Economic and Fiscal Affairs Committee

Chairman: Mr. Hanns-Eberhard Schleyer, Secretary General of ZDH (D)
Secretary: Gerhard Huemer

The Committee consists of economic and fiscal experts (head of departments) of UEAPME's member organisations. It has to lead the work of its working groups on Taxation, EMU, Banks and Structural Funds and Regional Policy. It tackles all SME relevant issues regarding economic, fiscal and enterprise policy and has to co-ordinate the overall content on SME policy on expert level.

The Economic and Fiscal Affairs Committee currently has 4 working Groups:

European Monetary Union Working Group

Chairman: Andreas Henkel, WKO (A)

The WG defends the interests of SMEs in the changeover process towards the Euro. It has organised several seminars and training sessions in co-operation with the European Commission and produced several brochures for member organisations (train-the-trainer method).

Structural Funds and Regional Policy Working Group

Chairman: F. Spanu, Confartigianato(I)

Experts of member organisations discuss in this group the effects of the structural policy of the EC on the regional development of SMEs. UEAPME experts gather in its Regional Policy and Structural Funds Working Group to discuss how Small and Medium Sized Enterprises are implicated in and can contribute to the development of the regions and to less favoured areas. For the year 2003/2004 the group’s main objective is to analyse the future of Regional and Structural Fund Policy 2007-2013.

SME Finance & Relations with Banks Working Group

Chairman: Riisto Suominen, SY (Fin)

The Working Group consists of the SME finance experts from UEAPME’s member organisations. It tackles, together with UEAPME’s SME-supporting financial institutions, all issues of SME access to finance, including the European Round Tables of Bankers & SMEs, improving the business/bank relationship, venture, risk and seed capital, business angels, EASDAQ, capital requirements, late payments legislation, plus JEVs and other EU programmes.

Taxation Working Group

Chairman: Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA/FPB (UK)

Experts of member organisations discuss and analyse the effects of EU tax-policy on SMEs. The current issues are: reduction of administrative burdens, especially as a result of the incomplete VAT system; difficulties with different "double taxation agreements"; unequal treatment of SMEs in comparison to the big industry resulting from different tax regimes and open finance markets; and, the problems of competitiveness and "black markets" owing to high non-wage labour costs, especially in the labour-intensive services sector.