Verbatim report of proceedings

Tuesday, 23 October 2012 - Strasbourg

13.24. SMEs: competitiveness and business opportunities (A7-0293/2012 - Paul Rübig) (vote)

Before the vote on paragraph 51:

  Paul Rübig, rapporteur. − (DE) Madam President, I simply wanted to explain that paragraph 51, which is being put to the vote today is a compromise that we adopted by a large majority in committee. What it means, in fact, is that we want to ease the burden on micro-enterprises as far as possible, but not in relation to the basic standards in place in the European Union in the field of health and safety in the workplace, or in relation to basic workers’ rights in the EU, or in relation to fundamental principles of environmental legislation. It is important to make it clear that we are not allowing micro-enterprises to operate in a legal vacuum but that we fully recognise that the basic legislation already in place must be complied with by micro-enterprises as well. I would therefore ask you to vote for the compromise.