At the closing day of the conference, “Mobilising SME for the Future of Europe” on 25 May 2011, Zoltán Cséfalvay, Minister of State for Strategy of the Ministry of National Economy asked for more political support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, inaugurated a new network of Member States’ SME Envoys.

According to the Europe figures, Eurostat Yearbook 2010, SMEs make up 99.8% of the estimated 20.2 million non-financial business enterprises within the EU-27. SMEs (with fewer than 250 employees), generated 56.9% of the value added and employed 67.4% of the workforce in the non-financial business economy.

The Minister of State for Strategy of the Ministry of National Economy, Zoltán Cséfalvay highlighted on the Hungarian Presidency making effort to grant enterprises better access to the EU’s internal market. The Minister of State believes SMEs lack the political support even at the European Union’s level. European enterprises are struggling with a number of problems, including the acquisition of financial resources, extreme administrative burdens, lack of permanent access to the EU’s internal market, and a backlog in terms of innovation according to what it was said at the conference.

In addition, Antonio Tajani, Vice President and Commissioner for Industrial and Business Policy, stressed the new initiative from the European Commission, which consists in appointing SME envoys in all Member State, will help more SMEs. The envoys’ task would be to track the transposition of the Small Business Act, and to keep contact with the parties concerned in the SME sector. Minister of State Cséfalvay, welcomed the Commission’s proposal and highlighted that the envoys will speak as the political voice for SMEs.

The Small Business Act serves to improve the business environment and to remove the obstacles to the growth and job-generation potential of SMEs, and it is based on ten principles and the specific policy and legislative steps, which are aimed at their implementation. SME envoys would maintain contact with the EU level representative organisations of SMEs via the SBA Advisory Group.