Single market omnibus: more sizes fit all

Today the European Commission presented its proposal to give a common European definition of “small mid-cap enterprises”. Mid-caps companies are bigger than SMEs, which have less than 250 employees, but smaller than the big multinationals with over thousands of employees. This new category of mid-caps will encompass companies with more than 250 employees and less than 750 employees. That makes up around 40 000 companies in Europe. Those companies will enjoy regulatory relief from several existing EU laws.

The creation of this new category will also assuage fears about the so-called "threshold effect", i.e. the fact of being suddenly snowed under a lot of administrative obligations when crossing the 250 employees threshold and going from small to big. For instance, should a small mid-cap wish to be listed on the stock exchanges, they will benefit from a lighter disclosure regime than big companies, meaning that they will have less information to provide to potential investors. Growing a business in Europe will thus be made easier.

This new category of small mid-caps will systematically be considered when new laws are being prepared.

Svenja Hahn, our coordinator in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee, said : “The Commission’s proposal would ease the bureaucratic burden on many companies in the EU. This is an important step to give European companies the breathing space they need, so they can focus on what they do best: to innovate and produce.”