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EN

Enterprise and Industry

SPAIN

SBA Fact Sheet 2013

In a nutshell

The crisis plunged Spain into a deep and prolonged recession between 2008 and 2012, with both large

and small enterprises facing negative growth across the board. Among sectors, constructions and

manufacturing were hit the most. The reforms currently implemented by Spain should have a positive

effect on growth and employment, but their effect will not become evident until 2014. Export performance

by SMEs and large companies will be the main envisioned source of growth on the short and medium

term.

Although faced with significant economic difficulties in recent years, Spanish SMEs have also benefited

from a number of positive policy changes, such as better framework conditions and financial support for

entrepreneurs, and improvements to the bankruptcy framework providing alternatives to insolvency

proceeding for firms in distress. Equally, the transposition and application of EU law is comparatively

faster in Spain than in the EU on average. Notwithstanding this positive policy developments, further

enhancing Spains SBA performance will require significant improvements in access to credit, state aidand public procurement for SMEs, areas which still trail the European averages by considerable margins.

About the SBA Fact Sheets1

TheSmall Business Actfor Europe (SBA) is the EUs flagship policy initiative to support small and medium -

sized enterprises (SMEs). It comprises a set of policy measures organized around ten principles ranging

from Entrepreneurship, to Responsive administration to Internationalisation. As a move to improve the

governance of the Small Business Act, the 2011 review of the Small Business Act asked for an improved

monitoring. The SBA Fact-Sheets are produced annually and aim to improve understanding of recent trends

and national policies affecting SMEs. Since 2011, each EU Member State has appointed a high-rankinggovernment official as its national SME envoy. SME envoys spearhead the implementation of the SBA

agenda in their countries.
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Spain.svghttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/

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SBA Fact Sheet 2013Spain 2

1. SMEs in Spain basic figures

The small and medium sized enterprises are major

players in the Spanish economy, owing to their

significant contribution to the total economic value

added and, in particular, to the large share of

workforce they employ. The sectors profile differs

from the average one in the EU by displaying a strong

reliance on the smallest of enterprises. The micro-firms in Spain employ comparatively more people

(39.8% vs. 29.7% in the EU) and generate more value

added (27.5% as compared to 21.5% in the EU). Like

elsewhere in the EU, the SMEs are found particularly

in wholesale and retail trade, communication,

business services and construction.

Spanish firms are specialised in low-tech

manufacturing (manufacturing of food products and

beverages, textiles and wearing apparel, furniture,

etc.) and less-knowledge-intensive services(trade,

accommodation and food services, travel agencies,

etc.). High value added sectors such as high-tech

manufacturing and knowledge intensive services are

still under-represented in terms of the number of firms,

employment and value added, putting a dent in the

competitiveness of the overall economy. The desired

transition towards more knowledge-intensive activities

is still hampered by the lack of further liberalization of

professional services, which should allow freedom of

access and exercise of high value-added activities

such as the liberal professions.The crisis had a significant impact on the

development of the business economy and has

immersed Spain, the fourth biggest economy in the

Eurozone, into a deep and protracted recession

between 2008 and 2012. All companies - large

enterprises (LEs) and SMEs - experienced negative

growth across the board. Many of the traditional

problems faced by SMEs lack of financing, low

productivity, etc. have become more acute, leading

to an accentuated deceleration for SMEs as

compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, being

particularly dependent on the domestic market, SMEs

in Spain suffered further when national consumption

plunged as a result of the housing boom and the

subsequent cuts.

At the sector level, the manufacturing segment has

been particularly hit, with a drop of 30% in value

added and number of employees for SMEs between

2008 and 2012. The main reason is that the

automotive sector and its associated industriessuffered from weak demand in Europe and high

