We thank the European Commission for working on the updated recommendation on business transfers for SMEs and placing the topic for discussion during the SME Envoy’s Network. EFB finds that the 2026 Recommendation makes many important points that we agree with and clearly reiterates the social value of family businesses.

The new Recommendation makes important updates to the 1994 Recommendation by considering the importance of the “digital by default” principle, how the digitalisation of the business transfer process can help address administrative burden and related costs; the significance of double taxation in cross-border transfers; and the focus on fostering awareness and preparedness for business transfers by promoting the topic through education for specific groups such as women, youth and individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Furthermore, the contextualisation of ongoing policy discussions in the new recommendation further strengthens the framework and enables the overarching nature of the business transfer challenges and topic to rise to the foreground across several policy debates.

The state aid point may cause some uncertainty, as such we will be looking at this in greater depth. Another point we think may cause uncertainty is the removal of the reporting mechanism on implemented measures. On the other hand, we find that the anti-abuse safeguards are a good addition to the new recommendation as they will strengthen protections and ensure fair practices are in place, which in turn safeguards genuine intra-family business transfers, provided they are not used as an excuse to tighten up the current regimes.

Moving forward, there are four points that merit particular monitoring by EFB and other associations as the Recommendation is taken up at national level: (i) the use made of the State aid references in points 5 and 6; (ii) the implementation of the conditionality provisions in points 6(5) to 6(7), which should target abuse and reinforce continuity rather than narrow existing reliefs; (iii) the publication of revenue-impact data under point 6(6) and its use in national debates on inheritance and wealth taxation; and (iv) any reading of the Recommendation’s SME scope a contrario against size-neutral national reliefs.

Finally, now that the recommendation has been published, we believe that it is up to national associations to communicate with Member States to ensure the implementation of best practices, to facilitate business transfers of SMEs and to encourage reliefs on family business transfers to be maintained. The strategic and economic competitiveness of the EU depends on it.