Eight years after member states' leaders promised to turn the European Union into the world's best environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the European Commission has come up with a cross-sectoral initiative to provide a remedy for entrepreneurs' woes. The Small Business Act for Europe (SBA), eagerly awaited by 23 million European SMEs, was adopted on 25 June. The initiative came with no shortage of praise from the Commission. "The SBA is a step towards a Europe of entrepreneurs, a crucial milestone in the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy," proclaimed the Commission's President Jose Manuel Bar-roso. "[It] brings the full weight of [the] EU and its member states behind small companies," added the EU's Enterprise Commissioner Giinter Verheugen. Entrepreneurs, who have often been critical and suspicious in the past, largely welcomed the initiative. According to them, the SBA is a good step to help small firms, which form 99% of all Europe's businesses and create 80% of jobs. However, they are united in pointing out that everything now depends on a speedy adoption of the SBA by the Council of the EU and full implementation by the member states. Only then will Europe see if the SBA will indeed lead to a Europe, in Barroso's words, of "less red tape and more red carpet".
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