The Council adopted on 24 March a regulation on financial benchmarks, which aims to cut red tape for EU companies, in particular for SMEs. Benchmarks are generally used by companies and investors in the EU as a reference in their financial instruments or contracts. This Regulation amends a 2016 Regulation as regards the scope of […]
Commission launches AI innovation package to support Artificial Intelligence startups and SMEs
The Commission has launched a package of measures to support European startups and SMEs in the development of trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) that respects EU values and rules. This follows the political agreement reached in December 2023 on the EU AI Act – the world’s first comprehensive law on Artificial Intelligence – which will support the […]
InvestEU: EIF and Laboral Kutxa sign €145 million guarantee to support micro and social entrepreneurship in Spain
EIF grants Laboral Kutxa a guarantee for €145 million in micro and social loans. This is the seventh agreement between the EIF and Laboral Kutxa, who have been working together for 10 years to support the social economy and microenterprise in Spain. The guarantee agreement is backed by the InvestEU programme which aims to mobilise […]
European Commission proposes new measures to boost SME competitiveness and resilience
On 12th September, the Commission is presenting a series of initiatives to address the needs of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the current economic environment. Representing 99% of Europe’s businesses, SMEs are essential drivers of Europe’s green and digital transitions, but continue to face unpredictability and volatility as a result of a number of […]
The European Structural and Investment Funds supported more than 4 million SMEs between 2014 and 2020
In 2014-2020, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) unleashed a total investment of €731 billion, of which €535 billion was funded by the EU, fostering lasting socio–economic convergence, territorial cohesion, social Europe and a smooth green and digital transition. This is explained in the 2022 Summary Report on the Implementation of the ESI Funds adopted by the Commission. The […]
The EU funds 47 million for green and digital transition of SMEs
Today, the Commission and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) launched the new EU SME Fund, which offers vouchers for EU-based SMEs to help them protect their intellectual property (IP) rights. This is the second EU SME Fund aiming at supporting SMEs in the COVID-19 recovery and green and digital transitions for the next three […]
New programme to support European SMEs
On 10 March, the EU launched MobiliseSME – a new programme for SMEs. The programme hosted a webinar as part of the launch to explain how businesses can benefit from participating. Read on to find out more about the programme and how to benefit. Over the past few years, the EU has developed several programmes […]
Horizon 2020: Peer learning of innovation agencies
Implement innovation support programmes for SMEs are important intermediaries for SME innovation. Focus, design and delivery mechanism of innovation support programmes determine to a large extent the economic impact from the supported actions and the satisfaction of the beneficiaries with the support provided. The European Union has supported mutual policy learning and exchange of ‘good […]
H2020. For a better innovation support to SMEs
Many SMEs struggle to embrace the Industry 4.0 revolution and the uptake of advanced manufacturing technologies and systems remains a challenge: only one in five manufacturing companies have already used advanced manufacturing solutions. A recent study shows that for nearly three quarters of the firms, the most important barrier to the uptake of advanced manufacturing technologies […]