On access to finance for SMEs and scale-ups

–having regard to its resolution of 14 December 2023 on increasing innovation, industrial and technological competitiveness through a favourable environment for start-ups and scale-ups,

–having regard to the Commission communication of 12 September 2023 entitled ‘SME Relief Package’ (COM(2023)0535),

–having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A10-0000/2025),

A.whereas micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent the backbone of European business, with SMEs accounting for 99.8 % of all enterprises, 65.2 % of employment and 53.1 % of the value added in the non-financial business sector in the EU in 2023;

B.whereas European SMEs vary in scope, location, ownership, and innovation capacity, and hence face diverse challenges and financing needs;

C.whereas the Draghi report indicates that regulatory obstacles and administrative burdens are among the greatest challenges faced by SMEs and recommends that SMEs be exempted from regulations on proportionality grounds;

D.whereas the Commission aims to improve access to finance for SMEs in order to increase scale, reduce inefficiencies and promote interoperability, and has set a target of at least a 35 % reduction in the reporting burdens for SMEs, and announced a new SME competitiveness check in impact assessments;

E.whereas Europe lacks a more dynamic and favourable environment for innovative companies to scale-up, which leads to close to 30 % of ‘unicorns’ relocating abroad;

General considerations

1.Considers that creating favourable market conditions for European companies to innovate, start up, create, grow and scale up in Europe is essential to unlock our market’s full potential and help our economies become more competitive;

2.Welcomes the fact that, following the Draghi and Letta reports, the need for a more competitive and less bureaucratic single market has been recognised;

3.Stresses that the EU should strive to make the business environment easier for European entrepreneurs and to create a scale-up ecosystem that relies primarily on private investments;

4.Draws attention to the particular challenges faced by European scale-ups in obtaining late-stage growth financing; notes that many high-potential EU firms remain dependent on foreign venture capital and investors, with a large share of later funding rounds led by non-European investors;

5.Considers that facilitating access to finance for SMEs and scale-ups will depend on (i) the significant reduction in bureaucratic and regulatory burdens, (ii) the enhanced capacity to unlock private investment and savings, (iii) bridging the funding gap for scale-ups, and (iv) reinforcing a competitive capital markets ecosystem within the EU;

Reducing bureaucratic and regulatory burdens

6.Recalls that many promising European start-ups and scale-ups are relocating to non-EU countries because of a burdensome, slow and unpredictable European regulatory landscape; underlines that, unless this trend is reversed through substantial simplification, Europe will continue to lose companies at their most strategic growth stage;

7.Calls for further simplification efforts that go beyond the Commission’s omnibus simplification package published on 26 February 2025;

8.Urges the Commission to assess existing regulatory obligations that are burdening companies, such as the sustainable finance framework, and to develop proportionality thresholds to exempt SMEs from excessive obligations; welcomes the proposed new SME competitiveness check;

9.Stresses that the ‘one-in, one-out’ approach is not enough, and calls on the Commission to propose an ambitious simplification strategy;

Unlocking private capital and savings

10.Notes that the Commission aims to implement a savings and investment union, which must include not only action at EU level, but also the development of tools, solutions and best practices that respect and support Member States’ actions at national level;

11.Calls on the Commission to improve investors’ access to information and protection, while leveraging the potential of simplified retail products to attract more savings to the capital markets;

12.Emphasises the need to improve the financial literacy of EU citizens and entrepreneurs; calls on the Commission to include entrepreneurship in the scope of the incoming financial literacy strategy and in a toolkit for Member States to enhance coordination in this aspect;

13.Calls for public funding not to be used as subsidies, but rather as a catalyst to mobilise private investments and make more private funding available to businesses; emphasises also the role of tax incentives in this regard;

14.Calls on the Commission to introduce flexibility in the implementation of Basel III requirements so as to ensure more lending is made available to SMEs and scale-ups; notes that appropriate flexibility could free up financing capacity and boost competitiveness vis-à-vis other jurisdictions in this regard;

15.Calls on the Commission to make the securitisation regulatory framework more flexible so as to allow credit institutions to provide further funding to companies and support their growth;

Bridging the funding gap for scale-ups

16.Regrets that many European businesses end up using venture capitalists based in non-EU countries and settling in non-EU country markets to scale up their businesses; expresses concern over the growing number of SME failures in the EU;

17.Understands that mobilising European institutional investors, notably insurance companies and pension funds, is key to reducing the scale-up gap; notes that an increase in the share of venture capital funds in Europe is needed to provide more funding to scale-ups;

18.Encourages the Commission to strengthen co-investment platforms as a means to crowd in private investment;

19.Highlights the importance of channelling citizens’ savings into productive investment instruments that can benefit SMEs and scale-ups; encourages the Commission to promote simple and secure retail investment channels and to eliminate regulatory disincentives;

20.Emphasises that a more integrated innovation ecosystem, with networks of universities, start-ups, large enterprises and venture capitalists, underpinned by access to testing facilities and technology infrastructure, is instrumental in helping businesses scale up;

Reinforcement of a competitive ecosystem in the EU

21.Considers that a competitive ecosystem in the EU must be composed of strong national markets and that national differences play an important role in fostering healthy competition between Member States and in incentivising them to keep their economies dynamic and attractive;

22.Urges the Commission to focus on enabling conditions for markets, relevant common denominators for Member States and voluntary and complementary frameworks, in respect of subsidiarity;

23.Calls on the Commission to clarify what the 28th legal regime will consist of and recalls that it must be voluntary and fully respect Member States’ regimes;

24.Calls on the Commission, with the support of Member State authorities, to develop business guidelines for SMEs and scale-ups in order to help them navigate different legal systems across the EU on matters such as corporate law, labour law, insolvency law, tax law, intellectual property rights and national funding possibilities;

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25.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.