The Small Business Act for Europe ''(SBA)'' is a package of principles put forward by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

in 2008, designed to assist

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

es within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

(EU). The package contains ten "guiding principles intended for adoption "at the highest political level" across the EU. It is not a

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as such.

Background

In June 2008, the Commission adopted a communiqué entitled "Small Business Act" for Europe to the

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, European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions. Its aim was to provide an SME policy framework to improve competitiveness and promote entrepreneurship. Rather than being a legislative act, it contains provisions applying to small firms, directed at governments and institutions to "think small first" when establishing policy and law.

Content

The SBA invites the Commission and EU

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to adopt: * ten "guiding principles" to guide policy-making * legislative proposals guided by the "think small first" principle: the General Block Exemption Regulation on

state aid State aid in the European Union is the name given to a subsidy or any other aid provided by a government that distorts competitions. Under European Union competition law the term has a legal meaning, being any measure that demonstrates any of the ...

s, a regulation providing for a statute on the European Private Company, amendments to rules on

late payment Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

, and a proposed directive reducing VAT rates for locally supplied services * policy measures to implement the ten principles at the Community and Member State levels. The act is intended to benefit independent companies with fewer than 250 employees (99% of EU businesses). It provides an "SME test" to ensure SMEs are taken into account at an early stage of the policy-making process. As such, all new administrative or legislative proposals are to be subjected to an SME impact review. Countries including Belgium, Finland, Denmark, and Germany have added this test into their national decision-making processes. The Act also carries a provision to appoint SME envoys, whose role is to liaise between the EC and SMEs. The SBA promotes the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program (participants spend up to six months working in a different country's SME), and creates Market Access Teams in select export markets, particularly China and India.Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: U.S. and EU Export Activities, and Barriers and Opportunities Experienced by U.S. Firms, Inv. 332-509. DIANE Publishing. pp. 2–3. .

References

{{EU-law-stub European Union Small business