Council of States does not want further support for SMEs
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 16:10
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The Council of States does not want to additionally promote investments by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in climate-friendly technologies with a guarantee program. The Council rejected the motion by Sophie Michaud Gigon (Greens/VD), which was adopted by the National Council in June 2023, on Monday.
The responsible Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation of the Council of States (WAK-S) had also voted 9 to 3 in favor of rejecting the motion in the preliminary consultation.
The Commission is of the opinion that there are already sufficient funding opportunities for innovative Swiss SMEs, said Council of States member Erich Ettlin (center/OW). In particular, he referred to the planned amendments to the Federal Act on a Secure Power Supply with Renewable Energies, the instruments of Innosuisse and the recently adopted Climate and Innovation Act as well as the technology fund provided for in the CO2 Act or the existing guarantee system for SMEs. These broadly cover the areas of digitalization and climate-friendly technologies.
Although innovation suffered a slump during the pandemic, it has since recovered, Ettlin continued. According to a regular innovation survey, over 16% of Swiss SMEs actively invest in research and development. The Commission is critical of the motion's thrust to promote the use of climate-friendly, digital innovations in addition to development. There would be a risk of supporting the same technologies twice, namely first in their development and then again on the demand side. The Federal Council also rejected the motion.
The Michaud Gigons motion of 2021 was intended to instruct the Federal Council to set up a guarantee programme that would grant SMEs interest-free loans or loans with a reduced interest rate for investments in climate-friendly technologies, emission-reducing work or production processes or digitalization.
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