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Environmental Protection: European Environmental Policy Impacts on SMEs Markus Stahl, HWK Mnchen

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Title: Environmental Protection: European Environmental Policy Impacts on SMEs Markus Stahl, HWK Mnchen


1
Environmental ProtectionEuropean
Environmental Policy Impacts on SMEs Markus
Stahl, HWK München
PHARE Business Support Programme of the European
Union UEAPME - SME FIT II
2
Structure
  • Session Introduction
  • A. Introduction to background information
    regarding EU environmental policy
  • Session Checklist
  • B. Localization and identification of corporate
    need for actionQuestionnaire for SMEs
  • Session Funding - Support
  • C. Focus areas of EU support for SMEs (2007
    13)
  • D. Financial help and counseling by the
    commission, especially SMEs
  • E. Further suggestions for researching
    company-specific information

3
A. Introduction of background information
  • Why do we concern ourselves with European
    environmental policy and its effects on small and
    medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?
  • Concerns and aims of today
  • A. Introduction to and awareness-raising for
    demands, chances and risks of European
    environmental policy
  • B. Identify and name individual fields of action
    for SMEs
  • C. European structural funds and their aims
    short portraits
  • D. Getting to know and discussing concrete
    financial help by the European Commission
  • E. Suggestions for further, company-specific
    research

4
A. Introduction to European demands and
awareness-raising for chances and risks
  • Basic principles of EU-environmental policy
  • Prevention and avoidance of ecological pollution
    is the basic principle of European environmental
    policy
  • No support of end of pipe- technologies is
    intended, but the development and use of
  • - resource- and environmentally friendly methods,
  • - products and services,
  • which pursues the aim of introducing and
    developing optimized cycles of materials and
    processes

5
Focus areas of the 6th EAP (2002-2012)
  • Climate change
  • Nature and biological diversity
  • Environment and health
  • Natural resources and waste
  • with seven thematic strategies
  • air, waste and recycling, marine environment,
    soil, pesticides, natural resources, rural
    development

6
Ecologically sound corporate action also for
SMEs
  • Basis of integrated product policy
  • accession of new market segments by developing
    new ecologically relevant products and services
  • Internal use of ecologically relevant materials
  • Introduction of environmental stocktaking in
    regard to ecological work processes
  • Ecological optimisation of product lifecycles as
    a company-wide task of production and
    administration

7
Legal situation no exceptions for SMEs
  • Which responsibilities result from environmental
    policy?
  • Regulations super-ordinate law for all EU-
    member states - obligatory for SMEs, e.g.
    European regulations have the character of
    minimal standards and have to be followed by all.
  • Directives are at the moment still facultative
    but will in the medium-term after a period of
    transition become compulsive as well
  • e.g. disposal of cars and producer liability for
    components.
  • Thereby they will become obligatory also for SMEs
    on a medium-term perspective.
  • Resolutions
  • SMEs which have direct contact with hazardous
    substance have to comply to the already existing
    resolutions.

8
Fields of action in environmental policy for the
EU Commission
  • Air and exhaust air
  • Prevention and disposal of waste, as well as
    recycling e.g. of - batteries
  • - electronic components
  • - oil
  • - recycling of cars
  • Materials and chemicals
  • Water and waste water (incl. resulting heat)
  • soil
  • Energy resources and optimised use

9
e.g. prevention of waste and recycling
  • waste management
  • - Batteries and und rechargeable batteries
  • - packaging
  • - electronic components
  • - electronic waste
  • - oils
  • - car-recycling
  • e.g by means of
  • producer liability/ take-back requirement, etc.
  • Which is the legal situation, regulation,
    directive or resolution?

10
Using environmental aspects as a motor
Objective 1 The future-compatible company in
changed market and technology conditions Objecti
ve 2 Strategic positioning and new positioning
of the whole company for future-oriented
activities This contains the maintenance or the
acquisition of regional and supra-regional
customer groups
11
Elements of a production process as part of an
exemplary product cycle
energy
materials
waste and recycling

heat
soil
noise
water/ waste water
air
12
Instruments
Aims of integrative environmental policy
Adaptation and/or development of new products
- adaptation and/or development of new services
- procurement and use of new tools and
materials - Revision of corporate process
organisation - introduction of holistic
product/process cycles
13
Positive point balance from the point of view of
the company
  • Conformity with environmental legislation
  • -avoiding penalties, etc.
  • Acquisition of new markets (sales and
    procurement)
  • - acquisition of new customers and suppliers
  • Realisation of savings potentials in regard to
  • - optimised use of finances and resources by
  • - improved use of materials and work processes
  • Reorganisation of operative work through the
    introduction of product cycles and recycling of
    raw materials
  • Development of staff through further education