labour costs. Another sector which stands out even

more in negative terms is construction. The value

added generated by SMEs, as well as the workforce

in construction, more than halved since 2008. In spite

of this dramatic drop, the sector still holds the third

rank among SMEs in the Spanish business economy

in terms of value added and employment (both

between 13% and 14%) in 2012. This negative

development was clearly caused by the bursting of the

housing bubble. Moreover, the late payments to

suppliers by many regional and local administrations

also accentuated this decline in the construction

EU 27 EU 27 EU27

Num be r Share S h a r e Num be r Share S h a r e Billion Share S h a r e

Micro 2.103.390 93,8% 92,2% 4.318.258 39,8% 29,7% 121 27,5% 21,5%

Small 120.940 5,4% 6,5% 2.297.597 21,2% 20,6% 91 20,6% 18,6%

Medium-sized 15.484 0,7% 1,1% 1.513.350 13,9% 17,2% 73 16,7% 18,3%

SMEs 2.239.814 99,9% 99,8% 8.129.205 74,9% 67,5% 284 64,8% 58,4%

Large 2.728 0,1% 0,2% 2.731.229 25,1% 32,5% 154 35,2% 41,6%

Total 2.242.542 100,0% 100,0% 10.860.434 100,0% 100,0% 439 100,0% 100,0%

Estimates for 2012, based on 2008-2010 figures from the Structural Business Statistics Database (Eurostat). The estimated have been

produced by London Economics. The data cover the 'bus iness economy' which includes industry, constructions, trade, and services(NACE Rev. 2 sections B to J, L, M and N). The data do not cover the enterprises in agriculture, forestry, fishing and the largely

nonmarket services such as education and health. The advantage of using Eurostat data is that the statistics from different countries

have been harmonised and are comparable across countries. The disadvantage is that for some countries these data may be different

from data published by national authorities.

Number of enterprises Num ber of employees Value added

Spain Spain Spain

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business of SMEs. The Government approved in

2012 a set of measures aimed at regularizing the

arrears accumulated by regional and local

government until 1st of January 2012. This

mechanism injected around 27 billionof liquidity to

government suppliers.

Given the countrys dire economic straits, the

negative developments in business demographics

are not surprising, with corporate bankruptcies

running at three times pre-crisis levels. Spanish

bankruptcies consistently rose throughout the crisis

period, from 2528 in 2008 to 7799 in 2012, and arelikely to continue rising in 2013. These figures are

low when compared to the total number of

enterprises in Spain; however they do not paint the

whole picture. In addition to bankruptcies, which

account for insolvent corporations who cannot repay

their debts to creditors, voluntary deregistrations of

firms also occurred frequently. In 2012, more than

334 000 new firms were registered in Spain, of which

more than 75% solo-entrepreneurs. At the same

time, the number of deregistrations was of 391 000,

leading to a significant negative net effect of 57

0002firms.

The forecast for the future does not give reasons for

optimism. The reforms implemented by Spain are

expected to halt the negative trends experienced

since the beginning of the crisis and start deploying

positive effects on growth and employment.

However, the economic situation remains

challenging.

In these conditions of insufficient and declining

domestic demand, it is widely acknowledged that

Spain needs to look for export demand as a

source of growth and that SMEs have a strong role

to play.

SME trends in Spain3

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2. Spains SBA profile

In 2012, Spain maintains a sub-average SBA profile.

The country does well in a few of the areas measured

e.g. second chance, think small first and single

market. Although they were faced with significant

economic difficulties in recent years, Spanish SMEs

have also benefited from a number of positive policychanges, such as the improvements to the bankruptcy

legislation which provided alternatives to insolvency

proceeding. Equally, the transposition and application

of EU law is comparatively faster in Spain than in the

EU. Notwithstanding these, further enhancing Spains

SBA performance will require significant

improvements in access to credit, state aid and public

procurement for SMEs, areas which trail the European

averages by considerable margins.

The development of indicators measuring variousaspects of SME policy and performance indicate

progressand in some cases important leaps forward

for a number of areas. Best improvements have

been achieved in the transposition of EU law and in

fostering a more entrepreneurial culture, while access

to affordable financing, public procurement and state

aid for small businesses has become more difficult in

the context of the financial and economic crisis. For

the other principles of the Small Business Act, the

status quo of 2008 is more or less maintained.

In 20124, Spain continued to implement the Small

Business Act agenda at a sustained pace. Based on

the structural reforms announced for 2012/2013, the

new Spanish administration has adopted a specific

strategy for the implementation of the Small Business

Act. As part of this strategy, a new consultative body

should be created in 2013 - the National SME Council

(Consejo estatal del Emprendimiento y de la PYME)

with the aim to monitor de implementation of the SBA.

In 2012, improving access to finance was a clear

public policy priority. The administration has launched

various measures to increase access to finance for

SMEs, including the Credit Lines of the Institute of

Official Credit to cover the risk of collateral credit

schemes for SMEs and the Plan to pay suppliers

(Plan de Pago a Provedores) which aimed to improve

liquidity for SMEs by tackling the arrears of local and

regional administrations. The plan has already helped

ease the liquidity problems of 30.000 SMEs suppliers

to regional governments and 115.000 SMEs suppliers

to local administrations.

