Accountants criticise EC plan for SMEs

Friend of the network Manos draws our attention to his organisation's reaction (published today on Euractiv) to the recent report by the Commission on relief from EU law for SMEs (23 November). Under the title "Smart regulators must be able to tell regulatory burdens from regulatory capital," the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) points out that the Commission's inititatives on exempting small businesses from individual regulations risk misinterpreting the needs of SMEs and introducing "two-tier markets". This viewpoint is based on the newish concept that regulation does not only impose costs (which when not justified are called burdens): "some regulations, including those governing financial disclosures, "are more like public investment in that they build capital – trust, standards and confidence – which private firms can then leverage to create value." Exemptions from these specific rules would not be economically stimulating. For discussion.