Press Release: SMEs in Europe at the crossroads: further policy boost needed to help in recovery

Europe's Small and Medium Sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to strive for recovery. If we take the EU as a whole so far their overall efforts have mainly led to 'jobless' growth, as shown by diverging trends in the EU-27 Member States.

The European Commission released results of the SME Performance Review 2012 report, together with fact sheets describing SMEs' progress in all EU Members States. Despite the challenging environment, SMEs stood their ground as the backbone of the European economy, accounting for more than 98% of all enterprises with some 20.7 million firms and more than 87 million people employees. The lion’s share 92.2%) of SMEs is represented by micro firms with fewer than ten employees. It is estimated that SMEs account for 67% of total employment and 58% of gross value added (GVA).

European Commission: Small and medium sized enterprises in 2011: situations per EU Member State http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-12-783_en.htm

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