10 Amendments of Martina WERNER related to 2018/2545(RSP)
Amendment 4 #
Recital A
A. whereas the 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU, which make up around 99 % of all businesses and provide more than 90 million jobs while generating some EUR 3.9 trillion in added value, make a vital contribution to economic growth, social cohesion and job creatthe creation and maintenance of quality jobs, sustainable economic growth and social cohesion and are a major source of innovation in the EU;
Amendment 8 #
Recital B
B. whereas SMEs are disproportionately affected by administrative burdens and financial obstacles by comparison with larger firms and regardless of their organizational structure; whereas at EU and, Member State, regional and local level further efforts could be made to create an SME-friendly environment which go beyond the political pledges already given;
Amendment 15 #
Recital D
D. whereas a coherent legal environment with clear rules is favourable to all businesses and whereas the SME definition is a tool to overcome market failures and problems stemming from size, volume of assets and business models;
Amendment 28 #
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to prevent larger players from attempting to create specific corporate structures to take advantage of the SME definition, which would lead to a system in which the available support is wrongly distributed more widely and hence not available to SMEs in need; emphasises that an adjustment of the SME definition shouldall not work to the detriment of SMEs, denying them access to public supportlead to unjustified broadening of the scope, which might deny or reduce access to public support for those SMEs facing unfair disadvantages as a consequence of their limited size;
Amendment 44 #
Paragraph 4
4. Urges the Commission to at leastconsider an update of the SME definition so as to take account of the rise in inflation and labour productivity since 2003; strongly supports an adjustment beyond the index-linking of inflation and labour productivity, in order to take account of future inflation, provide certainty and obviate the need for a rapid further adjustment in the next few year by means of an assessment of the market effects of the current thresholds;
Amendment 54 #
Paragraph 5
5. Points out that the employee numbers is not a criterion which can be used to draw upa useful and clear criterion and should be maintained; recognises, however, the limitations of the employee number as the sole criterion for accurate EU-wide comparisons, as labour productivity varies from one Member State to another; welcomes, therefore, a shift towardsthe inclusion of the criteria of turnover and balance sheet totals;
Amendment 99 #
Paragraph 9
9. Is concerned that, despite the considerable contribution they make to employment and growth by virtue of their productivity, MidCaps (enterprises that have outgrown the SME definition but still have typically medium-sized structures) are being neglecteddo not receive appropriate attention by policy-makers; calls, therefore, for a separate definition to be established for these companies based on the criteria that they are family-run, have high equity ratio and employ up to 3000 peopleso as to enable targeted measures for MidCaps while avoiding the risk of broadening the SME definition to an extent that would be detrimental to its original objectives;
Amendment 109 #
Paragraph 10
10. Calls on the Commission, in addition to the priority EU measures for SMEs, to launch a MidCaps-oriented initiative usingwhich would not merely mirror measures for SMEs but would address specific challenges of MidCaps, using exclusively new funding, which would cover collaborative research access, digitalisation strategies, export market development and an easing of the Basel specifications and data protection rulesdata protection rules where appropriate and fully justified;
Amendment 133 #
Paragraph 11
11. Takes the view that SME categorisation should not be exclusively based on theEncourages the Commission to consider the inclusion of criteria ofther than employee headcount, annual turnover and balance sheet totals; calls, therefore, for for the SME categorisation while having due regard to the objective of maintaining clear and coherent rules; encourages, in particular, the consideration of the criteria of ‘export- intensive’ (high level of exports in relation to number of employees), ‘largely independently-run’ and ‘high equity ratio’ - to be defined in due course - to be taken into account when categorising companies and for enterprises with these characteristics to at least be exempted from the relevant specific reporting obligations and/or for it to be made easier for them to access financial support;
Amendment 141 #
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Underlines that small local public service enterprises that meet the SME criteria fulfil important tasks for local communities; notes that having public ownership does not necessarily imply financial or regulatory support by the public entity due to national legislation, state aid laws and financially weak public entities; stresses that they thus face the same challenges as SMESs, which may lead to unfair competitive disadvantages for these enterprises when they are financially independent, organized under private law or are operating under competitive conditions with private companies; therefore, urges the Commission to re-examine and consider a deletion of the exclusion of enterprises with a public ownership of more than 25% from the SME definition;