Small Business Act review hits red tape

Yesterday (23 February) the European Commission published its long-awaited review of the Small Business Act, promising to do better to cut red tape, improve access to financing and try to harmonise tax systems among EU member countries (see press release for a summary). The Small Business Act has 10 guiding principles, including improving access to finance, drawing up bankruptcy rules to give entrepreneurs a second chance and upgrading skills. After much discussion of its contents (see excellent Euractiv dossier) the final report includes, inter alia:

• the promotion of the "only once" principle whereby public authorities and administrative bodies should refrain from requesting the same information, data, documents or certificates which have already been made available to them in the context of other procedures;
• a commitment to enhance electronic interoperability in the Internal Market, in particular delivering on the Single Market Act’s proposal for a decision by 2012 to ensure mutual recognition of e-identification and e-authentication across the EU and the revision in 2011 of the Directive on electronic signatures.
• Proposing an instrument of European Contract Law for SMEs that want to enter new markets.
• Setting up a uniform procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery.
• Speeding up and reducing the cost to start a business to a maximum of three days and €100.