Facilitate access to aid for SMEs. With this objective, more than fifty Spanish business entities come together and sign a manifesto to demand from the central government, regional administrations and civil society organizations the management of European aid to alleviate the delicate situation of 2.9 million SMEs and Spanish micro-SMEs.
The economic impact that the pandemic is having on millions of SMEs and micro-SMEs has led the European Community to allocate a series of aid to Spain with a package of 10 billion euros of European funds. Aid that is added to the 9,000 million euros allocated last August.
However, small and medium-sized businesses in our country still do not perceive the relief that is sought with these aid and accuse the difficulty of accessing them. This has led to more than 55 business entities, with the Spanish Association of Business Friends (AEAE) at the head, and among which is also the APD, AEMME or Madrid Business Forum, to sign a manifesto to demand from the government, regional administrations and civil society organizations the “immediate management of European aid”.
Facilitating access to these funds has become an urgent claim given the complicated situation currently facing 2.9 million SMEs and micro-SMEs in our country.
And, as the manifesto points out, the strong impact of the pandemic has caused Spanish SMEs not to have access to “The possibilities of financing necessary to continue with its precarious activity”. A situation aggravated by economic uncertainty that “could cause the disappearance of a part of the economic structure with devastating effects on jobs.”
The manifesto, which has five points, highlights the request, both to the central government and to the Autonomous Communities and other public bodies, for the immediate management of aid funds “From the European Union, or from their own budgets, so that, as a matter of urgency, they can reach SMEs, micro-businesses and the self-employed”.
In this sense, they also highlight the lack of financing possibilities which, if this continues, would lead to the closure of hundreds of businesses and, therefore, the disappearance of thousands of jobs.
Towards a collaborative model for SMEs
With this, the signatories acknowledge that society and companies have evolved and this requires adopting new economic and business criteria that allow a better visualization of the role these businesses play in the business fabric.
This manifesto has been signed in the First National Congress of Business Friends in which the Transversal Platform of Entities of Economic and Social Business Interest. It is an entity that was born with the purpose of generating synergies in the promotion of Spanish business activity “With a collaborative system for the creation of wealth and the generation of jobs, as part of a set of actions to achieve a just, tolerant and participatory society”.
These values are also defended by the Spanish Association of Business Friends, which, since its constitution in January 2021, already has almost a thousand members. Under the motto “Together for the survival and growth of our companies”, the entity stands as a meeting point and collaboration between businessmen, entrepreneurs and freelancers betting on generosity, commitment, closeness and trust as guarantees for economic development and social welfare.
