"Le Nuage, une perspective commerciale pour les PME" pour Pablo Zalba

De nos jours, les possibilités que nous offrent de nouveaux outils tels que le cloud computing ouvrent la voie à l’expansion des PME européennes. Cette possibilité doit être encouragée par les institutions européennes. Le cloud computing représente un nouveau modèle de prestation des services commerciaux et technologiques qui permet à l’utilisateur d’accéder à un répertoire de services normalisés. Avec ces services, l’utilisateur peut répondre aux besoins spécifiques de son commerce, de manière flexible et adaptée à la demande, en ne payant que ce qu’il a utilisé. Ce mécanisme d’informatique en nuage augmente le nombre de services Web, permettant aux fournisseurs d’offrir plus de service plus rapidement et plus efficacement. L’utilisateur, quant à lui, jouit de la transparence et de la rapidité du système. Et tout cela avec une optimisation des coûts et une garantie de la sécurité du service. L’Union européenne doit miser résolument sur la consolidation de cet outil, comme nous le demandons au PPE. Comme l’a dit ma collègue, la députée européenne et présidente de la European Internet Fundation, Pilar del Castillo, le cloud computing offre d’immenses possibilités pour la croissance économique et pour l’emploi. La preuve en est que selon les estimations réalisées, l’intégration totale de ce modèle pourrait créer 3,8 millions de nouveaux emplois dans l’Union européenne, dans le cadre du programme Horizon 2020. En plus de favoriser la création d’emplois et l’innovation, en plus de contribuer à l’amélioration de la productivité et de la compétitivité, l’informatique en nuage a un potentiel énorme en matière de réduction des coûts des TIC. De plus, elle pourrait constituer un grand pas en avant dans l’achèvement du marché unique numérique. Certains aspects, comme la flexibilité, sont essentiels dans ce nouveau modèle. Il faudra également y adapter la règlementation en matière de protection des données, ce qui renforcera la confiance des utilisateurs D’un autre côté, la question de la fragmentation du marché unique numérique devra être abordée afin que le cloud computing se développe pleinement. Cependant, afin de mener à bien ces actions, l’Union européenne doit soutenir le développement des PME au travers de politiques leur permettant d’utiliser ces nouveaux modèles technologiques. Ces politiques devront inclure différentes mesures, telles que le déploiement de réseaux à haut débit et à très grande vitesse en Europe, ou l’achèvement d’autres initiatives déjà en route, telles que le programme Galileo de la Commission européenne pour le développement d’un système européen de navigation par satellite. http://www.taurillon.org/Le-Nuage-une-perspective-commerciale-pour-les-PME,05761

Creating a regional entrepreneurial environment: youuth employment and innovation for European regional development

Throughout Europe, regions and cities are facing a significant financial and economic challenges coupled with worrying levels of youth unemployment. The EPP Group in the Committee of the Regions is convinced that a strong entrepreneurial environment is needed in order to boost youth employment and foster innovation. "Access to funding must be easy and not differentiate from country to country. It is an unfair obstacle to create the truly internal market", Pablo Zalba, Member of the European Parliament.

More Europe

Nowadays, Europe is not only facing an economic crisis. But also it is tackling a political one. Therefore, we are living challenged times. Nevertheless, comparing the European macroeconomic figures to the USA and Japanese ones, the EU seems to be economically better than we all imagine. As an example, EU's public debt is 79.03%, while USA's, arriving at a point of 106.7% and Japan with 234.5% are presenting considerable higher figures. One of the most important problems we are facing today is the inaccurate design of the Eurozone. We are a Monetary Union but not a real economic, fiscal nor political one. The theory is outstanding, but its development within the economic and financial field has been casting some doubts, the European crisis resulting a enormous lack of trust (absence of confidence). We should bear in mind this negative scenario: confidence is essential for the economy recovery as it is synonymous of credit as well, and credit, especially to SME, is the key element we need to increase the growth. Without confidence the economic recovery will be impossible. On the other hand, last July Mr. Draghi's statements provided an injection of confidence, relieving doubts on euro irreversibility as representing, probably, the most important fact since the euro implementation as well. Once the eurozone doubts seem dispelled, it is time to encourage growth. On this matter, both national reforms and fiscal consolidation are crucial. Spain is an example according to the results. Two years ago, the exports in Spain represented 20% of the GDP; nowadays, they represent 32%. Let me give you an example: last January in Spain, automotive production rose 12%. Consequently, this is an outstanding result, having in mind both the drop of the domestic demand and the dramatic situation of the automotive sector in the rest of Europe. These figures definitely show the improvement of the Spanish competitiveness, as shown by the increase of the investments within the sector in Spain. All this data show that Spain together with the rest of Europe are on the right path. There is still much to do. At the moment, the challenge of the Spanish economy is to allow credit access to SMEs. It is our main task. However, it is not just a Spanish Government's responsibility. It should be also a shared duty of European institutions, especially ECB's responsibility. As I requested Mr. Draghi last week in the plenary session in Strasbourg, ECB should act to avoid the difficulties faced by most of SMEs within the EU to access to credit. SMEs are not able to fund because of the exorbitant interest rates. This situation is deforming the Single Market and creating imbalances in Europe's competitiveness. The main message should be that the economic recovery will not come just as a result of national reforms. Cooperation among European institutions working together on the same path is also needed to restore confidence. At the European level, we must go ahead to the long-awaited and necessary economic union, fiscal union and, ultimately, political union. Member States which are able to act, should apply with expansive policies, in order to share the fiscal contraction of those countries which committed excesses over the last years. Consequently, we all should be supportive, acting together with the aim to overcome the economic crisis, also reminding the principle of solidarity as one of the most important principles in the Treaty on European Union: "The Union promote economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among Member States".

SMEs: A Solution from Europe

Today, no one disputes that credit is vital for small and medium enterprises. Despite the momentum that big businesses give to our economies, SMEs are still the basis of the Spanish productive sector and the ones employing the majority of citizens in Spain and in Europe. With the crisis, the challenges facing SMEs have become more pronounced. Not only because of the drop in sales as it is the case for other companies, but because of major difficulties in accessing credit. A few years ago, almost any solvent SMEs in Europe could take out a loan. However, the situation has changed and today, the financial market is “fragmented”. What do we actually mean with this? Simply that the criteria for accessing credit varies greatly across Europe. For example, an SME in Spain must satisfy vastly different criteria in than an SME in Germany in order to take out a loan.. The result of this is that banks are failing to grant loans to companies in Spain while similar companies in Germany are being provided with the credit they need. Moreover, even in cases where they can access loans, Spanish companies end up paying a hefty premium, estimated by Deutsche Bank to be in the region of three and four percent. This fact is drowning many small and medium Spanish enterprises and therefore affecting the recovery of the country and Europe as a whole. If SMEs do not have access to credit, their ability to run a business is severely impeded and this in turn has serious consequences on the employment situation and economic growth. We need to consider the different possibilities available to solve this problem. The ECB is expected to cut the interest rate by 0.5% in a few months. However, we have observed how a decrease in interest rates will not solve the fragmentation in the financial markets. We should therefore consider measures such as the ECB changing its collateral policy and authorising banks to use SMEs debt to access credit from the ECB. There is also possibility that the ECB could buy SMEs debt directly from banks in the periphery countries. These measures, as opposed to low interest rates, would have a direct impact on SMEs, as they could access credit and thus bring us back to the path of growth. The two questions that will decide the future are: will Germany accept such measures? Will the ECB assume a role that it has until now refused? I have no doubt that something is moving in the ECB. http://thinkingeurope.eu/blog/smes-solution-europe

Much ado about nothing

News emerged last week which contributed to a climate of confusion, fuelled by conflicting messages fantasising about unlikely scenarios. After a series of reports suggesting that the Commission could carry out a Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP) with Spain, some sections of the media interpreted this as a reprimand of the Government of Spain. Last week the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, re-affirmed his confidence in Spain, stating that Spain can be the engine of growth in the Eurozone. These events give the feeling that some sections of the Spanish media are liable to deliberately magnify the negative when reporting economic news. Despite of the importance that carrying out a MIP could have, one must bear in mind certain facts. Firstly, we must remember that any decision to carry out a MIP will be made on the basis of previous procedures, including an analysis of relevant data in 2011 under the government of President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Subsequently, there is a final check to identify the countries with excessive macroeconomic imbalance. In this case, Spain and Slovenia. This process involves an information gathering process and does not necessarily involve any mandatory corrective action. We must bear in mind that in order for this procedure to have consequences, like the imposition of conditions or sanctions, we would have to move to a new step of the process in which the Council, on the basis of a recommendation from the European Commission, would advise the concerned Member States to take corrective action. Therefore, it is obvious that the controversy does not respond to reality. Moreover, I have no doubt that corrective actions will not be recommended. The Vice President of the Commission, Olli Rehn, has already hinted the fact that the Commission would give Spain two additional years to meet its deficit targets. Data shows that Spain, despite the challenges that still have to be faced and of which its current Government is fully aware, is on the right track. But let us not forget that is also time for Europe to act. Even if Spain is on the right track, every effort will be useless if Europe does not create a banking, economic, fiscal and ultimately political union. http://thinkingeurope.eu/blog/much-ado-about-nothing