As regards future priorities for SME policy, three

projets are considered highly important and have

already been announced for 2013. Firstly, the draft

Law on Market Unity (Ley de Unidad de Mercado)

aims to improve the business environment by

ensuring the free circulation of goods and services

within Spains domestic market. Secondly, the

Programme of quality and administrative simplification

(Programa de calided y simplification normativa)

should ensure the reduction of the administrative

procedures. Finally, the setup of an

Internationalization agency (Agencia de

Internacionalizacion) should help coordinating and

fructifying the synergies between various public

bodies and measures to spur export in SMEs and to

attract foreign investors to Spain.

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Spains SBA performance: Status quo and development over 2008-20135

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I. Entrepreneurship

In 2012, Spain continued to improve its score in

entrepreneurship but remains still below the EU

average. On the one hand, the intensity of

entrepreneurial activity as measured the share of self-

employed (16%) or the share of adults who either own

a business or are taking the steps to start one (27%)

are both above the EU-average. On the other hand,

their entrepreneurial endeavours maybe somewhat

lacking quality since a majority of Spanish business

owners have been pushed into entrepreneurship bythe necessity of finding means to sustain themselves

and their families, in the context of a stringent lack of

opportunities on the labour market. In fact, most

Spaniards would prefer wage-earning jobs, as

attested by a lower-than-average entrepreneurship

intention and preference for self-employment in 2012.

Adding to that, would-be entrepreneurs are further

inhibited from launching new companies by the lack of

start-up funding and by an overall not too positive

entrepreneurial culture. The public perceptionsuggests that entrepreneurship is less valued and

admired than in other EU countries, while the

frequency of reporting about entrepreneurship stories

in the media gets closer to the EU-average. On a

more positive note, it seems that the education

system has better results in instilling in youngsters the

entrepreneurial values of independence, self-

confidence or decision making in situations of risks.

On the policy side, the plan to support

entrepreneurship (Entrepreneurs Plan) was adopted

in February 2013 (Royal Decree-Law 4/2013 Support

Measures for Entrepreneurs and Encouraging Growth

and Job Creation) and a new Law supportingEntrepreneurs and their Internationalisation will be

approved in 2013 (APLEI). It aims to support

entrepreneurship through the creation of a regime of

limited liability for entrepreneurs, implement measures

to support second chance, adopt improved

procedures to set up a business, and develop training

programs on how to start an innovative and

entrepreneurial activity.

The Emprendemos Juntos Programme was adopted

in 2012. The programme works as a platform tosupport innovation initiatives at regional and local

level, by combining the efforts of universities, clusters

and networks of innovation centres.

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The Plan to pay suppliers also contains fiscal and

social security contribution incentives for

entrepreneurs, under the Contract to Support

Entrepreneurship (Contrato de Apoyo a

Emprendedores).

Finally, the Centres for entrepreneurship support

aimed to increase cooperation among existing

business promotion centres by financing initiatives

proposed in collaboration by three members from

three different centres. From an overall budget of

1,63 million, 41 projects were financed. The supported

activities included training, tutoring and advisory

services on the business plans, provision of

information about public support programs, fiscal and

legal matters, etc.

II. Second chance

Second Chance is the best performing area on

Spains SBA profile, owing to the reforms of

bankruptcy legislation implemented in the previous

years. Hence, it is substantially faster to resolve

business insolvency in Spain: 1.5 years compared to

almost 2 years on average in the EU. The cost to

close a business, measured as the share of the

debtors estate necessary for recovering debt, is on

par. Finally and more importantly, the social rejection

of business failure that stigmatises the entrepreneur

who has failed, rather than encouraging him/her tolearn from this experience, has been losing ground in

Spain, despite the countrys dire economic straits.

Hence, the support for a second chance for honest

entrepreneurs has been growing since 2009, and it is

now - at 90% - significantly above the EU-average.

On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were

reported in 2012. However, measures in the pipeline

include the possibility of an extra-judicial agreement

for settlement payments allowing bankrupt

entrepreneurs a fresh start, and the reform of the

federal register for individuals in bankruptcy.

