25% of EU 27 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) export or have exported at some point during the last 3 years. Internationally active SMEs report an employment growth of 7% whereas the figure stood at 1% for those without any international activities. There is also a strong relationship between internationalisation and innovation. 26% of internationally active SMEs introduced products or services that were new for their sector in their country; for other small businesses this is only 8%. However, international activities are mostly geared towards other countries inside the internal market and only about 13% of EU SMEs are active in markets outside the EU.

Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, responsible for Entrepreneurship and Industry said: “European SMEs still depend largely on their domestic markets despite the opportunities brought by the enlarged single market and by globalisation at large. It's important for our smaller businesses to improve their performance in cross-border and international trade transactions in order to reinforce growth, enhance competitiveness and support the long term sustainability of companies."

This study, mapping the level of internationalisation of European SMEs and identifying the main barriers and advantages of internationalisation, analysed 26 separate sectors. The highest percentage of internationalised SMEs is found in wholesale trade, mining, manufacturing and sale of motor vehicles. Within services, the sector 'research' scores very highly. Sectors of activity with the highest share of exporting SMEs are mining (58%), manufacturing (56%), wholesale trade (54%), research (54%), sales of motor vehicles (53%), renting (39%) and transport and communication (39%).

There is a direct link between internationalisation and increased SMEs performance.

Recommendations for SME Policy Support

• Awareness and use of public support programmes need to be promoted.
• Easier access to support measures for micro firms: they are the ones that need and would benefit more from support programmes.
• Innovation and internationalisation are closely related. This strongly suggests the co-ordination of policy measures aimed at stimulating innovation and internationalisation or even merge the agencies that implement these two types of policies.
• Import is a stepping stone to export. Public support programmes should take this fact into account.

Background:

The goal of this study was to provide an updated and comprehensive overview of the level of internationalisation of European SMEs. The data and conclusions of this study are based on a survey of 9,480 SMEs in 33 European countries. The survey was carried out during spring 2009. The study analysed all activities that put SMEs into any meaningful business relationship with a foreign partner: exports, imports, foreign direct investment, international subcontracting and international technical co-operation. The results allow an in-depth overview of the situation by Country, SME size (micro, small, medium) and sector (26 separate sectoral groupings were analysed)

More information is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/market-access/internationalisation/index_en.htm

Source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/895&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr