Parliament backs simplified rules for small mid-cap companies

Process in Brief

Three Parliament committees endorsed proposals to create a small mid-cap (SMC) category and to extend SME simplifications across files including GDPR, MiFID, the Batteries Regulation, the F-gases Regulation and related trade and resilience rules.

What Is at Stake

SMCs would be firms with fewer than 1,000 employees and either up to €200 million in turnover or up to €172 million in total assets, intended to prevent cliff-edge changes when companies outgrow SME thresholds while keeping SME support and a "think small first" approach. Measures include lighter GDPR record-keeping for non-high-risk processing, simpler capital-market access under MiFID and prospectus relief, battery due diligence reviews every five years, limited F-gas registration for imports meeting reporting thresholds of 10 tonnes CO2 equivalent or more of hydrofluorocarbons or 100 tonnes CO2 equivalent or more of other fluorinated greenhouse gases and applicable exports, plus support for SMC critical entities and eased access to trade defence instruments.

Timeline

Inter-institutional negotiations were authorised and, since no objection was raised during the March plenary session, negotiations can now begin.