The Federation for Innovation and Sustainable Competitiveness in SMEs (FICSIMM)
FICSIMM
The Federation for Innovation and Sustainable Competitiveness in SMEs (FICSIMM) is a Romanian employers' organization dedicated to supporting the economic, social and strategic development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
ID: 106130498490-94
Lobbying Activity
Response to Pact for the eastern border regions
17 Sept 2025
1. Strengthening SME competitiveness in border economies: Eastern border regions need tailored support for SMEs, as they are the backbone of local employment and innovation. The EU should create dedicated SME funding windows within cohesion envelopes, including simplified financial instruments, micro-grants and guarantees. This will prevent depopulation by sustaining viable businesses, while also fostering cross-border supply chains and resilience in areas most exposed to geopolitical risks. 2. Dedicated green and digital transition facilities for SMEs: The Pact must ensure that SMEs in border regions are not excluded from the twin transition. FICSIMM proposes an SME Green Transition Facility and a Digital SMEs for Smart Regions programme. These should provide climate vouchers, low-interest loans, digitalization grants and advisory services, supporting SMEs to decarbonize, digitalize and access cross-border innovation hubs. 3. Place-based investment to reduce regional disparities: Border territories suffer from structural disadvantages, such as infrastructure gaps, low investment levels and skills mismatches. EU funding should be distributed using multi-dimensional indicators beyond GDP, including business density, energy dependency and digital connectivity. This will secure a fair allocation of resources and ensure that underdeveloped regions are not left behind. 4. Skills and workforce adaptability for border Regions: Demographic decline and migration have reduced the available workforce. FICSIMM calls for a flagship initiative Skills for Smart Growth Regions, integrating training centers, vocational schools and SMEs. EU funds should support upskilling and reskilling, dual education schemes and womens and youth entrepreneurship in border regions, ensuring that human capital is aligned with the needs of local businesses. 5. Boosting energy resilience and independence: Eastern border regions face acute energy insecurity, amplified by the wars disruptions. The Pact should prioritize accessible grant schemes for renewable installations, co-financing for efficient equipment and participation in energy communities. Embedding Energy Service Company (ESCo) models into EU programmes would allow SMEs to invest without high upfront costs, directly enhancing both competitiveness and regional security. 6. Enhancing local institutional capacity and decentralized delivery: Uneven institutional capacity in border regions often undermines EU policy effectiveness. FICSIMM urges the creation of regional delivery hubs for EU funds, backed by technical assistance, digital tools and permanent SME consultation platforms. This would bring decision-making closer to beneficiaries and ensure that funds are used effectively and transparently. 7. Social cohesion, gender equality and community resilience: The Pact must not only address economic and security concerns, but also the social fabric of these regions. FICSIMM highlights the need for dedicated funding for women-led enterprises, youth entrepreneurs and social SMEs. Such measures will strengthen community resilience, inclusiveness and local leadership, reducing vulnerabilities to depopulation and disinformation. 8. Transparency, monitoring and accountability: The Pact should embed real-time monitoring tools accessible to citizens, SMEs, and local authorities. A digital EU dashboard with open data on disbursements, beneficiaries and outcomes will foster trust, accountability and civic oversight, ensuring that every euro invested delivers visible impact in the eastern border regions. 9. Cross-border cooperation & value chains: For border territories, cross-border economic cooperation is not optional but vital. The Pact should fund SME clusters, cross-border incubators and shared research hubs that connect EU regions with Ukraine and Moldova. This will help build resilient value chains, attract investment and foster mutual trust across borders, countering isolation, fragmentation.
Read full responseResponse to The new Action Plan on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights
9 Sept 2025
9. Digital inclusion and basic skills: With EU digital skills targets far from being reached, the Action Plan should expand basic digital literacy programs for vulnerable groups - women, rural populations and older workers. SMEs can serve as training hubs, supported by EU funding, to reduce exclusion and strengthen local economies. 10. Monitoring and accountability: To avoid gaps between commitments and outcomes, the Action Plan should embed transparent, participatory monitoring mechanisms. Real-time data on employment, gender equality and SME participation should be integrated into the European Semester. This ensures accountability and alignment with the 2030 social headline targets.
Read full responseResponse to Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act
24 Jun 2025
Point of view by the Federation for Innovation and Sustainable Competitiveness in SMEs (FICSIMM), Romania: 1. Ensure full SME integration in decarbonisation support mechanisms: FICSIMM welcomes the strategic ambition of the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, but firmly stresses the need for dedicated mechanisms tailored to SMEs within energy-intensive sectors and their value chains. The draft text focuses on large-scale industrial players and lead markets, with insufficient attention to the systemic disadvantages faced by smaller actors. Many SMEs operating in downstream segments - such as subcontracting, material transformation or local supply - depend heavily on access to decarbonised inputs and affordable clean technologies, yet lack the capital and technical capacity to initiate such transitions on their own. FICSIMM therefore proposes the inclusion of SME-specific access windows to permitting support, dedicated advisory hubs and guarantee-backed financial instruments for decarbonisation projects under 5 million. Moreover, the Act should mandate the creation of technical assistance programs targeting SME clusters in less developed regions, ensuring territorial equity and effective scaling of industrial sustainability. 2. Simplify permitting processes with digital-first, regionalized platforms: The Act identifies the acceleration of permitting procedures as a core priority, which FICSIMM strongly supports. However, the risk remains that such streamlining efforts might benefit only high-capacity operators capable of navigating cross-border regulatory frameworks. FICSIMM advocates that the EU integrate end-to-end digital platforms for decarbonisation permitting that are interoperable across Member States, but localized at the regional level to allow SMEs and local authorities direct engagement. These platforms must include pre-validation tools, timeline tracking, and standardized documentation templates to reduce ambiguity and compliance delays. Additionally, FICSIMM calls for mandatory maximum response times from national agencies and the appointment of regional decarbonisation ombudsmen to mediate conflicts and provide procedural guidance. These changes would not only de-risk investment decisions for smaller firms, but also support Member States in complying with transparency and accountability obligations under the Green Deal framework. 3. Create a European Green Procurement Accelerator for clean industrial products: The proposal acknowledges a critical lack of demand for clean industrial products at market-viable prices. FICSIMM believes this challenge must be addressed not only through subsidies or certification, but also via structural market creation mechanisms. We propose the establishment of a European Green Procurement Accelerator, under which public authorities, large corporations and cross-border procurement platforms are incentivized - and in some cases, mandated - to prioritize products certified as low-carbon, circular and resource-efficient. This initiative would act as a lead market stimulator for early-stage producers of decarbonised goods, including SME suppliers. To ensure inclusion, the Accelerator should adopt a tiered access framework, with simplified certification and pricing mechanisms for SMEs. Moreover, the Act should explicitly promote green-by-design procurement methodologies, linking product lifecycle assessment (LCA) tools to publicly funded projects in infrastructure, health, construction and mobility. This would build stable demand pipelines for SMEs investing in industrial decarbonisation.
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