Small Business Growth in Europe

Digitization is Enabling EU SMEs to Expand Globally

European small businesses play a central role in the EU economy. They add jobs, stimulate growth and build communities. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the EU represent 99% of all businesses and employ two-thirds of the workforce. In the past five years, they have created around 85% of new jobs and provided a path to prosperity for millions of families. The growth of digital commerce provides more opportunities for entrepreneurs to expand across the EU and around the world. However, there remains untapped potential for small businesses as barriers still persist for full global expansion. Whereas the global marketplace used to be the purview of only the largest businesses, digitization is democratizing commerce and changing the calculus of who can fully engage in cross-border trade.