Eastern partnership for small business. New and old initiatives
The EU Eastern Partnership policy has overwhelmingly negative evaluations from experts throughout its existence, but it continues to function and develop. In the near future, it is not about collapse, but on the contrary, all new tools are emerging, aimed at rapprowning the EU participating countries in various fields.
Recently, the Eastern Partnership has been mentioned primarily in connection with the signing of the Association Agreements by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Of particular relevance in this context is the introduction of in -depth and comprehensive free trade zones.
But, in fact, the direction of “economic integration and rapprochement with EU politicians” is much broader. One of the most active in this platform is the “Small and Medium -sized Business Policy” panel. In this direction, a separate flagship initiative to support small and medium-sized businesses was introduced, aimed at overcoming various difficulties in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the countries of the Eastern Partnership, including such as:
-imperfect regulatory framework for regulation of business activity and lack of mechanisms for establishing interregional and international relations;
-lack of available and/or economically advantageous advisory services for SMEs;
-lack of financing due to poorly developed capital markets and a long -term transition period in the financial sector.
Therefore, the main tasks of the initiative were identified:
-facilitating the rapprochement with policy and legal framework of the EU in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises (act on small business);
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-improving the exchange of information on customs regulation, market conditions, internationalization of SMEs.
-providing economically advantageous consultative services for SMEs and increasing the internal potential of expert support;
-Improvement of access to funding for SMEs in order to promote economic development and mitigate the consequences of the financial crisis.
In the first stage, the initiative was implemented thanks to three tools:
-Institutional Technical Assistance: EAST-INVEST program under the leadership of Eurochambres;
-Advisory Services: TAM / BAS, led by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for EU funding;
-Financing Program: The financial mechanism for SMEs is implemented jointly by the European Investment Bank and the EBRD.
Instead, the last meeting of the panel, which took place in October this year, testified to significant promotion in this direction. In particular, it is about developing a flagship initiative development strategy for 2020, creating an advisory office, as well as updating the implementation tools in the framework of the initiative (East Invest II, Starep, EBRD Small Business Support Program, etc.). It should be noted separately business forums that have become significant events for SMEs, and the next one will take place in May 2015 in Riga as the capital of the EU Chairman in the EU.
Basically new opportunities for small and medium -sized businesses since 2015 opens the newly implemented tool “DCfta Facility”. Within the framework of this SME tool, the costs of fulfilling the requirements arising from the introduction of free trade zones, use support to new markets, reduce risks, hedge currency fluctuations, receive technical support and incentives.
Therefore, in the direction of development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the coming years, the activity of the participating countries in convergence with EU policy should be expected in the coming years. At least the EU is taking appropriate steps and at this stage will be mainly about the ability of policy participating countries to take advantage of the opportunities that are offered. It should be noted that progress will be more noticeable with the interstate actions and wide information of SMEs about available opportunities.
Vdovenko YS, Coordinator of the Working Group No. 2 “Economic Integration and Cossing with EU Politicians” of the Ukrainian National Platform of the Eastern Partner Civil Society Forum.
Source:http://eap-csf.org.ua/
