MEP Victor Negrescu participated in the 30th edition of the “National Top of Private Companies in Romania”, organized by the National Council of SMEs in Romania (CNIPMMR), on 2 November at the Romanian Athenaeum.

This moment gave the MEP the opportunity to present some of the initiatives he has carried out in support of SMEs, from obtaining additional funds in the European budget, as shadow rapporteur for the European budgets for 2022 and 2023, to the development of entrepreneurship education.

”Being an entrepreneur is not easy. You face many challenges. We need to invest more in entrepreneurship education. In the last period we have been working together with Florin Jianu, with colleagues in the National Council for SMEs to shape a coherent program for entrepreneurship, at European level. We have generated a pilot project worth several million euros which will become a reality at the end of this year. An online platform will be set up with the support of the European Commission where young and not so young entrepreneurs can access mentoring, advice and direct support from European experts so that we can all take advantage of everything that this European space means. We have also worked closely with the National Council for SMEs on several elements. Today, Romania’s employers contribute to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) because, at a time when this Recovery and Resilience Plan was being written, you, together with us, had the courage to fight for the creation of an NRRP Monitoring Council with the participation of social partners”, stressed Romania’s representative in the European Parliament.

The MEP also mentioned a debate about the change of the RRF Regulation, which took place in the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, and the amendment he tabled that allows not only to optimise, but actually to amend the plan in a very short period of about 30 days so that we can include grants for SMEs. It would be normal for the NRRP, if we are talking about the future, about the economy, to have substantial resources for SMEs, both from the state budget and from European funds”, Victor Negrescu said.

Romania’s representative in the European Parliament supported the initiative to establish a European programme in order to create 1 million new start-ups at European level.

Thus, the European Commission has taken up this proposal and, in an event co-organised by MEP Victor Negrescu, the institution has made public its intention to establish a programme for 1 million new entrepreneurs at European level through which they will seek to support private initiative in all Member States.

In fact, Victor Negrescu is the one who amended the European budget to increase the financing allocated to SMEs in the European budget, therefore there will be additional funds at European level for programmes managed by the European Commission dedicated to SMEs.

More than 90% of European and Romanian companies are SMEs and they contribute more than half of Europe’s GDP.