Commissioner Bieńkowska at SME Assembly 2017 in Tallinn as SME recovery gathers speed

Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, delivered a keynote speech this morning at the SME Assembly in Tallinn, along with Urve Palo, Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology. The Commissioner shared with the audience the Commission’s initiatives to address the needs of innovative start-ups, support young entrepreneurs, and make access to finance more efficient for companies to scale up. The SME Assembly is part of the European SME Week, a pan-European campaign with events and awards, such as the European Enterprise Promotion Awards, aiming to promote entrepreneurship in Europe. 2017’s edition was emboldened by the encouraging results published in the Annual report on EU SMEs today. The report clearly shows the European SMEs are recovering from the crisis, which benefits the whole EU economy. In fact, 2016 was the third consecutive year where there was a steady increase in EU SME employment and value added. Most importantly, in 2016, EU SME employment exceeded the 2008 level for the first time since the 2008/2009 economic and financial crisis. More information here.