Helping European SMEs to grow: Start-up and scale-up initiatives for business ventures in the EU

Please note: Each In-Depth Analysis is assigned a DOI (digital object identifier), which is a safe and long term way of ensuring a hyperlink to the full text of this report. However, when ESO creates this record, on occasion the DOI still has not been activated by the EU Bookshop. If you find the source url hyperlink does not work please use the alternative location hyperlink listed as a related url.Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute 99 of every 100 businesses, and employ two out of three employees in Europe. Some of them are high-growth firms that generate a disproportionately high number of new jobs. However, SMEs often face obstacles specific to their smaller size that can hamper their growth potential. The main recent initiatives undertaken to help European SMEs grow fall within the flagship initiatives of the European Commission: the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the single market strategy, the digital single market, and the capital markets union. The EU also supports SMEs through a range of long-term programmes running in the 2014-2020 period, such as COSME, Horizon 2020 and the structural and investment funds

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European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union: Publications available via the EU Bookshop http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/directorate-general-for-internal-policies-of-the-union-cbf.cKABstF7wAAAEjwYYY4e5K/

European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: In-Depth Analysis, June 2017: Helping European SMEs to grow: Start-up and scale-up initiatives for business ventures in the EU http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2017/603967/EPRS_IDA(2017)603967_EN.pdf

European Commission: Growth > Entrepreneurship and Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) > Business-friendly environment > What is an SME? http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition_en

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