Government could accept “SME tests” before adopting new standards, says Borne

“I heard your request to set up an +SME test+ to assess in advance the impact of standards on SMEs: it is a common sense measure, I am announcing to you that we will implement it,” declared Ms. Borne during the Impact PME event organized by the Confédération des PME and BFM Business in Paris.

A few minutes earlier, the president of the CPME François Asselin had affirmed that SMEs “no longer believe” in the administrative simplification promised by the government.

Above all, he insisted, "at a time when we are constantly multiplying standards, particularly in environmental matters, where the extra-financial reporting of companies, the famous CSRD, will result in a real administrative tsunami".

“Send us signals, set up an SME test which imposes a period of experimentation before the implementation of new rules concerning us,” he pleaded.

Mr. Asselin told AFP that he was very satisfied with this announcement. It provides for experimental “panels” of around a hundred SMEs from different major sectors of the economy before the implementation of a new standard.

“If it works, we roll it out, if not, let’s review the copy!”, he said.

The 4th edition of the Impact PME event brings together 2000 VSE-SME managers this year around the theme "Talents, AI, ecological transition: how to succeed in 2024".