Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Members European Small Business Alliance ESBA Calls for a Stronger, Standardised SME Test

ESBA Calls for a Stronger, Standardised SME Test

05 October 2016
by ESBA -- last modified 05 October 2016

Today (5 October), the European Commission, national governments and European business representatives met in Brussels to discuss the current state of the SME test, the test that should determine the effects of legislative proposals on small businesses.


Advertisement

A presentation by the Belgian SME Envoy of a comprehensive study conducted across Europe showed that the implementation of the test is still lacking significantly in key areas.

A lack of resources often leads to a superficial application of the test, whilst some Member States choose to only do an SME test for proposals that are likely to have a high impact on SMEs or on an 'ad-hoc' basis - a vague term that leaves too much discretion as to whether to apply the test or not.

The test is not standardised across Member States, or even across services within one Member State.

The report furthermore attempts to assess the added value of the SME-test in each Member State.

Perhaps the most worrying finding is that, in certain cases, where an SME test was properly applied, it is not taken into consideration when actually drafting the corresponding legislative proposal.

ESBA Secretary General Patrick Gibbels said: "We welcome the opportunity for today's dialogue as the SME test lies at the heart of the Better Regulation agenda. However, since the introduction of the test in the Small Business Act of 2008, we are not satisfied with its overall implementation. It is also difficult to accept an assessment of the added value of the SME test when it is not yet implemented to standard.

"ESBA calls for a stronger, standardised test accross Member States and an independent body to check the proper implementation and application of the SME test. ESBA suggests for the European Commission to develop a toolkit that can be used by the Member States to improve the application of the SME test. Lastly, we urge national governments to fully take the results of the SME-test into consideration as ignoring them will lead to bad legislation for our small businesses."

 

ESBA is a non-party political European group, which cares for small business entrepreneurs and the self-employed and represents them through targeted EU advocacy activities. ESBA also works towards the development of strong independent advocacy and benefits groups in European countries. ESBA is one of the largest organisations based on voluntary membership in Europe. Through its direct membership, associate membership and cooperation agreements, ESBA today represents almost one million small businesses and covers 36 European countries.

European Small Business Alliance (ESBA)

ESBA logo

The European Small Business Alliance (ESBA) is a non-party political group, which cares for small business entrepreneurs and the self-employed and represents them through targeted EU advocacy and profiling activities.

European Small Business Alliance
Clos du Parnasse 3A
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32 2 274 25 04

www.esba-europe.org