Translation of "Petites et moyennes sociétés " (French → English) :

In its Presidency conclusions, the European Council of 8 and 9 March 2007 underlined that reducing administrative burdens is important for boosting the European economy, especially in view of the benefits that this could bring for small and medium-sized companies.

A. whereas the existing accounting rules laid down by the Fourth Council Directive 78/660/EEC of 25 July 1978 based on Article 54(3)(g) of the Treaty on the annual accounts of certain types of companies (the 4th Company Law Directive) and the Seventh Council Directive 83/349/EEC of 13 June 1983 based on Article 54(3)(g) of the Treaty on consolidated accounts (the 7th Company Law Directive) are often very burdensome for small and medium-sized companies, and in particular for micro-entities (very small companies),

6. Recommends that, when a country decides to carry out a privatisation, the Commission should advise that it be done if possible by substantially involving domestic investors and that it should devote particular attention to ‘small’ decentralised solutions which are worked out by developing countries and whose beneficiaries are small and medium-sized undertakings (SMUs) and micro-enterprises, which play an essential part in the economic development of developing countries, create many of the jobs and generate a substantial proportion of national income, whereas ‘large-scale’ solutions which seek to bring about take-overs of State-owned ...[+++]enterprises by multinational corporations and groups often have adverse side-effects; and to give special attention also to the possible role of European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in all aspects of cooperation programmes; believes that European SMEs possess specialised knowledge and experience relevant to these programmes, but are often left out due to lack of knowledge about programme participation possibilities and lack of visibility to third country partners; recommends that appropriations are provided for the provision of advisory services and training for small and medium-sized enterprises in the countries of Latin America and Asia by older volunteer experts from the European Union who come under the ESSN (European Senior Services Network);

amending Directive 78/660/EEC on annual accounts and Directive 83/349/EEC on consolidated accounts as concerns the exemptions for small and medium-sized companies and the publication of accounts in ecus

Whereas the annual accounts of all companies to which this Directive applies must be published in accordance with Directive 68/151/EEC ; whereas, however, certain derogations may likewise be granted in this area for small and medium-sized companies;

Less strict rules are laid down for small and medium-sized companies.