SMEunited: SMEs are called upon to lead the green and digital transition

Brussels – “We are like bees: we need the right conditions to thrive and lead transitions.” With these words today (April 9), the President of the European Craft and Small Business Union (SMEunited), Petri Salminen, opened the meeting “Smes driving the transition”. At the centre of the debate was the role that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe they have in driving the EU’s green and digital future.

There are 24.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises in the twenty-seven countries of the EU, accounting for more than 99 per cent of the total. Of these, as many as 92 per cent are microenterprises, with fewer than ten employees. Petri Salminen called on future MEPs to reflect on the fact that often, economic decisions are made with large companies in mind, even though these are numerically far smaller than SMEs, which instead risk being affected by the measures. Also for Luca Crosetto of Confartigianato and Vice President SMEunited, the EU needs to change its perspective: “Future policymakers will have to move from making laws to making the law produce results. The current regulatory framework needs to be reviewed to ensure consistency and uniformity.”

Pictured from the left: Luca Crosetto, Vice President of SMEunited and delegate for Europe of Confartigianato Imprese, Petri Salminen, President of SMEunited and Véronique Willems, Secretary General of SMEunited

All companies with fewer than 50 employees are classified as small and medium-sized enterprises (although this varies greatly from country to country). SMEs produce about 58 per cent of the Union’s GDP and employ 67 per cent of the people within the private sector.

“In recent years, we have repeatedly stressed, both as SMEunited and as Confartigianato, the need for the EU to apply the Think Small Fist principle cogently,” Crosetto insists. “It is unacceptable that 24.3 million SMEs in Europe still have to comply with legislation based on the 0.2 per cent of large companies.

Ahead of the June 6-9 elections, SMEunited urged everyone to go to the polls to choose what future to give Europe. The EU is not going through an easy phase: the complications of the COVID-19 period, the war in Ukraine, the commodities crisis and the general rise in prices are forcing serious reflection. Also complicating the scenario for SMEs is the difficulty in finding skilled workers in the labour market.

The state of the single market is still a problem for SMEunited: distortions persist within it that do not allow small and medium-sized enterprises to develop to their fullest potential. With this in mind, the report on the state of the EU market that Enrico Letta will present at the informal European Council on April 17 and 18 is eagerly awaited.

Just as bees get their strength from the group, SMEs also need to come together to make mass. Also, “bees play a crucial role in the planet’s survival, and so do SMEs in the development and prosperity of the European economic system,” Salminen summarized. The message delivered by SMEunited is clear: without bees, there is no life, and without small and medium-sized enterprises, there is no economy.