Info centres bid for extra funds

Date: 15/02/1996

By Tim Jones

A LITTLE known part of the European Commission's programme to support the Union's high-growth small company sector is seeking extra resources in recognition of its success.

As the Commission's 112-million-ecu, four-year programme for the support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) comes up for renewal at the end of the month, Euro Info Centres (EICs) are pressing their claim.

Created in 1987, EICs have expanded from about 30 offices scattered throughout Europe to 238 today, boasting at least one representation in every major city across the Union and some outside the EU.

The Commission services are putting the finishing touches to the 1997-2000 SME multi-annual programme in time for adoption by Commissioners at the end of February, and the EICs want to emphasise how they conform with, and promote the idea of, a 'citizen's Europe'.

“With so many people talking about getting closer to the citizen, this is an initiative that is already doing that,” says an official in DGXXIII, the directorate-general for SMEs.

While set up nominally by the Commission, EICs are a joint venture with member states and the local chambers of commerce in their host cities.

They are usually based in the premises of organisations such as regional development agencies, professional associations, banks and regional authorities, which have already built up relations with their local SMEs.

Their object is to advise firms which do not have a great deal of international experience on how to get the most out of the single European market.

Staffed with a minimum of three people, EICs give firms information on how to develop their products. They also provide advice on issues such as how to obtain grants for research and development.

In addition to establishing strong local links, the offices are also connected with each other and can provide advice to companies doing business in another EU country.

DGXXIII boasts that the information centres are a two-way street, allowing the Commission to get details of programmes and legislation through to SMEs, while at the same time allowing officials to get a better understanding of the grassroot perspective. An example of the latter process occurred when the EICs specialising in taxation provided the Commission with information about the effects of the new value-added tax regime.

The EICs are also increasingly being used to deliver messages to SMEs, with the emphasis on promotional campaigns. The latest concerns standardisation, how it works and how small companies should respond to Union measures in this area.

For a change, the EICs asked to conduct the campaign themselves and DGXXIII kept its distance. As a result, the approach taken by each centre was very different. In Italy, the money was spent on producing a promotional video, while other countries simply bought space on national media.

Brian Wilcox, who is running the campaign in the UK from his office in Cardiff, has so far concentrated on mail-shots and running competitions in conjunction with co-sponsor Air UK.

While he emphasises the imaginative side the EICs can provide to their work, Wilcox plays down their role as advice-givers. “We are an information service,” he says. “Very few EICs are in the position to be consultants. What we can do is supply background information, load companies with information pertinent to their needs and signpost them to the relevant ministries.”

But DGXXIII feels the EICs could do more to expand their contacts with local SMEs. The Commission estimates that the EICs could be in regular contact with 1.5 million firms, five times as many as the 300,000 with which they currently deal.

SMEs themselves put this relatively low number down to the fact that most of their number are not very interested in export markets.

“It's a minority interest because most SMEs are focused on the here and now and the local,” says Nick Goulding of the Forum of Private Business lobby for SMEs.

But he added: “EICs do have relevant information and some are quite proactive in trying to assist SMEs. What business wants is accurate information, rather than being told to do things.”