John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity today to inform the House about European small and medium-sized enterprises week and other relevant European matters.

The importance of the SME sector and its engagement with the EU is well recognised by the Government. For those companies wishing to grow, an international perspective is built upon engagement with our EU neighbours. To be competitive in the modern economy, Irish businesses must be at ease with globalisation. This means doing business in more than one country must become the norm.

We want to ensure that new companies learn to develop products with global appeal and market them internationally early on in the product development cycle. My role as Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation with responsibility for small business and as SME envoy for Ireland is to ensure that small businesses play a central role in our economic recovery. As SME envoy for Ireland in the European group of national SME envoys, I am focussed on ensuring that policies developed at national, regional and local level are enterprise-friendly and harness the think small first principle in order to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs and to unleash their potential to grow and create jobs. The decision to make this appointment at ministerial rather than official level reflects the Government's commitment to SMEs.

The role of SME envoy was established as part of the review of the EU small business Act, which was launched in February 2011 and is a major landmark in tracking the implementation of the small business Act. It aims to maintain the momentum in the journey towards a more entrepreneurial Europe and integrates the small business Act with the Europe 2020 strategy. Six of the seven Europe 2020 flagship initiatives will help SMEs achieve sustainable growth, putting small businesses at the heart of EU policy.

While acknowledging that much has already been done in terms of putting the needs of SMEs to the forefront of EU policy, the small business Act review signals that more needs to be done through further significant measures to release the full potential of SMEs. The small business Act contains a number of legislative proposals, ten guiding principles and measures to be implemented at EU and member state level, with the aim of helping SMEs. These ten guiding principles are: the creation of an environment within which entrepreneurs and family businesses can thrive and entrepreneurship is rewarded; to ensure that honest entrepreneurs who have faced bankruptcy quickly get a second chance; to design rules according to the think small first principle; to make public administrations responsive to SMEs' needs, promoting e-government and one-stop-shop solutions; to adapt public policy tools to SME needs; to facilitate SMEs' participation in public procurement and better use state aid possibilities for SMEs; to facilitate SME access to finance and develop a legal and business environment supportive to timely payment in commercial transactions; to help SMEs to benefit more from the opportunities offered by the single market; to promote the upgrading of skills in SMEs and all forms of innovation; to enable SMEs to turn the environmental challenges into opportunities; and to encourage and support SMEs to benefit from the growth of markets.

These ten guiding principles are backed up with 42 implementing measures to be undertaken by the Commission and 51 by member states. One of the key EU initiatives designed to help SMEs in the coming years is the Competitiveness and SMEs, COSME, programme 2014-20. SMEs are a major source of economic growth and job creation in the EU, accounting for more than 67 % of private sector jobs and providing more than 58% of total turnover in the EU.

Approximately 23 million SMEs exist throughout the EU, and they are an important contributor to growth and employment in the Union. If the Union is to deliver its Europe 2020 strategy priorities of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, then competitiveness needs to be centre stage. The EU Commission finds the main challenges which SMEs continue to face include: difficulties in accessing finance; a weak entrepreneurial spirit; a business environment which is not conducive to start-ups and growth; a limited capacity to adapt to a low-carbon resource-efficient economy; and a limited capacity to expand to markets beyond their home country.

The new programme for the competitiveness of enterprises and SMEs, COSME, will run from 2014 to 2020, with a planned budget of ¤2.5 billion. The general aim of the programme is to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of EU enterprises, and to encourage an entrepreneurial culture promoting the creation and growth of SMEs. Ireland very much supports the proposals to establish a dedicated programme for industrial competitiveness and SMEs, which will provide targeted financial support for SMEs. In particular, we welcome the proposed equity facility for growth-phase investment, which will support the development of the EU-wide venture capital market. We also welcome the loan facility, which will provide direct or other risk sharing arrangements with financial intermediaries to cover loans for SMEs.

As part of the new COSME programme, the Irish Enterprise Europe Network will assist all Irish SMEs to access the new supports available to them, including the new SME instruments made available through the Horizon 2020 programme. The Enterprise Europe Network in Ireland is organised by Enterprise Ireland in partnership with chambers in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Sligo and Waterford. The network helps companies by raising awareness of EU legislation, customer engagement marketing, EU funding programmes, technology transfer and business partnerships for which they have a database with up to 14,000 live business and technology opportunities for Irish companies to tap into.

