Annexes to COM(2011)702 - ‘Small Business, Big World— a new partnership to help SMEs seize global opportunities’ - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2011)702 - ‘Small Business, Big World— a new partnership to help SMEs seize global opportunities’. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2011)702  |
| date | November 9, 2011 |
-improve the communication to SMEs of the economic benefits to be gained from trading internationally and created by trade policy measures, particularly bilateral free trade agreements;
-establish the SME Finance Forum on Africa, an important first step in our new approach to building bridges between European and African businesses by means of a strengthened and permanent dialogue;
- raise SME awareness of possible autonomous tariff suspensions and quotas and assess their impact on SMEs as part of an evaluation to be launched in 2012.
5. Conclusion
In the current economic context it becomes urgent to look for new sources of growth. Third country markets, which are in expansion, can provide an invaluable opportunity for EU SMEs. The Commission deems that the approach outlined above can provide SMEs with the necessary tools to successfully engage in business outside the EU. This is based on the premise that cooperation between the EU and Member States, among Member States, and between the public and the private sector will bring clear benefits to EU SMEs.
This new EU strategy sets out six fields of action:
· Mapping the existing supply of support services to allow a more rational and coherent approach in the future;
· Creating a single virtual gateway to information for SMEs wishing to do business beyond the EU borders.;
· Making support schemes at EU level more consistent to raise their impact;
· Promoting clusters and networks for SME internationalisation;
· Orchestrating pan-European collaboration in priority markets to make the most of the public funds spent;
· Leveraging existing EU external policies to accelerate the international growth of European SMEs.
Future efforts should focus on how existing service providers can collaborate more effectively, often across national boundaries, and how incentives can be provided to bring this about. Comprehensive ‘mapping’ of the European supply of support services will lay the foundation for this process. All EU institutions and relevant SME stakeholders, in partnership, will be involved in the implementation of this strategy and should adhere to the priorities and guiding principles set out in this Communication when considering new activities in support of SME internationalisation, in both the short and the longer term.
Member States are encouraged to adopt a similar approach and work in close cooperation with the Commission in strengthening the support environment for European SMEs’ international growth.
Annex
Based on the current experience with the process of identifying key market access barriers in third countries (as requested by the Council of the European Union in its conclusions of December 2008), Market Access Teams are operational or are intended to be set up in the following countries:
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Colombia
- Egypt
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Israel
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Norway
- Peru
- Philippines
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United States of America
- Vietnam
[1] According to the OECD, developing and emerging markets are expected to account for 60 % of world GDP by 2030.
[2] COM(2010) 614.
[3] COM(2008) 394, reviewed in COM(2011) 78.
[4] COM (2010) 612.
[5] Outlined in the Single Market Act, COM (2010) 608.
[6] As defined in Recommendation 2003/361/EC, which the Commission adopted on 6 May 2003 and has applied since 1 January 2005; http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/sme-definition/index_en.htm.
[7] Report Internationalisation of European SMEs, December 2009; http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/market-access/internationalisation/index_en.htm.
[8] A recent report points out that Europe’s SMEs are nowadays primarily seeking to tap into the rapidly expanding middle classes in emerging countries. Previously, many businesses invested in or sourced from emerging markets in order to lower their production costs (EIU: ‘New horizons: Europe’s small and medium-sized companies look to emerging markets for growth’).
[9] Report Internationalisation of European SMEs, December 2009; http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/market-access/internationalisation/index_en.htm. The information provided by this study refers to SMEs activities in the Internal Market and beyond the EU borders.
[10] Over recent decades, liberalisation of the international movement of goods, services, capital, people and information has led to a more integrated world economy in which cross-border value chains are becoming increasingly important. The share of international trade in global GDP has tripled since the 1950s. Emerging economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa are expected to provide a significant share of future global economic growth (cf. footnote 1); thus many new opportunities for European enterprises will occur outside the EU. It is time for European businesses to harness globalisation to their benefit. European SMEs need to be in a position to benefit from this growth, at the same time contributing to EU growth.
[11] Table 2.1, page 20, ‘Opportunities for the Internationalisation of SMEs’ August 2011, http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/market-access/enterprise-europe-network/intern_event_en.htm. Henceforth referred to as the ‘Opportunities Report’.
[12] ‘Poor access to sufficient human resources’ was a major bottleneck in doing business in seven key countries outside the EU. See Chapter 2 of the ‘Opportunities Report’.
[13] After the first publication of an Issues Paper in 2009, the final consultation launched in May 2011 based on a series of guiding questions resulted in over 60 responses from a broad range of stakeholders. All the details of the consultation and a summary of the responses can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/international/listeningstakeholders/public-consultation-sme-support/index_en.htm.
[14] Programmes with a budget in excess of 2 million euros for the larger Member States.
[15] Opportunities Report.
[16] A more detailed inventory of EU support initiatives can be found in a background document at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/international/files/annexes-to-consultation_en.pdf.
[17] COM(2011) 78.
[18] COM(2007) 183.
[19] See http://madb.europa.eu/.
[20] COM(2010) 612.
[21] http://ec.europa.eu/ecip/index_en.htm
[22] See the inventory in the Opportunities Report..
[23] A recent survey of EU SMEs with international experience found that over half (63%) of such companies recorded an improvement in performance following participation in an international support programme; results taken from a survey of EU SMEs with international experience in the Opportunities report.
