1. Small Business Act Principle 4: make public administrations responsive to SMEs’ needs Anne PEETERS, Government of Wallonia (Belgium)

2. What does it mean? Administrations are essential for SMEs Creation of new enterprises Transmission Access to public procurement Support: Access to finance (public guarantee), innovation Public administration as customer The case of Wallonia: implementation of the SBA based on a specific process of consultation: top-down and bottom-up Importance of « think small first »

3. Issues Time and cost to start a business Time and cost required to transfer property Number of tax payments per year Time required to comply with major taxes (hours per year) Cost to enforced contract Full online avalilability of the public services to business

4. Average performance EU Time to start a business: 14 days Cost to start a business: 4,98 % income per cap. Paid in minimum capita: 16% income per cap. Time required to transfer property: 36 days Cost required to transfer property: 4,69% income per cap. Number of tax payments per year: 15 Time required to comply with major taxes: 206 hours per year Cost to enforce contracts: 20,6% of claims Full online availability of the basic public services to business: 89

5. EUFRNLPLIsrael Time to start a bus. 14783234 Cost to start a bus. 4,980,95,517,74,4 Paid in minimum cap 16050140 Time required to transfer 36597152144 Cost required to transfer property 4,696,14,690,45 Numb. tax payments per year 33792933 Time required to comply with major taxes 206132127296235 Cost to enforce contracts 20,617,423,91225,3 Full online av of the public services 8988 71

6. What has been done from 2008 at the EU level? The Directive on e-invoicing Businesses with a turnover of less than €2 million may benefit from an optional cash accounting scheme which makes it possible for them to delay accounting for VAT until they receive payment from their customers. Public authorities are required to pay within 30 days as a security guarantee for SMEs.

7. Why it is important? According to surveys, SMEs are complaining about the burden of bureaucracy Simplification is a key of a SMEs policy BUT simplify doesn’t mean no regulation or no bureaucracy

8. Issues Delays of payments as the administration is the customer Access to public procurement Implementation of simplified public support for access to finance (e.g. « Tante Agathe ») Importance of coherence with other policies: innovation, education (skills), energy (price of energy)

9. Conclusions How to better understand? Are these issues the same within the EU and in Israël? Are the issues for all sectors and all size of SMEs?

10. Thank you for your attention!