These measures are included in the Draft Project of

Law to Support Entrepreneurs and their

Internationalization.

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III. Think small first

Based on the available indicators, Spain scores better

than the EU in this area. One caveat is that the

indicators where Spain is ahead are old (2008) and

based on self-reporting. When analysing

entrepreneurs perceptions, the conclusion is that

businesses in Spain have a comparatively higher

burden of government regulations than their European

peers.

On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were

reported in 2012. This comes on the backdrop of

significant policy activity in previous years, the most

notable being the full and mandatory introduction in

2010 of impact assessments into the legislative

system. However, the SME stakeholders pinpoint that

laws and regulations still do not sufficiently

differentiate between different enterprise size-groups,

thereby putting smaller businesses in a disadvantaged

position as compared to larger firms.

The APLEI contains a number of measures to reduce

administrative burden on companies, in addition to the

above mentioned extension of the express licence

regime to more premises in more economic sectors.

In this sense, it establishes a one in one out clause,

guaranteeing that at least one burden of equivalent

cost is removed for each administrative burdenintroduced; speeds up the time and simplifies certain

procedures to start up a business; establishes a single

contact point through which all procedures for starting

up and running a business can be completed and

reduces statistical and accounting obligations.

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IV. Responsive administration

Spains score in Responsive Administration is rather

poor, showing a real need to further simplify

administrative procedures. Despite recent

improvements, the process of starting a business is

significantly more time consuming than in the EU,

although it is less costly. The other indicators

important for the day-to-day operation of business

the time to transfer property, the cost necessary to

enforce contracts, the time and number of procedures

for paying taxes - paint a positive picture, being higheror on par with the EU-average. One notable exception

is the licensing system, where Spain has the highest

level of complexity in the EU.

As concerns licenses, in May 2012 the government

generalised the use of the express license regime,

whereby a declaration is enough to launch the

economic activity, in the case of small and medium

retail and other service premises. Up to this date, it

was up to Autonomous Regions whether to establish

in their territory the express licence regime, and todecide the premises that could benefit of this

simplified regime (Law 12/2012 on boosting retail

activities). The government extend this regime to

larger outlets (increasing the threshold from 300 to

500 square meters), as well as to more industrial and

service activities, with the APLEI to support

entrepreneurs and their internationalisation.

The licensing complexity index measures the

economic impact of legal and administrative

procedures for post-registration licensing. It takes into

account all direct and indirect costs, the internal

company effort and the time out-of-market required for

a new company to get the necessary licenses to startoperating. It should be noted that in Spain the high

level of the index derives from responses that were

given prior to some improvements that have been

implemented in administrative licensing procedures.

Thus, "statements of responsibility" have replaced

"licenses" in many instances which have led to shorter

processing times and costs. However, this recent

change does not appear to be sufficiently known by

the business community.

Policy-wise, no major initiatives were reported for2012. However, for 2013, the Government has

announced a Programme of quality and administrative

simplification (Programa de calidad y simplificacion

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normativa), which should contribute to the reduction of

the administrative procedures.

The Spanish government has set up a commission for

the reform of public administration. Reform, which is

the working group to develop a program of

administrative simplification, to eliminate red tape,

simplify rules and procedures and to avoid duplication

through four sub-commissions: Administrative

duplication, Administrative simplification, Common

management of public services and facilities and

Institutional Management. This working group has just

presented its work on June 21, 2013. This report

presents a total of 217 proposals to reform the

Spanish public administration.

V. State aid & Public procurement

Spains overall score on state aid and public

procurement trails the EU average and does not show

signs of catching up. Small and medium-sized

enterprises in Spain account for a slightly lower

proportion of the value of public procurement

contracts than in the EU 33% vs 38%. Nevertheless,this is significantly lower than the contribution they

bring to the economic value added (65% of value

added). Moreover, SMEs in Spain like most small

businesses across the European Union benefit only

marginally from state aid schemes, with SMEs

receiving just about 2% of total aid in 2011. However,

arguably the most problematic area for Spanish

business compared to the EU as a whole is the delays

incurred by public authorities in paying invoices to

their suppliers. In 2012, they took on average 80 days

more than the contractual terms to pay their bills. This

average has gone up from 66 days the previous year,

and is significantly longer than the EU average of 29

days.

