The Small Business Act (SBA) is an overarching framework for the EU policy on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It aims to improve the approach to entrepreneurship in Europe, simplify the regulatory and policy environment for SMEs, and remove the remaining barriers to their development.
Access the full text of the Small Business Act.
The SBA Review, launched in February 2011, is a major landmark in tracking the implementation of the Small Business Act. It aims to integrate the SBA with the Europe 2020 strategy. Six of the seven Europe 2020 Flagship Initiatives will help SMEs achieve sustainable growth.
The aim of the public consultation is to gather feed-back and ideas on new actions to support SMEs.
Please note that the replies of 271 respondents who asked to maintain their confidentiality are not published here.
Thanks to the 'Think Small First' Principle, SMEs' interests are taken into account at a very early stage of policy making. This helps the EU develop SMEs-friendly legislation. The tools enabling effective application of the principle are:
The SME Performance Review is one of the main tools the Commission uses to monitor and assess countries' progress in implementing the SBA.