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2012/2114(INI) Financing EU SMEs' trade and investment: facilitated access to credit in support of internationalisation
Next event: Text adopted by Parliament, single reading 2012/12/11 more...
RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Opinion ECON
Lead INTA ZAHRADIL Jan (ECR) CORREA ZAMORA María Auxiliadora (EPP), BALZANI Francesca (S&D), ANDERSDOTTER Amelia (Verts/ALE), SCHOLZ Helmut (GUE/NGL)
Opinion REGI
Lead committee dossier: INTA/7/09002
Legal Basis RoP 048

Activites

  • 2012/12/11 Text adopted by Parliament, single reading
  • 2012/12/10 Debate in Parliament
  • 2012/11/12 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
    • A7-0367/2012 summary
  • 2012/11/06 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • 2012/10/04 Amendments tabled in committee
  • 2012/08/06 Committee draft report
  • 2012/06/14 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading

Documents

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

activities/5/type
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activities/6/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P7-TA-2012-469 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading title: T7-0469/2012
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activities/4/docs/0/text
  • The Committee on International Trade adopted the own-initiative report by Jan ZAHRADIL (ECR, CZ) on financing EU EMEs’ trade and investment: facilitated access to credit in support of internationalisation.

    Members call on the Commission and, where appropriate, Member States to foster the participation of SMEs, and where relevant micro-enterprises, in global markets by implementing appropriate measures for their internationalisation:

    • easier access to capital and regularly updated information on business opportunities abroad, and
    • efficient trade defence instruments (TDIs) aimed at ensuring their rightful protection against unfair dumping and subsidies in order to safeguard fair competition with third countries.

    Access to information: the report underlines the need to improve enterprise-level data collection in order to raise awareness of the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), share best practice and provide them with better targeted support at both national and EU level.

    Members insist on the need:

    • first of all, for a mapping exercise to identify existing and missing support programmes and to encourage Member States authorities to create similar single online databases of national and regional sources of finance;
    • to evaluate the available market for growing internationalisation and further promote SME development within the internal market;
    • to create a network, as part of a digital platform, bringing together national SME helpdesks, chambers of commerce, Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), business associations and the Commission, in order to provide enterprises in the EU, especially exporters and importers, with precise, timely and reader-friendly information on a one-stop-shop basis, so that they can fully benefit from the Unions new common commercial policy.

    Access to capital: the report stresses that recurrent difficulties in accessing capital are one of the key reasons preventing SMEs internationalisation; calls on the national governments to support SMEs by means of officially supported export credits, without distorting intra-EU competition, and also to earmark sufficient funding for SMEs (e.g. special loans, cofinancing and venture capital), so as to help overcome disinvestment and deleveraging by banks.

    Such funding should be provided to SMEs that are already exporting and which can present a viable business plan for improving or consolidating their existing market share and creating jobs, especially for young people.

    The report makes the following suggestions:

    • help SMEs by exploring the possibility of creating, among other things, investment funds for SMEs in which any European citizen could invest savings;
    • define a holistic strategy for trade finance, aimed at fostering internationalisation of SMEs, is urgently needed. There is therefore a need to identify promising niche markets and foster their development;
    • study the European business angel market and similar markets worldwide in order to learn from and build up the capacity of business angel network managers in the EU;
    • establish an EU export-import facility (EU EXIM) for SMEs which would provide them with additional support via export credit organisations and based on best national practices;
    • introduce regulatory and legislative measures to improve SMEs’ access to guarantees, as for example, i) reducing barriers to property registration (e.g. by establishing credit bureaux); ii) lowering enforcement costs for lenders and raising the overall quality of financial information concerning SMEs, in order to enhance their creditworthiness in the eyes of lenders;
    • provide SMEs with financial and technical assistance focused on market research, project and export finance advice, legal counselling (e.g. on escape clauses or penalties for late payment or default), customs and tax obligations, the fight against counterfeiting, and company presentations at trade fairs and business networking events;
    • focus on closing the credit gap for micro-enterprises;
    • increased public-private partnerships in the provision of seed money and venture capital to MSMEs in the EU.

    The report formulates a certain number of recommendations regarding practical actions, such as :

    • the Member States to adopt single enterprise helpdesks at the local level, run in cooperation with EU businesses, so that SMEs can receive information, in their own language and for immediate use, regarding export/import opportunities, existing barriers to trade (both tariffs and NTBs), investment protection, dispute settlement provisions and competitors, and gain a knowledge and understanding of cultural and human practices in third markets;
    • a network to be set up between SMEs and large European companies to enable SMEs to reap the benefits of these companies expertise and export and innovation capacities;
    • foster cooperation between European SMEs and third-country enterprises.

