CHALENGES FACED BY EU SMEs IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS

SMEs play a vital role in economic development. They offer the most economical use of capital in relation to job creation and provide the strongest growth channel for regional development. They are also recognized as the vehicle for growth in today’s regionally and globally interdependent and competitive economy. With a view at the global economic slowdown, it became apparent that economies in all regions of the world have significantly lost momentum which also affected SMEs. This paper present the main difficulties faced by SME in the EU region on the context of the present global crisis and deliver some recommendation about the reaction governments should take in order to avoid a major crisis in this important economic sector.