Innovative firms in Europe face significant problems in accessing the funding they need to start, grow and compete on global markets. European firms (especially SMEs) turn mostly to banks to obtain external finance and only in limited cases to alternative sources of financing - such as venture...

In order to support the development of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), the European Commission adopted the “Small Business Act for Europe” (SBA) in 2008 which include ten leading principles, a set of new legislative measures and strategic actions to be put into practice at the...