IP/10/723

Brussels, 11 June 2010

Small Businesses: Better policy support for EUs job

engine

With the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, a very positive development of
small and medium enterprises (SME) has come to a halt. Between 2002 and
2008, SMEs in the EU turned out to be the most important European
Economy job engine. With 9.4 million jobs created between 2002 and 2008
SMEs outperformed large firms. This is in sharp contrast to an estimated
loss of 3.25 million jobs in the SME sector over 2009 and 2010 further to the
annual SME report published today. For each EU Member State and 10 more
countries, selected key facts describing the national SME sector are
provided, such as number of SMEs and employment creation. They also
underline that Member States have undertaken many relevant policy actions,
but much more needs to be done to ensure that the guidelines set by the
Small Business Act (SBA) are fully implemented.

European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, in charge of Industry and

Entrepreneurship, said: "SMEs represent our economy's future, only they can
generate new employment opportunities.. In light of the rather testing times ahead,
an effective policy response is crucial in helping SMEs to be successful. Member
States should step up actions that give a boost to SMEs. For SMEs to thrive, they
need a more business-friendly environment across Europe".
Providing jobs for almost 90 million Europeans, Europes 20.7 million SMEs continue
to be the EU's economic backbone. To spur its role as the EUs most important job
generator, a speedy implementation of the actions contained in the Small Business
Act (SBA) is critical. It is the EUs flagship SME policy initiative and foresees actions
by the Commission as well as by Member States in 10 different policy areas (see
graph below).
The main conclusions of the SME performance review are:
SMEs outperformed large firms in 2002-2008 in employment generation: On
average, between 2002 and 2008, the number of jobs in SMEs increased by 1.9%
annually, while the number of jobs in large enterprises increased by only 0.8%
annually.
Crisis struck large and medium firms first, but smallest ones hit harder now:
Estimates for EU-27 SMEs' production in EU-27 in 2009 hint at a decline by 5.5%. In
2009, this happened mostly in large and medium-sized enterprises, and less so for
micro and small enterprises which are expected to be most affected in 2010 and
beyond as initial support measures are phased out.
SMEs in United States hit hard too: The number of businesses is estimated to
have declined by 0.6% in 2008 and by 2.2% in 2009.
Member States active in implementing SME support measures: As regards
policy developments, the SBA fact sheets reveal that more than 500 policy measures
across all ten SBA principles were implemented in 2007-2009. Only a minority 9 of
Member States were active across the entire range of the 10 SBA principles.

Distribution of policy measures by SBA policy areas in

EU member states (2007-2009)

Internationalisation
10% Entrepreneurship
14%
Environment
5%
Second chance
4%

Think small first

Skills and
6%
innovation
16%
Responsive
administration
11%
Single market
5%

Public procurement
and state aid
Access to finance
9%
20%

Source: DG ENTR.

On the SME performance review (SPR)

The SME Performance Review (SPR) provides information on the situation of
SMEs and SME policy in the EU, as a contribution to evidence-based and effective
(SME) policy making. It was launched in 2008, the same year as the Small Business
Act for Europe (SBA).
The report was developed by EIM Business & Policy Research at the Commissions
request and the views expressed in this document are solely those of EIM and do
not necessarily reflect those of the Commission. This SME report strives to provide
an aggregated EU-level analysis. The latest figures at the time of writing the report
concern 2006, whereas figures for later years were estimations made by the
contractor.

More information
SME performance review
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/index_en.htm

"Small Business Act" for Europe

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htm
European Small Business portal
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/index_en.htm