14
B. Identifying corporate fields of action
Checklist for SMEs
  • Please use the accompanying documents
    (checklist for companies)
  • Instructions for presentation
  • 1. step individual work
  • Please take your checklist and answer the
    question in written form. Work through the whole
    list from beginning to end. The reference should
    be your own company. You have approximately 20
    minutes for this.
  • 2. step work in small groups
  • Form work groups of up to 4 persons and discuss
    the individual points on the checklist. Talk
    about remaining questions and specify on the
    basis of exchanging experiences in the group
    the individual characteristics of your company.
    If necessary add missing information or write
    down any questions that remain. You have
    approximately 15 minutes for this.
  • 3. step Suggestion for further work
  • Both individual work with the checklist and the
    exchange of experiences in the group should be
    documented in writing. Before the groups start
    working, each group must name a responsible
    person and a speaker for the group.
  • Reporting of on the whole 4-5 corporate cases
    or, respectively, the results of group work will
    be done later in section 4 Exchange of
    experiences about the actual operative situation

15
C. Funding Support from EUEuropean funds
(2007 13)
  • Which EU support opportunities are there in
    support period 2007- 13?
  • Which approaches to support of an environmentally
    sound design of operative work in SMEs can be
    identified?
  • - European Funds for Regional Development
  • European Social Funds
  • European Cohesion Funds

16
European Funds for regional development (EFRE)
  • Aim Balancing regional differences in economic
    power, increasing competitiveness, innovation,
    creation of sustainable jobs and supporting
    environmentally relevant growth in the regions,
    especially
  • Long-term jobs in regions with high unemployment
  • Infrastructure projects, which support regional
    development
  • Local initiatives which support regional economic
    development
  • Tourism and culture projects

17
EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUNDS (ESF)
  • Invests in people and jobs
  • Improvement of corporate human resources
  • Priority of financial support depends on
    assignment to a target area 1-4
  • New European Member states have high priority and
    are currently assigned the highest level of
    support

18
COHESION FUNDS
  • For member states whose gross national product is
    less than 90 of the EU-average, measures are
    financed, which aim at higher energy efficiency
    or trans-European transport networks.
  • For the support period 2007 2013 the following
    countries are eligible
  • Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
  • Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania,
  • Malta, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
  • Slovakia and Slovenia

19
D. Financial helps and counselling by the
Commission, especially for environmental issues
in SMEs
  • Which special programmes are there which offer
    further information and support specific projects
    for and in SMEs by subsidies?
  • LIFE plus
  • JEREMIE (Joint European Resources for Micro to
    Medium Enterprises)
  • CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation framework
    Programme)
  • CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

20
LIFE plus
Exemplary Demonstration projects for energy and
environmental concerns Information campaigns for
raising awareness among stakeholders For energy
and environmental concerns (incl. fire
prevention) No research and development
projects, only dissemination projects! Note very
interesting for transnational consortiums of SMEs
and associations
21
JEREMIE (2007-2013) Joint European Resources
for Micro to Medium EnterprisesTarget group
SMEs on a regional level companies with less
than 10 or, respectively, 50 employees
annual turnover lower than 2 or, respectively,10
Mio. EUR privately owned production
companies Environmental initiatives are an
important focal area. Also counselling and
technical help are eligible for funding.

22
CIP (Framework programme for innovation and
competition)(2007 2013)
  • Focus areas
  • Energy efficiency and renewable energies
  • Promotion of clean energy sources and their use
    by SMEs
  • Access for SMEs through independent evaluators
  • Trainings for SME-employees for the development
    of environmentally relevant competences

23
CSR (Corporate Social Responsability)
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises are the
    predominant form of enterprise in the European
    Union (absolute numbers, contribution to GDP,
    contribution to employment). If Europe and its
    enterprises are to reap the full benefits of CSR,
    it is vital to make sure that SMEs are fully
    engaged and that what they do is fully
    recognised. This is a particular challenge
    because CSR as a term and as a definable business
    concept has been created mainly by and for larger
    companies. The support and encouragement of CSR
    amongst SMEs is one of the priority areas of the
    European Commission's policy on CSR.
  • Internet http//ec.europa.eu/enterprise/csr/sme.h
    tm

