EU SME Policy Maria Pia Vigliarolo - DG Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs – Unit H1 COSME Programme, SME Envoys (SME Policy)

European Commission SME Policy Cooperation and partnership with the Member States (exchange of good practices) Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) SME dimension in Commission initiatives (Single Market Strategy) SME access to funding programmes (COSME, Horizon 2020)

The “Small Business Act” Main objective: create a better business environment for SMEs based on the “Think Small First” principle 10 principles to be implemented at European and national level Governance and monitoring

The 10 SBA principles 1. Support entrepreneurship 2. Give a 2nd chance (failure) 3. “Think Small First” (reduce burdens) 4. Public administration responsive to SME needs (e-government) 5. Improve access to public procurement & use of state aid 6. Facilitate access to finance 7. Benefit from Single Market opportunities 8. Access to skills and innovation 9. Eco-innovation/environment opportunities 10. Access to external markets

Governance: the network of the SME Envoys European level: the EU SME Envoy (upgraded) listens to SMEs and their representatives National level: EU Member States have appointed their national SME Envoys The national SME Envoys together with the EU SME Envoy form the SME Envoys Network

Governance: SMEs representatives EU SMEs will have their say with the SME Assembly: representatives of small businesses from all over the 28 Member States will gather yearly European SMEs associations attend the meetings of the Network of the SME Envoys

Monitoring SBA implementation SME Performance Review The SPR is a tool to monitor the SME performance and the implementation of the ten SBA principles It includes: The annual Report The SBA Country fact sheets (MS and some third countries, ex: Albania, Iceland, Turkey…) Thematic studies

Monitoring SBA implementation SME Performance Review

Future SME Policy Continue implementation of the SBA (SME Envoys, SME Performance Review) Use Commission initiatives as levers for the growth of SMEs, example "Single Market Strategy" SMEs will benefit from planned actions Dedicated Start-up initiative

Single Market Strategy Examples of actions Greater opportunities VAT Action Plan (2016) Business insolvency (2016) Facilitate use of digital technologies (2017)

Single Market Strategy Examples of actions Enabling modernisation and innovation Initiative on standardisation (2016) Modernising IPRs framework (2016/2017) Better governance of public procurement (2017/2018)

Single Market Strategy Examples of actions Ensuring delivery Market information tools (2016) Data analytics tool for monitoring Single Market legislation (2017) Revision of Mutual Recognition Regulation (2017)

Single Market Strategy Focus on Start-ups Proposals for European venture capital "fund of funds" (creation and upscaling of start-ups) (2016) Start-up initiative to reduce requirements and facilitate compliance (2016) First step: public consultation to find out ways to support "potential" entrepreneurs (2016)

Where to find information SBA and SBA Review http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/small-business-act/index_en.htm SME Performance Review http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/performance-review/index_en.htm Single Market Strategy http://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/index_en.htm