Since it was established in 2008, the Irish network has had 34,000 interactions with Irish SMEs looking for support under the competitiveness and innovation programme framework. The Irish network has organised 225 events for SMEs with approximately 10,000 participants. The Irish network also works with all other business support organisations in Ireland such as Enterprise Ireland, the county and city enterprise boards, Chambers Ireland, the Small Firms Association and the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME. The network's services are free of charge and provide real practical support for this critically important sector.

The European enterprise networks are also participants in European SME week, which was established in 2009 and is co-ordinated by the European Commission. It aims to promote enterprise throughout Europe in line with the Commission communication concerning a small business Act for Europe. It is a very important event in highlighting the critical role of SMEs throughout the EU. This year, European SME week takes place between 15 to 21 October and aims to provide the following: information on what the EU and national, regional and local authorities offer as support to micro, small and medium-sized businesses; promote entrepreneurship in order that more people, in particular younger people, seriously consider becoming an entrepreneur as a career option; and give recognition to entrepreneurs for their contribution to Europe's welfare, jobs, innovation and competitiveness. A European SME week summit will also take place in Brussels on 17 October, and the theme of the conference will be women's entrepreneurship.

European SME week will take place in 37 countries, and national, regional and local events and activities will be as close as possible to existing and potential entrepreneurs. These events, organised by business organisations, business support providers and national, regional and local authorities, will also enable existing companies to share their experiences and develop themselves further. In Ireland, 46 events will take place throughout the country during SME week. The majority of these events are being organised by the local county enterprise boards and cover a wide variety of events including project management, women in business, starting one's own business, project branding and financial management. Events are also being organised by the Irish Banking Federation, the Small Firms Association and the Crafts Council of Ireland.

SME week 2012 also coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Single Market. To mark the occasion, my Department, along with the European Commission in Dublin, have organised a joint Single Market-SME event in Croke Park on 1 November 2012 in order to highlight the importance of SMEs. This event is entitled "Europe at work for Irish SMEs: Irish SMEs and the Single Market". The Minister and I and leading officials from the Commission will be speaking at the event. Senior officials from the Commission, enterprise agencies and SMEs in Ireland have been invited to attend this event and participate in the break-out sessions. The break-out sessions will cover such topics as access to finance for SMEs, the digital Single Market, entrepreneurship and accessing the Single Market. This event will be a precursor to Ireland's hosting of the EU Presidency beginning on 1 January 2013 and will signal the importance we attach to creating the right conditions and environment in Europe in order to promote growth and jobs and help our SMEs to grow, innovate and internationalise.

Next year, the focus on SMEs will be very clearly shown by an informal Competitiveness Council which will target the SME sector. As part of the Irish Presidency of the EU, an informal Competitiveness Council will be held in Dublin on Wednesday, 1 May 2013. The focus of this Council will be on SMEs, for example, access to finance, internationalisation of SMEs, entrepreneurship, etc. This is a signal of the importance Ireland attaches to creating the right conditions and environment in Europe in order to promote growth and jobs and help our SMEs to grow and internationalise. The agenda for this informal meeting is being drafted but it is likely that the discussion will focus on topics such as access to finance for SMEs, promoting entrepreneurship in Europe and SMEs going global. The informal meeting will also deal on day 2 with research and innovation-oriented topics but linked to the overall enterprise, SME access and commercialisation agenda. The proposed agenda for this informal Council will also deal with the contribution of research and innovation to sustainable economic growth and jobs and building Europe's competitive advantage.

Embracing international trade and harnessing the extensive opportunities in the European Single Market for Irish SMEs is essential to Ireland's continued expansionary economic performance. The EU must become almost like an extended home marketplace for our SMEs if they are to grow and succeed. The Government is acutely aware of the importance of the small business sector, its potential for generating employment and the problems encountered by entrepreneurs in accessing finance. Our programme for Government and the Action Plan for Jobs fully recognises this fact. The action plan is being delivered and is in the process of helping Ireland to become the best small country in which to do business by 2016. Our actions in respect of the EU agenda in the coming year will contribute to the achievement of this goal.