9 June 2017

When the Small Business Act (SBA) was launched in 2008 by the European Commision, it had four main priorities: promoting entrepreneurship; reducing regulatory burden; better access to nance; and access to markets and internationalisation.

These are still the main pillars for SME policy today, governed through the overarching Think Small First principle. By means of this principle, the Commission commits itself to take SMEs’ interests into account at the very early stages of policy making, striving for SME friendly legislation.The ECR Group believes that a proper, structured and standardised implementation of the SME Test is vital to better law-making in the EU. Without the Test, the Think Small First principle cannot be properly implemented and EU proposals will continue to be burdensome for SMEs, leaving only unwanted options and quick- fixes such as exemptions for small businesses to alleviate the burden brought on by EU legislation.