Parliament praises Commission's support for SMEs
The European Parliament has adopted British MEP Phillip Bushill-Matthews' resolution on a European Commission report evaluating 450 million Euro of financial assistance for innovative SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises). Parliament commended the initiative and highlighted the importance of encouraging the promotion of SMEs and the creation of a regulatory climate conducive to investment, innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the EU and candidate countries. MEPs noted however that Europe is lagging far behind the United States in terms of the amount of risk capital deployed. MEPs criticised the time taken for the first annual report to reach Parliament, but welcomed the assistance as a positive step towards increasing and improving employment prospects throughout the EU. Future reports should include feedback from both users and non-users of the funds, Parliament proposed, and Member States whose enterprises have not yet made use of the programme were urged to encourage their financial institutions and SMEs to use them.