Tajani: start implementatie EU-hulp voor MKB in Griekenland (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Europese Commissie (EC) i, gepubliceerd op donderdag 19 april 2012.

This conference aims also at marking the start of an implementation process in the areas of enterprise and industry as laid out in the Communication on Growth and Jobs in Greece adopted yesterday. It is presenting the Commission's vision of how to address the challenges faced by Greece, as well as the concrete support that EU i policies can provide to Greece (IP/12/377).

Holding this conference was decided by Messrs. Papadimos and Tajani during the former's visit to Brussels at the end of March. Also the Greek Minister for Development, Competitiveness and Shipping Mrs Anna Diamantopoulou i will play an active part in the conference.

The crucial role of SMEs in the Commission communication

The Communication points out, that over €4 billion is available in liquidity assistance for SMEs from the EU structural funds, in the form of financial engineering instruments and grants. In addition, a new SME Guarantee Fund has been set up with € 500 million from the EU structural funds, which could be multiplied to release a further € 1 billion in loans from the EIB i to Greek banks, for on-lending to Greek SMEs. However, at present, this money is not reaching Greek SMEs because of reduced demand for investment, the high risk associated with loans for SMEs in the present circumstances and consequently the difficulty SMEs have in securing the necessary co-financing from the banks.

The Communication demands that the Greek banking sector and administration should speed up disbursements of the € 4bn already available for SME funding in the next 8 months. The EIB should disburse € 600 mio of loans to Greek banks for SMEs and a further € 400 mio by the end of 2013. Increased financial support should also be given to entrepreneurship training (with a focus on new innovative products and services), including mentoring, coaching and consultancy.

The role of SMEs in Greece

In 2010 there were 742 600 SMES in Greece with 2.512.493 employees, which is more than 85% of total employment, well above the EU average. Greece has a very high share of SMEs, particularly micro enterprises, compared to the EU average. The importance of Greek micro enterprises is also reflected in their share of employment and value-added creation, with more than one in two Greeks working in the non-financial sector employed by a micro enterprise.

The contribution of Greek SMEs to value added also vastly exceeds the EU average (35.3% vs. 21.8%). In fact, large enterprises, accounting for only 14% of all jobs in Greece (EU average: 33%) still manage to create more than 28% of total value added, suggesting that the productivity of Greek micro enterprises is relatively low. Greek SMEs employ only 2.9 persons on average, much less than the EU average of 4.2 persons.

In spite of the importance of the tourism sector for the Greek economy, the SME services sector is actually smaller in Greece than the EU average (34% vs. 44%) in terms of number of enterprises. The same applies to SME employment and value added creation in the services sector. On the other hand, Greek SMEs seem to be proportionally more active than their EU peers in trade, with 42% of all Greek SMEs active in this sector (EU average: 31%).

The total number of Greek SMEs has steadily fallen over the last few years until 2010, meaning that in absolute terms, there were approximately 30 000 fewer enterprises in 2010 than in 2003. The trend is similar when looking at employment in the Greek SME sector, which lost more than 135 000 jobs in the same period. The decline in terms of value added has also been pronounced.

Small Business Act (SBA) - Fact Sheet Greece 2011

Summary of SBA Fact sheet on Greece

Erasmus for young entrepreneurs

Network of Women Entrepreneurship Ambassadors