This is why the ECB and the Commission are fully behind measures that make it easier for the European SME sector to gain access to financing. In addition to the CMU proposal, other policies that support the competitiveness of European SMEs relate to integration and innovation in the retail payments market, particularly for payments in euro.
In the future these caps should not apply to spending by local authorities, in whose regard the Government last year redrafted the rules of the domestic stability pact, making the crucial criterion not a spending limit but a constraint on the final budget balance, so as to combine spending autonomy with fiscal accountability.