    The Commission and the Member States are invited to: i) promote exchanges between the heads of EU and third-country SMEs along the lines of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme; ii) make European SMEs more aware of trade agreements that are being negotiated and international investment opportunities open to SMEs; iii) involve SMEs in the establishment of international standards (e.g. ISO); iv) improve the defence of intellectual property rights in all relevant multilateral organisations (WTO, World Health Organisation, World Intellectual Property Organisation).

    Lastly, the report calls for the Union to develop an ambitious common industrial policy based on fostering research and innovation that benefits from innovative financing arrangements, such as project bonds, and supports the development of SMEs, via access to public procurement.

activities/0
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EP
date
2012-06-07T00:00:00
type
EP officialisation
activities/1/body
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EC
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EP
activities/1/commission
  • DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ title: Enterprise and Industry Commissioner: TAJANI Antonio
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2012-12-10T00:00:00
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2012-08-06T00:00:00
activities/1/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE492.903 type: Committee draft report title: PE492.903
activities/1/type
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2012-08-06T00:00:00
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url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE492.903 type: Committee draft report title: PE492.903
body
EP
type
Committee draft report
activities/3
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EP
date
2012-09-27T00:00:00
type
Deadline Amendments
activities/4/docs/0/url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A7-2012-367&language=EN
activities/7/type
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Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
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activities/8
body
EC
date
2012-12-10T00:00:00
type
Prev DG PRES
commission
DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ title: Enterprise and Industry Commissioner: TAJANI Antonio
activities/9
date
2012-12-11T00:00:00
body
EP
type
Vote scheduled
activities/6
date
2012-11-12T00:00:00
docs
type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A7-0367/2012
body
EP
type
Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
activities/5/committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: CORREA ZAMORA María Auxiliadora group: S&D name: BALZANI Francesca group: Verts/ALE name: ANDERSDOTTER Amelia group: GUE/NGL name: SCHOLZ Helmut responsible: True committee: INTA date: 2012-02-29T00:00:00 committee_full: International Trade rapporteur: group: ECR name: ZAHRADIL Jan
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
activities/5/type
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activities/4/docs/0/url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE496.561
activities/4
date
2012-10-04T00:00:00
docs
type: Amendments tabled in committee title: PE496.561
body
EP
type
Amendments tabled in committee
activities/1/committees/1/shadows/3
group
GUE/NGL
name
SCHOLZ Helmut
committees/1/shadows/3
group
GUE/NGL
name
SCHOLZ Helmut
activities/2/docs/0/url
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE492.903
activities/3
body
EP
date
2012-09-27T00:00:00
type
Deadline Amendments
activities/2/date
Old
2012-07-20T00:00:00
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2012-08-06T00:00:00
activities/2/date
Old
2012-07-13T00:00:00
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2012-07-20T00:00:00
activities/1/committees/1/shadows/2
group
Verts/ALE
name
ANDERSDOTTER Amelia
activities/2
date
2012-07-13T00:00:00
docs
type: Committee draft report title: PE492.903
body
EP
type
Committee draft report
committees/1/shadows/2
group
Verts/ALE
name
ANDERSDOTTER Amelia
activities/1/committees/1/shadows/0
group
EPP
name
CORREA ZAMORA María Auxiliadora
committees/1/shadows/0
group
EPP
name
CORREA ZAMORA María Auxiliadora
procedure/legal_basis
  • Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 048
activities
  • body: EP date: 2012-06-07T00:00:00 type: EP officialisation
  • date: 2012-06-14T00:00:00 body: EP type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON body: EP shadows: group: S&D name: BALZANI Francesca responsible: True committee: INTA date: 2012-02-29T00:00:00 committee_full: International Trade rapporteur: group: ECR name: ZAHRADIL Jan body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
  • date: 2012-11-06T00:00:00 body: EP type: Vote scheduled in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • date: 2012-12-10T00:00:00 body: EP type: Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP shadows: group: S&D name: BALZANI Francesca responsible: True committee: INTA date: 2012-02-29T00:00:00 committee_full: International Trade rapporteur: group: ECR name: ZAHRADIL Jan
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ title: Enterprise and Industry commissioner: TAJANI Antonio
procedure
dossier_of_the_committee
INTA/7/09002
reference
2012/2114(INI)
title
Financing EU SMEs' trade and investment: facilitated access to credit in support of internationalisation
stage_reached
Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage
subtype
Initiative
type
INI - Own-initiative procedure
subject