with negative effects in their demographic development; therefore calls on the Commission and the Member States to support SMEs in establishing a working atmosphere that will encourage workers to comply with the standards of labour law, worker protection and health protection, thus also contributing to social prosperity and the fight against poverty;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that the barriers to the start-up and development of SMEs are access to and cost of financerestricted access to finance and loans, a lack of transparency and openness in the management of EU funds in the Member States, burdensome regulations, indirect labour costs, access to export markets and the capacity to develop them, average payment times and skill shortages; emphasises that female entrepreneurs, in particular, are not offered the right start-up support for their projects in many programmes and for this reason calls for the development of start- up programmes tailored to the specific start-up patterns found among women (microbusinesses, little seed capital, unwillingness to take risks);
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes support for SMEs through initiatives such as PSCI, COSME and Horizon 2020 and the future ESF regulation; stresses that such measurthe Member States must not create additional red tape, must demonstrate added EU value and value for money, and must complement Member Statso that the founders of microbusinesses from socially disadvantaged sections of the population in particular can gain access to appropriate financial instruments; in this context calls on the Commission to include special information on cooperatives’ initiatives the financial instruments managed by the European Investment Fund;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Underlines the ‘Think Small First’ principle; recognises the benefits of e- commerce in providing opportunities for SMEs to access the single market and reduce costs; calls on the Commission also to take steps to ensure that the European Observatory for SMEs also includes the voluntary/non-profit sector in its investigations;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that developing e-government and one stop shops will reduce administrative procedures and create new business opportunities, particularly when, in the case of cross-border services, the one stop shop, working in close cooperation with the social partners, also provides comprehensive information about the working conditions in the destination country where services are to be provided, as exemplary pilot projects have shown; notes that greater access to procurement markets can assist SMEs in unlocking their potential for job creation;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Within the framework of fitness checks, calls for the identification of areas in which there are excessive burdens, inconsistencies or ineffective legislation in the field of employment that have an adverse impact on SMEs; calls on the Commission to consider a ‘one in, one out rule’ that allows the objectives of health, safety and equality provisions to be maintained and safeguards the principle of subsidiarity, however, to ensure that such measures do not lead to a reduction in labour and health protection provisions in the workplace and that labour and equality rights are fully preserved;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Emphasises that the reduction of the administrative burden should not lead to a situation where the ILO standards and the ILO Decent Work Agenda are not adequately implemented in SMEs and micro-enterprises;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Emphasises that a ‘comply and explain’ approach similar to the corporate governance provisions is inappropriate in the context of administrative burdens; Member States must not be prevented from applying higher standards at the national level that go beyond minimum standards agreed within the EU;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes and strongly supports the focus on micro-enterprises in a strengthened SME test (see COM(2011)0803) through which all available possibili, however calls for the EU directives such as exclusion from the scope, individual provisions, extended transition periods or lighter regimes are systematically assessed.in relation to fundamental EU labour and health protection and the fundamental protection of seasonal workers and posted workers also to be retained for SMEs and micro- enterprises, so as to ensure fair competition in the European internal market;