On the policy front, the most important measure is

the Plan to Pay Suppliers (Plan de Pago a

Provedores), with an allocated amount of 27.000M,

which has helped around 30.000 SMEs suppliers to

regional governments and 115.000 SMEs suppliers to

local administrations.

By the Royal Decree-Law 4/2013, establishing a new

phase of the funding mechanism and aimed at

regularizing the arrears regional-local governments

built up before 1 January 2012. Furthermore this

mechanism has been extended to 2013 with anallocation of 2.7bn, In addition, the government set up

in June 2012 a voluntary scheme to enable the

centralisation of public debt issuance in Spain, to

provide liquidity to regional governments. This

mechanism has provided 17bn to regional

administrations in 2012, of which 6.7bn have been

used for payments to SMEs.

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VI. Access to finance

In 2012, the credit crunch for small firms in Spain has

worsened, causing economic hardship and eating

away at the prospects for future growth. After an initial

loosening of credit conditions and standards between

2009 to 2011, these have significantly tighten up in

2012. Hence, the proportion of rejected loans has

increased from 16% to 21%, and more Spanishbusiness owners reported deterioration in the banks

willingness to provide loans. Access to public financialsupport including guarantees has also diminished,

with 57% of Spaniards as compared to only 26% of

the other Europeans reporting deterioration in 2012.

The relatively limited availability of venture capital is a

further limit to the scope for highly innovative

companies to grow in the early stages of their

development. Finally, the excessively long payment

periodsexacerbate the liquidity problems that

businesses in Spain face. On a brighter note,

however, the institutions and systems that can

facilitate access to finance, such as credit registry

bureaus, and the legal rights system are as solid as in

most other EU countries.

Moreover, Spain has timely transposed the Late

Payments Directive through Royal Decree Law 4/2013

of February 22, whose effective implementation is

critical to avoid the build-up of additional arrears.

In 2012, several measures were either implemented,

adopted or formally announced to address the

growing challenges facing SMEs in accessing finance.

A significant measure was the budget increase for

Financing Lines of the Institute of Official Credit (ICO),

with an allocated amount of 22.000 million. The

programme covers the risk of collateral credit

schemes for financing innovative projects of SMEs.

The ENISA Growth Lines (Lineas de Financiacion de

la Empresa Nacional de Innovacion (ENISA)) is also

worth mentioning. The programme provides a growth

fund (Fondo Pyme de expansion) targeting SMEs with

high growth potential.

The Support to Business Angel Networks (Impulso a

las Redes de Business Angels) was also extended anadditional year increasing its budget by 50% and

promoting the creation of new networks. Finally, the

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Government formally announced that the European

Investment Fund (EIF) and AXIS, the venture capital

branch of the ICO, have launched EAF-Fondo Isabel

La Catlica, as part of the pan-European European

Angels Fund (EAF) initiative intended to promote new

non-banking sources of finance for entrepreneurs.

VII. Single market

Spain scores above the EU average, thanks to faster-

than-average speed in the transposition of EU and

internal market legislation into national law. Spain has

fewer directives waiting to be transposed and lower

accumulated transposition delays. However, the

indicators measuring SMEs trading record within theinternal market shows Spain still trailing the other EU

countries, despite some absolute improvements in the

shares of SMEs doing exports or imports with other

EU-countries from 2009 to 2010. This suggests that

there still are some unexploited opportunities of

trading within the single market for Spanish firms. The

main barriers for SMEs to access the internal market

concern the lack of access to finance and knowledge

about new markets, including specific advisory

services target to the needs of small businesses. The

Spanish government considers that overall the

available instruments for promoting exports are

working well. In 2012, the programmes APEX and

ICEX PIPE were merged into the new programme

ICEX-next, which provides personalized expert advice

and financial support to promote the

internationalisation of SMEs . Spain also plans to

develop new comprehensive plans to develop

exporting markets in 2013, with a focus on Asian

markets

In 2012, no major policy initiatives were reported in

this area.

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VIII. Skills and innovation

Spain is trailing the EU average in skills andinnovation. All but one of the core innovation

indicators are below par. Hence, SMEs in Spain are

less likely than their peers in the EU to introduce

product or process innovations, collaborate with each

other or innovate in house. However, the firms that do

innovate have a higher ability to translate innovative

products and services into consistent streams of

revenue. Given these results, SME stakeholders

argue that more emphasis on supporting the

development of innovative, competitive products and

services is needed. Their opinion is that there iscurrently too much focus on purely R&D activities and

not enough on bringing these to market, by

transforming them into commercial products and

services. SME targeted funding programmes, offering

both long-term and short-term public support, are

necessary. In addition, better coordinated and more

efficient policies facilitating knowledge transfer to

SMEs, based on the actual value-chain needs and

market demands, would be a useful means of

encouraging more private investment in innovation.

