EU must improve business environment for SMEs

Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides has stressed the need to improve the business environment for Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), especially as regards financing.

Paschalides, who attended Monday the EU Competitiveness Council in Brussels, noted that the new EU industrial policy plan should include financing tools for SMEs, which are focused on innovation.

In his intervention at the EU Competitiveness Council, Paschalides said that such an approach must be linked with the proposal of the European Commission for a Research and Innovation Program that would satisfy the needs of enterprises and would emphasise on new technologies and new development areas, taking into consideration knowledge, competitiveness and sustainability.

Regarding the promotion of electric vehicles, which he described as a very important development, the Cypriot Minister said that it would contribute to the effort to form a new economy.

However, he underlined that efforts to promote electric vehicles must not marginalise other technologies.

The EU Competitiveness Council emphasised the need to coordinate a common industrial policy to end the recession and requested the European Commission to conduct an analysis of the situation over the current year.