Press Release: SMEs: Commission report notes economic climate threatens performance; SME Week 3-9 October

The European Commission has presented its 2010 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) report "Are EU SMEs recovering from the crisis?" - including surveys on each EU Member State (the SBA Fact Sheets) - on the occasion of the SME Week taking place throughout Europe from 3–9 October.

The report confirms that SMEs remain the EU's economic backbone. In 2010, there were almost 20.8 million SMEs in the EU non-financial business economy of which 19.2 million were micro-firms with less than 10 employees. Altogether SMEs provided more than two-thirds (87.5 million) of all employment opportunities in the private sector in the EU and 58.4% of the total gross value-added, compared to the 43 000 large businesses representing only the 0.2% of the EU enterprises.

European Commission: Memo/11/661: Small and medium sized enterprises: the situation in EU Member States 2010 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/661&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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