Malcolm Harbour welcomes proposal to exempt small businesses from EU regulation

Malcolm Harbour, who speaks on the Internal Market for the Conservatives in the European Parliament, has welcomed a proposal to allow small businesses to be made exempt from the EU Directive on annual reporting obligations. It would apply to companies with a turnover of less than one million euros and fewer than ten employees.

Mr Harbour (who I must say has a very efficient press officer!) comments:

"Small businesses repeatedly warn that they spend far too much of their time filling out unnecessary paperwork. Entrepreneurs should spend less time shuffling paper and more time building their businesses.

This proposal is welcome. It does not mean companies are not required to keep up-to-date books, but it does enable us to lift some of the more zealous requirements that are not so necessary for smaller businesses.

The European Commission always claims to 'think small first' and today it has delivered a concrete step towards recognising that not all legislation should apply to our small businesses.

We will seek to move this proposal through the parliament swiftly so that governments can decide how best to cut the burdens on businesses.

Small businesses will drive our economies out of the recession and we owe it to them to look again at how we can make their lives easier."

Tom Greeves