24
Environmental concerns as integrated programme
and project aims
  • in basically all focal areas of action of the
    commission, such as e.g.
  • CSR in the area of operating in social
    partnerships
  • Vocational training programmes (Sokrates,
    Leonardo, etc.)
  • Study programmes for trainers
  • Note The effort of applying for this is usually
    too high for a single SME it is much more
    promising to join forces in application-groups or
    to let a bigger association partner with
    experience in carrying out European projects deal
    with the application

25
SME-Portal Online- Instrument for SME-Orientation
  • http//ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sme - (available
    in many languages)
  • This online-tool presents a choice of current
    EU-programmes, which are especially interesting
    for SMEs. Under the heading of finances many
    hints for application-opportunities for SMEs can
    be found.
  • critical note
  • Taking into account the limited resources it
    must be asked how an SME can apply with the
    chance of success in view of
  • - missing experience
  • - long preparation and preliminary times before
    the support starts
  • - high administrative efforts
  • - post-projects efforts for project-controlling
  • - the trend towards a preference for big and
    leading bidder consortiums?

26
Integration principle applies also for
environmental concerns
  • According to the integration principle which
    applies also for environmental policy,
    principally all programmes of the commission are
    open to SMEs.
  • This means that respective environmental aims and
    questions of SMEs can be integrated into all
    general focus areas (e.g. in the area of the ESF
    or special calls for bids in the area of
    vocational training).

27
Current operative situation
  • Instruction for presentation
  • in reference to the previous individual and
    group work (see section 2) now the third step is
    taken, the operative stocktaking by the
    participants.
  • Exemplary reporting and exchange of experiences
    in a plenary session regarding the current
    operative situation
  • Approximately 4 5 persons as speakers of their
    work groups report the results of their operative
    stocktaking in regard to environmental questions
    unsolved questions from the work in small groups
    should also be presented and be discussed by all
    participants.
  • This part of the presentation requires about 30
    minutes. If necessary, more time can be given.
    The trainer must decide here depending on the
    situation (depending on group-size / situation
    /motivation of the participants).

28
E. Further suggestions for specific research
  • Use the training materials for further specific
    answers to your unanswered questions!
  • e.g. useful internet addresses
  • SME-programme of the commission (contains many
    hints towards possibilities of financial support
    and focus areas of support)
  • can be found on the INTERNET under
  • http//www.europa eu environment sme programme
  • site ec.europa.eu
  • - now available in 7 languages
  • Register of harmful substances
    http//europa.eu.int/comm/environment/ippc/eper.ht
    m

29
Additional training components for answering more
detailed and still unsolved questions
  • Group work in topic-centred small groups
  • Together with company counsellors and technology
    experts on the national / regional level
  • Alternatively individual counselling of SMEs

30
Suggestions for further reading
  • Contiero, Marco Your Rights Under the
    Environmental Legislation of the EU, Brussels
    2004
  • http//www.dur.de/publikationen/eur/archiv/euro508
    -09-sh.pdf?PHPSESSID6f6ae692bd29a106a48ba0dd607e2
    414
  • European Commission Buying green! A handbook on
    environmental public procurement, Luxembourg
    2004, http//ec.europa.eu/environment/gpp/pdf/buyi
    ng_green_handbook.en.pdf
  • European Environmental Bureau (EEB)EU
    environmental policy Handbook http//www.eeb.org/p
    ublication/policy_handbook.htm , can be ordered
    at International Books, Grifthoek 151, 3514
    Utrecht, Netherlands, i-books_at_antenna.nl,
    http//www.antenna.nli-books/
  • European Environmental Bureau (EEB) Your Rights
    Unter the Environmental Legislation of the EU,
    Special Report by the EEB, December 2004,
    Brussels
  • Institute for European Environmental Policy
    (Monkhouse, Claire Wilkonson, David Herodes,
    Martina Hjerb. Peter) Environmental Compliance
    Assistance for SMEs. Analysis of Specific
    Initiatives 41 National and Local Level and
    Identification of best Practices. Final Report
    2006
  • http//ec.europa.eu/environment/sme/pdf/sme_final_
    report_en.pdf
  • Scheer, Hermann et al. Handbook of Renewable
    Energies in the European Union. Case studies of
    the EU - 15 States, Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt
    am Main, 2. Aufl., 2005 (auch DVD)

31
Thank you!Environmental ProtectionEuropean
Environmental Policy Impacts on SMEs Markus
Stahl, HWK München
PHARE Business Support Programme of the European
Union UEAPME - SME FIT II
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