The potential of small family and traditional businesses to boost development and economic growth in the regions (own-initiative opinion)

Key points:

The EESC

  • aims to have a closer look at and provide an analysis of the challenges that small family and traditional businesses (SFTBs) are facing;
  • encourages the European Commission to consider ways of supporting and promoting SFTBs, as these businesses are the key element in the creation of new activities and in income generation in resource-constrained areas;
  • believes that there is a lot of potential for development in many regions which are still lagging and that this underutilised potential could be realised through local SFTBs;
  • alls on the Commission to pay attention to the fact that SFTBs have been negatively affected by recent economic and industrial developments and trends;
  • is concerned that support policy instruments do not focus on SFTBs and it is unlikely that they will benefit significantly from them;
  • welcomes the European Commission's intention to revise the definition of an SME as the current definition is already outdated;
  • believes it is important that SFTBs be recognised as a specific subgroup since they typically suffer the most from market failures.