The present report is part of the 2016/17 SME Performance Review. It focuses on the performance of SMEs in the EU-28, and two special chapters review recent developments in self-employment, an important segment of the EU-28 SME population, and discuss start-ups and scale-ups.

The EU public procurement rules seek to promote transparency and competition in procurement markets, to the benefit of all EU contracting authorities. Penetration of cross-border purchasing in public procurement is a gauge of the extent to which public procurement rules have successfully created...

The 2014-2015 SME Annual Report found that in recent years young SMEs created jobs (on a net basis), and the EU needs more young firms to create jobs. There are now no major differences between the EU and the USA as regards new firm creation. Start-ups are key contributors to the innovation and...

This report provides an overview of the past and forecasted performance of SMEs from 2008 to 2016, and reviews in greater detail the contribution of SMEs to employment creation. SMEs accounted for 71.4% of the increase in employment in 2014 in the non-financial business sector, which includes...