SMEs anticipate the benefits of Euro-links

Date: 29/02/1996

By Fiona McHugh

UNCERTAINTY has clouded the TENs projects since they were first dreamed up over four years ago. But, through the haze, one thing has always been clear: they would cost a lot of money to build.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were consequently never going to have a major investment role to play. But if and when these grand-scale ideas come to fruition, they will be among the first to reap the rewards.

“SMEs will end up, quite literally, building the networks,” predicts Garry Parker of the Brussels-based forum of private business.

“Investment may be beyond us, but we will certainly win a lot of the subcontracts. Research and development, for example, is more likely to be carried out by small rather than large firms.”

So money and jobs are to flow from the building of Europe's transport, energy and telecommunications webs, and indeed they have already. But what happens when they have been completed?

Most SMEs believe they will continue to benefit - this time from the narrowing of distances which the TENs will bring about.

“Let's face it, the most important thing for us is to be able to move our goods freely and quickly around the EU. At the moment, that is not always possible. We hope that the transport TENs will help us to be more efficient,” said one businessman.

The role of roads and railways in the profitability, or otherwise, of Europe's small businesses becomes even more apparent when those businesses are trying to break into new markets. Though Central and Eastern European countries have been open to trade since the beginning of the decade, they are still difficult to access, a situation which SMEs hope will be reversed by the TENs.

Telecoms networks will also play a vital role. “Poland and the Czech Republic, for instance, are particularly difficult to trade with at the moment, because, quite simply, they are out of touch,” says Parker.

Trade between the two regions can only take off if communication becomes easier and cheaper, he says.