On other indicators, Spanish SMEs perform on par

with the EU, such as on their IT readiness, as defined

by their ability to sell their products and make

purchases on-line.

The two indicators measuring training and skills

development also reveal modest results: although

Spanish micro firms are just as likely to ensure that

their employees participate in lifelong learning

activities as their peers in other EU countries, the

proportion of enterprises providing vocational training

to their employees is much lower than the EU average

(7% vs. 24%) in 2010.This confirms that RDI funding is not the only element

required to boost innovation. In order to innovate and

develop new products and services, SMEs need to

acquire the necessary business skills to be able to

obtain funding for their innovative projects. For this,

stronger links between universities and industry

players need to be established. Currently in Spain

talent is not properly connected with the relevant

actors in the business world. This could be achieved

through the improved use of institutions promoting

innovation such as technology parks, university

research centres, incubators, and centres of

excellence, etc.

On the policy front, in 2012 the Centre for SMEs of

Intellectual Property Rights protectionwas created to

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offer free training and advisory services to protect the intellectual property rights of the SMEs.

IX. Environment

Spain performs slightly better than average on this

aspect. Despite having less access to public support

measures, Spanish SMEs are more likely, compared

to the European average, to take measures toincrease their resource efficiency. The opposite is the

case for green markets. While more SMEs benefit

from public support measures to develop green

products and services, relatively fewer of them have

been successful in their endeavour, or they are still in

early phases of development, before the product

reaches the market. Only 23% of SMEs report theyoffer green products to their customers (compared to

26% in the EU) and even less (17%) generate morethan 50% of their revenues this way.On the policy front, no major policy initiatives were

reported in 2012.

X. Internationalization

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Spain lags slightly behind the EU-average ininternationalisation. This situation is influenced by the

general framework conditions for trading, as Spain

appears more bureaucratic than other EU countries.

However, although the costs of trading are higher, this

does not appear to influence the time required to

import or export, which is shorter than in the EU.

The indicators measuring Spains performance on

third markets were in 2010 on par with the EU-

average, after notable improvements in the SMEs

imports and exports from/to third countries. Still, SME

stakeholders are of the opinion that the international

potential of Spanish SMEs is much higher than the

current figures show. This calls for improved public

policies in this area. More specifically, they believe

that the amount of financial support is not sufficient

and the infrastructure not very well dispersed. The

other main barriers to internationalization are cultural

and reflect a lack of sufficient knowledge of

promissing third markets.

On the policy front, internationalisation is now

appropriately singled out as one of the priorities of thenew administration in Spain. The establishment of the

Agencia de Internacionalizacin (SECEX) was

announced in 2013 and is considered to be a step

forward. The agency is meant to coordinate and take

advantage of the synergies of the public bodies and

public measures to facilitate the export of SMEs and

to attract foreign investors to Spain.

The Spanish government considers that overall the

available instruments for promoting exports are

working well. In 2012, the programmes APEX andICEX PIPE were merged into the new programme

ICEX-next, which provides personalized expert advice

and financial support to promote the

internationalisation of SMEs . Spain also plans to

develop new comprehensive plans to develop

exporting markets in 2013, with a focus on Asian

markets. The eleven plans adopted between 2008

and 2011 are assessed as very successful since they

have almost doubled the exports to the targeted

markets. Spain has also strengthened the links

between internationalisation and innovation by

integrating the external network of the Centre for

industrial technological development into ICEX

network. Furthermoreinally, the government plans to

adopt by 2013 a new law on chambers of commerce

to enhance their role in supporting internationalisation

of businesses.

Finally, the new Law supporting Entrepreneurs and

their Internationalisation will be approved in 2013.

Among other goals, this legal project promotes the

internationalisation of companies and entrepreneurs

through different measures: the definition of the

Strategic Plan for Internationalisation of Spanish

Economy, the strengthening of internationalisation

support bodies, the improvement of financial

instruments to support internationalisation and the

promotion of greater access by Spanish companies to

public tender projects of international financial

institutions in other countries. This new law will also

foster the attraction of investment and talent to Spain,

by facilitating and speeding up issue of resident

permits for specific investors (among others,

entrepreneurs engaged in innovative activities with a

special economic interest and highly qualified

professionals).

