Brussels, 27 October 2009

 

Commission proposal on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity and repealing Directive 86/613/EEC:  “ESBA urges the Council to Think Small First when reaching its political agreement”.

 

In October 2008, following calls by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the European Commission presented its proposal on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity and repealing Directive 86/613/EEC. The proposal aims to improve the implementation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women with regard to self-employed and their assisting spouses, after the Commission report concluded that the existing Directive has not achieved satisfactory results. The main elements include protecting the rights of assisting spouses, ensuring that they can benefit from social protection schemes, maternity leave and compensation in case of discrimination.

 

In its original draft, the Commission proposed to offer assisting spouses an option to join social security schemes on their request. In its amended version, however, the European Parliament proposed to make it mandatory for the Member States to offer assisting spouses the option to these social provisions, putting additional financial and administrative burden on small business.  In the current volatile economic climate, Member States should maintain flexibility in their response to the crisis. It should therefore be up to the Member States to decide whether the implementation of such a scheme will be justifiable with regards to the small business community.

 

ESBA President Tina Sommer said:

“It is of vital importance that no new financial or administrative burden is imposed on SMEs. Whilst the proposal can arguably serve a purpose from a social perspective, it will put additional financial burden on small businesses, which is undesirable in the current economic climate. ESBA therefore urges the European Council to agree on a common position in favor of a voluntary nature of the proposal. If Member States then decide to implement the Directive, ESBA urges the European Commission to put an adequate monitoring system in place to ensure that governments will not abuse the Directive as an opportunity to raise social contributions or create any other measures that would increase financial or administrative burden on SMEs”.

 

 

 

ENDS

 

Embargo: for immediate release

 

 

Notes to Editor

 

European Small Business Alliance (ESBA)

 

Founded in 1998 by eight independent national small business associations, 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. ESBA also works towards the development of strong independent advocacy and benefits groups in European countries. ESBA's new website, which provides an innovative approach to communication amongst business organizations, reflects these three main fields of activity.

 

Today, ESBA is one of the largest organizations based on voluntary membership in Europe. Through its direct membership, associate membership and cooperation agreements, the Alliance now represents almost one million small businesses and covers 36 European countries. Increased support and recognition, internally and externally, however will only be achieved through tangible results. Through implementation of its 'Vision 2020' and the corresponding business plan, this is what ESBA is constantly striving to achieve on behalf of its members and SMEs in Europe.

 

ESBA European Election Campaign Site

 

EU Small Business Profile

 

·         99.8 per cent of all EU companies are SMEs

·         91.5 per cent are micro businesses

·         7.3 per cent are small businesses

·         1.1 per cent are medium-sized businesses

·         0.2 per cent are large businesses

·         SMEs provide 67.1 per cent of all private sector jobs

 

Source: Eurostat, 585, Breakdown of main indicators by enterprise size class, non-financial business economy, 2003, EU-25

 

Challenges for Small Businesses in Europe

 

1      Administrative and regulatory burdens

2      Access to finance

3      Taxation

4      Lack of skills

5      Access to public procurement contracts

6      Unfair/too strong competition

7      Labour law

8      Access to Single Market

9      Access to EU programmes

10    Late payments

11    Access to international markets

12    Access to information and advice

13    Instability of world economy/ energy costs

14    SME definition

 

Source: European Commission, Report on the results of the open consultation on a Small Business Act for Europe, April 2008

 

 

Patrick Gibbels

Brussels Representative

EUROPEAN SMALL BUSINESS ALLIANCE

Rue d'Idalie 9-13

B-1050 Brussels

Belgium

Tel:       +32 2 639 62 31

Fax:      +32 2 644 90 17

                                                                                            

secretariat@...

Update www.esba-europe.org

 

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.

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