Market Achievement Plan

job access [ access to the labour market | employment opportunity | job market | job perspective ]

database on access to markets | Market Access Database

commitment on market access

market access strategy

market access undertaking

market access group

market access [ trade outlet ]

market access concession

The Commission will: within a streamlined and enhanced set of financial instruments, aim to help a higher number of beneficiary SMEs through strengthened loan guarantee schemes that will support investments, growth, innovation and research; make EU funding programmes more accessible to SMEs by further simplifying procedures; adopt in 2011 an action plan for improving SMEs’ access to finance, including access to venture capital markets, as well as targeted measures aimed at making investors more aware of the opportunities offered by SMEs; consider adopting a new legislative regime ...[+++] to ensure that by 2012 venture capital funds established in any Member State can function and invest freely in the EU; as requested by the European Council, explore options for setting up an intellectual property rights valorisation instrument at the European level, in particular to ease SMEs' access to the knowledge market.

However, analysis of the progress made in the light of the 4 common objectives reveals that: (a) the measures concerned with promoting access to the labour market have, in tandem with the NAP/empl, achieved considerable success; (b) pursuit of the reform of the social protection system has not affected attainment of the goals inherent in the Minimum Guaranteed Income scheme (scheme combining financial benefits with a socio-occupational integration plan); (c) the aim of having all persons in a situation of exclusion sign a "social integration contract" within one year was too ambitious and was difficult both to implement and to evaluate ...[+++], since it requires multisectoral involvement and since the universe of individuals to be covered remains undefined (the same comment applies to the individualised follow-up of children and young persons within three months); (d) the setting up of a national social welfare helpline has made it easier for certain priority groups to obtain information and a rapid response to their problems; (e) the "Urban Social Development Contracts" and the "Rural Areas and Social Development" project, which were aimed at tackling the problems of the regional nature of exclusion, were abandoned for budgetary and policy reasons; (f) as regards mobilising stakeholders in the process, the Interministerial Monitoring Committee, set up expressly to monitor the NAPincl, operated only intermittently and its composition had to be altered following the change of government, hence its impact as an institutional co-ordination forum has been established only gradually; as regards civil society, the vague reference to the Co-operation and Social Solidarity Pact and the project for the creation of an NGOs Forum illustrates the low degree of involvement of these players.

the Commission: has established Market Access Teams in key export markets bringing together Member States’ trade councillors and EU business organisations, which will help to improve SMEs’ information on trade barriers markets outside the EU will actively seek the opening up of third countries markets, in particular in developed and advanced developing economies, through WTO negotiations and bilateral agreements will in particular seek the opening up of non-EU countries’ procurement markets, which should lead to mutual and reciprocal benefits, through its bilateral and multilateral negotiations (WTO Government Procurement Agreement), in ...[+++]particular with fast-growing countries will promote trade facilitation both in the context of the WTO and in bilateral negotiations will continue to facilitate EU SMEs’ access to the markets of candidate and other neighbourhood countries, in particular through the Enterprise Europe Network and by promoting the “Think Small First” principle in these countries, including through exchanges of good practice based on the European Charter for Small Enterprises and the SBA intends to establish European Business Centres in 2009 in selected markets, starting with the fast-growing economies of India and China intends to launch a ‘Gateway to China’ scheme, focusing on establishing an Executive Training Programme in China to enable European SMEs to be more competitive in the Chinese market by 2010. the Member States are invited to: encourage coaching of SMEs by large companies in order to bring them to international markets.

In parallel, SMEs benefit from actions undertaken in the context of the Market Access Strategy, such as the Market Access Database or the work of over 30 Market Access Teams in key export markets who bring together the local expertise of representatives of EU delegations, Member States’ embassies and EU business with the aim of improving European companies’ access to these markets[39].