The 34 million European SMEs recorded “solid growth in 2025 and are consolidating a recovery from recent crises”, the European Commission said, on Monday 22 June, in a new annual report on small and medium-sized enterprises.
During that year, the number of enterprises increased by 1.8%, while their real added value grew by 2.5% and employment by 1.0%. All categories of enterprises are also expected to expand in 2026, driven by micro-enterprises, the report also notes, although it reflects the situation before the war in the Middle East.
The projections for 2026 therefore do not take account of the economic repercussions linked to the conflict.
According to these projections, SMEs should in any case remain dominant in the retail, construction and textile sectors. Their growth “is expected to see the strongest increases in the ‘cultural and creative industries’, ‘digital’, ‘health’, and ‘tourism’ ecosystems”.
However, in three strategic sectors (‘aerospace and defence’, ‘renewable energy’ and ‘digital’), SMEs could post added-value growth higher than that of large enterprises.
The Commission also published a report on women’s entrepreneurship. Gender inequalities persist: women account for only 33% of business owners in the EU and are concentrated in traditionally female sectors such as personal services (69%), health and social work (65%) and education (57%).
They remain under-represented everywhere else; 74% of women entrepreneurs also work without employees, compared with 66% of men.
Link to the reports: https://aeur.eu/f/mh9 , https://aeur.eu/f/mha (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)