[24] The Opportunities Report shows that “even among SMEs that are already active on the global scene, only 27% are aware of public support programmes. What is more, only about 7% of internationalised SMEs use public support for their international business activities”.
[25] The example of the cooperation in Russia is a case in point. Action "to improve the overall investment climate and an enabling environment for EU SMEs is already being carried out effectively through cooperation at a high level between the European Commission, the EU Delegation to Russia, embassies, EU business associations, national chambers of commerce, and the Russian government", see Opportunities Report.
[26] According to the Opportunities Report , 24 % of internationalised SMEs are aware of public support programmes for internationalisation that could be used by their enterprise. This awareness increases with the size of the enterprises: micro: 23 %, small: 36 % and medium-sized enterprises: 37 %, but it still represents a minority of SMEs.
[27] ‘Out of the 24 % of international SMEs that are aware of public support programmes, less than one third of these companies use the programmes for their activities.’ Opportunities Report.
[28] The number of significant support measures provided by Member States in seven key target countries was found to vary between 4 and 25 in the Opportunities Report.
[29] Ibid. ‘In 2009 40 % of SMEs reported a lack of adequate public support as an important barrier to internationalisation.’
[30] Local assistance for internationalisation within the EU provided by the Commission so far is limited to the Enterprise Europe Network, short-term programmes such as ‘Understanding China’ (http://www.understandingchina.eu), a few SME Roundtables and seminars in several European cities, among other things to ‘train the trainers’ in chambers of commerce etc., and certain outreach activities of the Brussels branch of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (http://www.eu-japan.eu) to give more visibility to the Centre’s programmes also for EU SMEs. The majority of China IPR SME Helpdesk activities took place within the EU. Providing these services close to SMEs proved to be a key element of success.
[31] ‘44 % of EU SMEs reported a lack of adequate information as an important barrier.’ Report Internationalisation of European SMEs, December 2009; http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/market-access/internationalisation/index_en.htm.
[32] As foreseen in the new programme for business competitiveness and SMEs proposed in the Communication of 29 June on the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
[33] Where Market Access Teams do not exist, the role of EU Delegations will consist in providing, if appropriate, basic information to complement the findings needed by the service provider doing the mapping. These Delegations may organize, where appropriate, coordination meetings between businesses and business organizations working on the ground.
[34] According to the Opportunities Report, mapping is considered a key task to be taken up for any coordination at EU level.
[35] ‘Efficiency gains could be obtained by organising, at EU level, the collection of information on market developments and the legal and institutional environment in foreign markets’, see Commission report Internationalisation of European SMEs, December 2009, p. 9.
[36] Supplementing e.g. the services offered by the WTO member countries’ TBT Enquiry Points, whose role includes providing information on technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures.
[37] See Commission proposal on a Common European Sales Law, adopted on 11 October 2011.
[38] A list of the Market Access Teams which are operational or are intended to be set up is in annexe to this Communication
[39] Inspiration could be drawn from Article 20(2)(c) TFEU, which reads: ‘Citizens of the Union shall have inter alia: … (c) the right to enjoy, in the territory of a third country in which the Member State of which they are nationals is not represented, the protection of the diplomatic and consular authorities of any Member State on the same conditions as the nationals of that State’.
[40] This will include not only the EU SME Centres and Enterprise Europe Network but also other well-established EU business support programmes for brokerage events, cluster collaboration initiatives, the Framework Programme’s national contact points (NCPs), and networking and individual training programmes in the EU.
[41] See, for example, OSEO/UBIFRANCE study (2010) on the ‘Link Innovation-Exports’
http://www.oseo.fr/storage/newsletters/vendredi_28_mai_20102/gauche/actualites/etude_oseo_ubifrance.
[42] European Clusters Go International: Networks and clusters as instruments for the initiation of international business cooperation, VDI/VDE/IT, 2011, http://www.vdivde-it.de/news-en/publications/best-practice/european-clusters-go-international-2013-networks-and-clusters-as-instruments-for-the-initiation-of-international-business-cooperation.
[43] To this end, at EU level, a specific call for proposals was launched under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme in March 2011 to stimulate international cooperation through regional and national cluster programmes. See
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=4968.
[44] In this respect, the European Cluster Cooperation Platform established under the European Cluster Excellence Initiative will be instrumental in promoting better cluster cooperation internationally for the benefit of SMEs. As first steps, Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with partners in Japan, India and Brazil and more are planned. For more information see http://www.cluster-excellence.eu/collaboration. Furthermore, transnational cooperation between clusters is addressed by the 'Regions of Knowledge' action in the Seventh EU Framework Programme for Research. The action aims to strengthen the research potential of European regions, in particular by encouraging and supporting the development, across Europe, of regional ‘research-driven clusters’, associating universities, research centers, enterprises and regional authorities. Support is available in particular for internationalisation activities and the development of strategies with third countries. http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/capacities/regions-knowledge_en.html
[45] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of Regions, A budget for Europe 2020 — Part II Policy fiches, COM(2011) 500, 29 June 2011. The Commission has proposed that for the period 2014-2020 EU loan guarantee facilities should focus not only on the national dimension but also on cross-border lending or multi-country lending.
[46] For example, through cluster cooperation: cluster partnerships offer concrete possibilities for enhanced business cooperation that could be developed and customised to the particular needs of enterprises in sectors such as tourism and creative industries, which have significant economic potential in Southern Mediterranean countries. Beyond this specific case, the Commission is also considering supporting exchanges between entrepreneurs based in different countries, within and outside the European Union.