Translation of "Seuil de la petite et moyenne entreprise " (French → English) :

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs proposed simplifying the award procedures, firstly by doubling the thresholds above which the directive applies for public contracts and, secondly, it is also proposing to give special protection to small and medium-sized companies by stipulating that the contracting authorities have the power to decide that 15% of the total number of contracts that they award can be granted to small and medium-sized firms.

The time when the defence of business, especially small and medium-sized business, was like a corporatist battle is long gone, not just because there is only a handful of diehards left who see the world of business through the distorting prism of the class struggle, but above all because, at the start of this third millennium, everyone knows that the issues of employment and social cohesion are crucial for our societies, and business has a pre-eminent ...[+++]role in those issues.

A proposal for a Directive to adapt the financial thresholds in the definition of small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) in European Union (EU) financial reporting Directives has been presented by the European Commission.

II. RECOGNIZING THAT - the development of small and medium-sized enterprises is of great importance for the competitiveness of the European economy, regional development and economic cohesion in the European Union, - small and medium-sized enterprises, including the various service activities, make an important contribution to growth and the creation of jobs, - the strengths of small and medium-sized enterprises lie in their flexibility and adaptability to changing circumstances, - this adaptability and flexibility is hampered by both internal (particularly financial and managerial) and external (particularly legal and administrative) h ...[+++]urdles, - a simple, logical and coherent legal framework would accordingly be essential to such enterprises, CONSIDERING that local development initiatives offer considerable potential for strengthening the economic and social fabric of the European Union and for creating employment, AWARE that both measures to create a legislative and administrative environment favourable to the development of enterprise and effective, high-profile support measures are essentially the responsibility of the Member States, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity set out in Article 3b of the Treaty establishing the European Community, EMPHASIZES that it is a priority concern of enterprise policy in the Community, as mentioned in the multiannual programme, to improve the legislative and administrative environment for enterprises, to intensify and improve the Community's provision of information to enterprises, to promote cooperation and partnership between small and medium-sized enterprises and to ensure the promotion and coordination of Community instruments, IS ACCORDINGLY CONVINCED that the Community's policy in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises should be put into practice and made more effective through a new and extended partnership between the Member States and the Community, and through efficient and regular consultation of th ...

The following resolution was adopted at the end of the conference. The European Conference on Craft Industries and Small Businesses: 1) Welcomes the adoption by the Commission of the action programme for small and medium-sized businesses (7 August 1986); 2) Hopes that all possible resources will be used to put into effect the actions described in the programme, as concerns both the business environment and greater flexibility and access to finance; 3) Considers that, since small businesses are those most handicapped by the non-tariff barriers which have persisted in the common market for 30 years, priority should be given to eliminatin ...[+++]g these obstacles to the completion of the internal market, and to reducing and simplifying administrative, tax and technical procedures as much as possible; ../.- 2 - 4) Considers that a special effort will have to be made to assist craft industries, including policies : a) to promote enterprise and the important role of the self-employed entrepreneur; b) to educate and inform craftsmen on the new technologies so that they are introduced into existing businesses; c) to encourage young people and the unemployed to set up their own craft industry businesses; d) to provide training in the new technologies and materials as early as the apprentice stage; e) to preserve craft skills; f) to simplify the procedures for making use of and protecting inventions. 5) Calls on the Community's financial institutions and Funds to introduce the kind of specific financing measures in favour of small businesses and craft industries that are easy to implement and cover the whole range of operations from grants and loans to special support and venture capital operations; 6) Welcomes the Commission's plans for providing information in the form of a "Community window for small businesses"; 7) Addresses this resolution to the Commission, Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the governement of the Member States.

Measures planned under the Community enterprise policy include the following : - the abolition of needless administrative, financial and legal constraints hindering business creation and development, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ; - the provision of information to firms, especially SMEs, Community policies, legislation, and activities and on those of each Member State which concern them or could concern them ; - the promotion of cooperation and partnership between firms, especially SPEs, from different reg ...[+++]ions of the Community.