SMEunited welcomes von der Leyen political guidelines, asks to act accordingly!

18 July 2024
by smeunited -- last modified 18 July 2024

"Small businesses emphasised the need to finally make policy on the basis of the 99,8% companies in Europe, instead of for the 0,2% and called for focus on implementation in this new mandate."

"We welcome that Mrs von der Leyen in her Political Guidelines states that future legislation must be designed with small businesses in mind. However, we have seen SME washing before, and therefore call to act according to this statement now" President Salminen congratulated Ursula von der Leyen at her re-election for a second term at the helm of the European Commission."

"As entrepreneurs we work side by side with our employees, providing quality products and services to our customers. In addition, we manage our company, take care of our employees, keep up with new legislation and business developments and implement those in our company. Fulfilling administrative and reporting requests takes away valuable time and resources that could be invested to add value to our business and the society. Europe has to pay attention that SMEs can do their business profitably. Only profitable businesses can invest in the future and make transitions reality" explained President Salminen.

"Therefore", he continued "we will be ready to provide input for the stress test on the entire EU acquis to simplify and eliminate overlaps and contradictions. The benchmark on the SME test we are preparing in cooperation with Business Europe and Eurochambres will give recommendations for the new SME and competitiveness check.  We insist to keep a clear distinction between SMEs and small midcaps." continued Mr Salminen.

"We appreciate the focus on implementation and enforcement brought forward at several instances in the Political Guidelines, giving more trust to entrepreneurs and engaging in dialogue with stakeholders how to best align implementation with realities on the ground." stated President Mr Salminen. "Furthermore, we will prepare concrete proposals for the actions presented in the Political Guidelines, based on the priority actions put forward by our members".

"The 24.3 million entrepreneurs, craftswomen and -men and small business in Europe appreciate the recognition given by Commission President von der Leyen, when she refers to "we all know there is no Europe without SMEs" concluded SMEunited President Petri Salminen.

SMEunited, formerly known as UEAPME, is the association of crafts and SMEs in Europe with around 70 member organisations from over 30 European countries. SMEunited is a recognised employers' organisation and European Social Partner and acts on behalf of crafts and SMEs in the European Social Dialogue and in discussions with the EU institutions.

SMEunited