More support to Europe’s job-creating enterprises

Today, the first support programme exclusively dedicated to helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was adopted by the European Parliament.

The programme, which is called COSME (Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs), will be welcomed by the many SMEs that have had or still have trouble financing their investments.

"For the EPP Group, it has been a priority to ensure that most of the funds are used for alleviating financing constraints. We succeeded in achieving this,” says MEP Bendt Bendtsen, EPP Group Shadow-Rapporteur on this dossier.

As it is, 60 percent of the COSME funds are earmarked for the financing needs of SMEs, up from 50 percent in the previous programmes.

The COSME Programme implies that the European Union will now dedicate 2.03 billion euro from 2014 to 2020 to help entrepreneurs and SMEs across Europe to fund start-ups, expansions and acquisitions. The programme aims to reach about 300 000 enterprises and, along with the Horizon 2020 research programme, will make a significant contribution to growth.

"Even if we deplore the limited magnitude of the means for COSME, this programme will give a very welcome injection to small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, thereby helping them to grow and create jobs," says Bendt Bendtsen.

He stresses that the importance of supporting SMEs cannot be underestimated as 80 out of 100 jobs are created by SMEs.

Apart from the 60 percent of the programme which goes to financing, loans, guarantees and venture capital, 21.5 percent is earmarked for promoting market access for SMEs and 11 percent goes towards improving the framework conditions for SMEs, including, amongst other things, helping reduce unnecessary administrative burdens and reducing red tape as a result of EU legislation.

“In the EPP Group we have also insisted that the Commission has a strong focus on activities that will reduce the administrative and regulatory burden. And they should also highlight the importance of activities like Erasmus for young entrepreneurs and the promotion of entrepreneurship,” concludes Bendt Bendtsen.