Sittings · Document

DRAFT REPORT (2025/2072(INI)) 2025-05-13

On access to finance for SMEs and scale-ups

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Jorge Martín Frías

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

This draft report on access to finance for SMEs and scale-ups calls for reducing bureaucratic burdens, unlocking private capital, bridging the scale-up funding gap, and reinforcing a competitive EU ecosystem. It urges the Commission to simplify regulations, exempt SMEs from excessive obligations, improve access to information and financial literacy, and introduce flexibility in Basel III and securitisation rules. It also encourages co-investment platforms, retail investment channels, and clarifies the 28th legal regime, while developing business guidelines for SMEs.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution calling on the Commission and Member States to take various actions to improve access to finance for SMEs and scale-ups, as outlined in the key points.

Key points

  1. Calls for further simplification beyond the Commission's omnibus package and an ambitious simplification strategy, noting that 'one-in, one-out' is not enough.
  2. Urges the Commission to assess regulatory obligations like the sustainable finance framework and develop proportionality thresholds to exempt SMEs from excessive obligations.
  3. Calls on the Commission to improve investors' access to information and protection, and to include entrepreneurship in the financial literacy strategy.
  4. Calls for public funding to act as a catalyst for private investment, not as subsidies, and emphasises the role of tax incentives.
  5. Calls for flexibility in Basel III implementation and in the securitisation framework to increase lending to SMEs and scale-ups.
  6. Encourages the Commission to strengthen co-investment platforms and promote simple retail investment channels to channel savings into productive investments.
  7. Emphasises the importance of an integrated innovation ecosystem with universities, start-ups, large enterprises and venture capitalists.
  8. Urges the Commission to focus on enabling conditions, common denominators, and voluntary frameworks, respecting subsidiarity.
  9. Calls on the Commission to clarify the 28th legal regime, ensuring it is voluntary and respects Member States' regimes.
  10. Calls for business guidelines to help SMEs navigate different legal systems across the EU on corporate, labour, insolvency, tax law, IP rights and funding.

Who is affected

  • SMEs and scale-ups in the EU, which would benefit from reduced regulatory burdens and improved access to finance.
  • European institutional investors, such as insurance companies and pension funds, are encouraged to provide more venture capital.
  • EU citizens and entrepreneurs, who would gain from improved financial literacy and retail investment channels.
  • Credit institutions, which would be able to lend more due to flexibility in Basel III and securitisation rules.

Figures and deadlines

  • SMEs account for 99.8% of all enterprises, 65.2% of employment and 53.1% of value added in the non-financial business sector in 2023.
  • The Commission aims for at least a 35% reduction in reporting burdens for SMEs.
  • Close to 30% of 'unicorns' relocate abroad due to lack of a favourable scale-up environment.

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