Brussels, 18/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The 4th European SME Week was held on Monday 16-Sunday 22 November. This event focuses on the promotion of entrepreneurship and in this connection, on Tuesday 17 November, the European Statistics Office, Eurostat, published a study that showed that 9 out of 10 enterprises in the EU employed fewer than 10 persons.
In 2012, of the 22.3 million enterprises in the EU 92.7% were micro- enterprises (with 0 to 9 persons employed) accounting for just under 30% of all jobs, 7% were small and medium enterprises (with 10 to 249 persons employed) accounting for 38% of employment, and 0.2% were large enterprises (with 250 or more persons employed) accounting for 33% of persons employed. Greece is the country where micro-enterprises' share of all jobs is the most consistent and is close to 60%. Italy is immediately behind, with more than 45%, as well as Portugal and Spain. France is just below the European average (under 30%). In contrast, the United Kingdom has fewer than 20%, the lowest rate in the EU. Unsurprisingly, Germany has the lowest number of micro-enterprises, closely followed by Luxembourg.
With 308,000 enterprises created in 2012, France was the EU member state with the highest number of newly-born enterprises, ahead of Italy (275,000), Spain (248,000), the United Kingdom (242,000). The British figures should be treated with caution given that enterprises below the VAT threshold to not have to register. According to Eurostat estimates, the number of non-registered enterprises is around 750,000.
Eurostat says that these results highlight the role played by micro-enterprises in this European week focusing on SMEs (European SME Week), an important event that is attended by more than 37 countries. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)