【正文】 stors and lenders。? improving the regulatory environment for SME finance.Based on these principles and against the background of the changing environment for SME finance, UEAPME proposes policy measures in the following areas:1. New Capital Requirement Directive: SME friendly implementation of Basel IIDue to intensive lobbying activities, UEAPME, together with other Business Associations in Europe, has achieved some improvements in favour of SMEs regarding the new Basel Agreement on regulatory capital (Basel II). The final agreement from the Basel Committee contains a much more realistic approach toward the real risk situation of SME lending for the finance market and will allow the necessary room for adaptations, which respect the different regional traditions and institutional structures.However, the new regulatory system will influence the relations between Banks and SMEs and it will depend very much on the way it will be implemented into European law, whether Basel II bees burdensome for SMEs and if it will reduce access to finance for them.The new Capital Accord form the Basel Committee gives the financial market authorities and herewith the European Institutions, a lot of flexibility. In about 70 areas they have room to adapt the Accord to their specific needs when implementing it into EU law. Some of them will have important effects on the costs and the accessibility of finance for SMEs.UEAPME expects therefore from the new European Commission and the new European Parliament:? The implementation of the new Capital Requirement Directive will be costly for the Finance Sector (up to 30 Billion Euro till 2006) and its clients will have to pay for it. Therefore, the implementation – especially for smaller banks, which are often very active in SME finance – has to be carried out with as little administrative burdensome as possible (reporting obligations, statistics, etc.).? The European Regulators must recognize traditional instruments for collaterals (guarantees, etc.) as far as possible.? The European Commission and later the Member States should take over the remendations from the European Parliament with regard to granularity, access to retail portfolio, maturity, partial use, adaptation of thresholds, etc., which will ease the burden on SME finance.2. SMEs need transparent rating proceduresDue to higher risk awareness of the finance sector and the needs of Basel II, many SMEs will be confronted for the first time with internal rating procedures or credit scoring systems by their banks. The bank will require more and better quality information from their clients and will assess them in a new way. Both uping developments are already causing increasing uncertainty amongst SMEs. In order to reduce this uncertainty and to allow SMEs to understand the principles of the new risk assessment, UEAPME demands transparent rating procedures – rating procedures may not bee a “Black Box” for SMEs:? The bank should municate the relevant criteria affecting the rating of SMEs.? The bank should inform SMEs about its assessment in order to allow SMEs to improve.The negotiations on a European Code of Conduct between Banks and SMEs , which would have included a selfmitment for transparent rating procedures by Banks, failed. Therefore, UEAPME expects from the new European Commission and the new European Parliament support for:? binding rules in the framework of the new Capital Adequacy Directive, which ensure the transparency of rating procedures and credit scoring systems for SMEs。? Elaboration of national Codes of Conduct in order to improve the relations between Banks and SMEs and to support the adaptation of SMEs to the new financial environment.3. SMEs need an extension of credit guarantee systems with a special focus on MicroLendingBusiness startups, the transfer of businesses and innovative fast growth SMEs also depended in the past very often on public support to get access to finance. Increasing risk awareness by banks and the stricter interpretation of State Aid Rules will further increase the need for public support.Already now, there are credit guarantee schemes in many countries on the limit of their capacity and too many investment projects cannot be realized by SMEs. Experiences show that Public money, spent for supporting credit guarantees systems, is a very efficient instrument and has a much higher multiplying effect than other instruments. One Euro form the European Investment Funds can stimulate 30 Euro investments in SMEs (for venture capital funds the relation is only 1:2).Therefore, UEAPME expects the new European Commission and the new European Parliament to support:? The extension of funds for national credit guarantees schemes in the framework of the new MultiAnnual Programmed for Enterprises。? The development of new instruments for securitizations of SME portfolios。? The recognition of existing and well functioning credit guarantees schemes as collateral。? More flexibility within the European Instruments, because of national differences in the situation of SME finance。? The development of credit guarantees schemes in the new Member States。? The development of an SBIClike scheme in the Member States to close the equity gap ( – Mio Euro, according to the expert meeting on PACE on April 27 in Luxemburg).? the development of a financial support scheme to encourage the internalizations of SMEs (currently there is no scheme available at EU level: termination of JOP, fading out of JEV).4. SMEs need pany and ine taxation systems, which strengthen their capacity for selffinancing Many EU Member States have pany and ine taxation systems with negative incentives to buildup capital within the pany by reinvesting their profits. This is especially true for panies, which have to pay ine taxes. Already in the past taxregimes was one of the reasons for the higher dependence of Europe’s SMEs on bank lending. In future, th