Financing EU SMEs' trade and investment: facilitated access to credit in support of internationalisation

The European Parliament adopted by 577 votes to 38, with 55 abstentions, a resolution on financing EU SMEs’ trade and investment: facilitated access to credit in support of internationalisation.

Members recall that a considerable number of European SMEs are engaged in international export activities (25 % of the total), and whereas only 13 % of European SMEs conduct activities in markets outside the EU and only 4 % of internationally inactive SMEs have specific plans to start up international activities in the foreseeable future. Moreover, certain SMEs are incapable of internationalisation due to their business profiles and size.

In a context in which European SMEs are particularly affected by the global economic and financial crisis, Parliament calls on the Commission and, where appropriate, Member States to foster the participation of SMEs, and where relevant micro-enterprises, in global markets by implementing appropriate measures for their internationalisation:

• easier access to capital and regularly updated information on business opportunities abroad, and
• efficient trade defence instruments (TDIs) aimed at ensuring their rightful protection against unfair dumping and subsidies in order to safeguard fair competition with third countries.

Access to information: the resolution underlines the need to improve enterprise-level data collection in order to raise awareness of the needs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), share best practice and provide them with better targeted support at both national and EU level.

Members insist on the need:

• for a mapping exercise to identify existing and missing support programmes and to encourage Member States’ authorities to create similar single online databases of national and regional sources of finance;
• to evaluate the available market for growing internationalisation and further promote SME development within the internal market;
• to create a network, as part of a digital platform, bringing together national SME helpdesks, chambers of commerce, Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), business associations and the Commission, in order to provide enterprises in the EU, especially exporters and importers, with precise, timely and reader-friendly information on a one-stop-shop basis, so that they can fully benefit from the Union’s new common commercial policy.

Access to capital: the resolution stresses that recurrent difficulties in accessing capital are one of the key reasons preventing SMEs’ internationalisation. It calls on the national governments to support SMEs by means of officially supported export credits, without distorting intra-EU competition, and also to earmark sufficient funding for SMEs (e.g. special loans, cofinancing and venture capital), so as to help overcome disinvestment and deleveraging by banks. Such funding should be provided to SMEs that are already exporting and which can present a viable business plan for improving or consolidating their existing market share and creating jobs, especially for young people.

Parliament suggests the following:

• helping SMEs by exploring the possibility of creating, among other things, investment funds for SMEs in which any European citizen could invest savings;
• defining a holistic strategy for trade finance, aimed at fostering internationalisation of SMEs, is urgently needed. There is therefore a need to identify promising niche markets and foster their development;
• studying the European business angel market and similar markets worldwide in order to learn from and build up the capacity of business angel network managers in the EU;
• establishing an EU export-import facility (EU EXIM) for SMEs which would provide them with additional support via export credit organisations and based on best national practices;
• introducing regulatory and legislative measures to improve SMEs’ access to guarantees, as for example, i) reducing barriers to property registration (e.g. by establishing credit bureaux); ii) lowering enforcement costs for lenders and raising the overall quality of financial information concerning SMEs, in order to enhance their creditworthiness in the eyes of lenders;
• providing SMEs with financial and technical assistance focused on market research, project and export finance advice, legal counselling (e.g. on escape clauses or penalties for late payment or default), customs and tax obligations, the fight against counterfeiting, and company presentations at trade fairs and business networking events;
• focusing on closing the credit gap for micro-enterprises;
• increased public-private partnerships in the provision of seed money and venture capital to MSMEs in the EU.

The resolution formulates a certain number of recommendations regarding practical actions, such as:

• the establishment of single enterprise helpdesks at the local level, run in cooperation with EU businesses, so that SMEs can receive information, in their own language and for immediate use, regarding export/import opportunities, existing barriers to trade (both tariffs and NTBs), investment protection, dispute settlement provisions and competitors, and gain a knowledge and understanding of cultural and human practices in third markets;
• a network to be set up between SMEs and large European companies to enable SMEs to reap the benefits of these companies’ expertise and export and innovation capacities;
• foster cooperation between European SMEs and third-country enterprises.

Members consider that the effective protection of SMEs against unfair trading practices by EU partner states is just as important as helping SMEs wishing to internationalise.

The Commission and the Member States are invited to: i) promote exchanges between the heads of EU and third-country SMEs along the lines of the ‘Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs’ programme; ii) make European SMEs more aware of trade agreements that are being negotiated and international investment opportunities open to SMEs; iii) involve SMEs in the establishment of international standards (e.g. ISO); iv) improve the defence of intellectual property rights in all relevant multilateral organisations (WTO, World Health Organisation, World Intellectual Property Organisation).

Lastly, Parliament calls for the Union to (i) fully exploit the investment opportunities for EU SMEs stemming from the European Neighbourhood Policy, with particular focus on cross-border investment in the countries of the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean partnerships and (ii) develop an ambitious common industrial policy based on fostering research and innovation that benefits from innovative financing arrangements, such as project bonds, and supports the development of SMEs, via access to public procurement.