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3. Good practice

To show what the government does to promote SMEs, we include an example of good practice:

Two access to finance initiatives which aim to bring liquidity in the market and directly help SMEs have been

identified as best practices:

Firstly, the Directorate general for Industry and SMEs together with CERSA and the Institute of Official Credit

(ICO) developed the ICO Lines (Lineas de Financiacion the Institute of Official Credit) in 2012, with a

budget of 22 000 million. Developed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme of the EU, they

cover the risk of collateral credit schemes for SMEs in order to easen access to finance for innovative

projects of new enterprises. The programme grants guarantees as collateral for the financial needs of SMEs.

Secondly, the Plan to pay suppliers (Plan de Pago a Provedores), with a budget of 27 000 million,intends to create liquidity for SMEs suppliers to the administrations from the autonomous regions and local

authorities. The plan has already helped ease the liquidity problems of 30 000 SMEs suppliers to regional

governments and 115 000 SMEs suppliers to local administrations.

About the SBA Fact Sheets

The Small Business Act (SBA) Fact Sheets are produced by DG ENTR as part of the SME Performance

Review (SPR), which is its main vehicle providing an economic analysis of SME issues. They combine the

latest available statistical and policy information for the 28 EU Member States and another 9 non-Member

States which also contribute to the EUs Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). TheFact Sheets produced annually help to organise the available information to facilitate SME policy

assessments and monitor SBA implementation. They document the status quo and progress. They are not

an assessment of Member State policies but should be regarded as an additional source of information

designed to improve evidence-based policy making. For example, the Fact Sheets cite only those policy

measures deemed relevant by local SME policy experts. They do not, and cannot, reflect all measures taken

by the government over the reference period. More policy information can be found on a database

accessible from the SPR website. Please also see the end notes overleaf.

For more information

SME Performance Review:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htm

Small Business Act:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htm

The European Small Business Portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/small-business/index_en.htm

[email protected]
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/small-business/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/small-business/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/small-business/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htm

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SBA Fact Sheet 2013 Spain 17

1 The SBA Fact Sheets 2013 benefited substantially from input by the European Commissions Joint

Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy. The JRC made major improvements to the methodological approach,

statistical work on the dataset and the visual presentation of the data.

2http://www.ico.es/webcomercial/portal.

3The three graphs below describe the trend over time for the variables. They consist of index values for the

years since 2008, with the base year 2008 set at a value of 100. As from 2011, the graphs show estimates of

the development over time, based on 2008-2010 figures from the Structural Business Statistics Database

(Eurostat). The estimates were produced by London Economics. The data cover the business economy,

which includes industry, construction, trade, and services (NACE Rev. 1.1 Sections C to I, K). The data do

not cover enterprises in agriculture, forestry, fishing or largely non-market services, such as education and

health. A detailed methodology can be consulted at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-

figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htm

4The policy measures presented in this SBA Fact Sheet represent only a selection of the measures taken by

the government in 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. The selection was made by the SME policy country

expert contracted by CARSA Spain (DG ENTRs lead contractor for the 2013 Fact Sheets). The experts were

asked only to select those measures that, in their view, were the most important, i.e. were expected to have

the highest impact in the specific SBA area. The complete range of measures that the experts compiled in

the framework of producing this years Fact Sheets will be published in the form of a policy database on the

DG ENTR website alongside the Fact Sheets.

5The quadrant chart combines two sets of information: firstly it shows the status quo performance based on

data for the latest available years. This information is plotted along the X-axis measured in standard

deviations of the simple, non-weighted arithmetical average for EU-27. The vertical corridor marked by the

dotted lines defines the EU average. Secondly, it reveals progress over time, i.e. the average annual growth

rates for the period 2007-2012. The growth rates are those of the individual indicators which make up the

SBA area averages. Hence, the location of a particular SBA area average in any of the four quadrants

provides not only status quo information about where the country is located in this SBA area relative to the

rest of the EU at a given point in time, but also to the extent of progress made in the period 2008-2013.
http://www.ico.es/webcomercial/portalhttp://www.ico.es/webcomercial/portalhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htmhttp://www.ico.es/webcomercial/portal

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