Cooperation between SMEs and trade unions in Europe on ... - ETUC

ETUC – UE APME: <strong>Cooperation</strong> betw een <strong>SMEs</strong> <strong>and</strong> Trade Unio ns <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong> 5
PART I: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND – THE
CHALLENGES
The role of <strong>SMEs</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong> today
Micro, small <strong>and</strong> medium-sized enterprises (as def<strong>in</strong>ed by employ<strong>in</strong>g 1-249 persons 2 )
constitute the dom<strong>in</strong>ant form of bus<strong>in</strong>ess organisation <strong>in</strong> all countries of the <strong>Europe</strong>an
Union: Though no official figures exist at the EU level about the total number of <strong>SMEs</strong>
<strong>and</strong> their employees, it is a well known fact that more than 99% of enterprises <strong>in</strong> the
<strong>Europe</strong>an Union are <strong>SMEs</strong>. 3
The relative importance of <strong>SMEs</strong> is, however, lower <strong>in</strong> terms of their contribution to
provid<strong>in</strong>g jobs <strong>and</strong> wealth: In 2005, 67.1% of the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy
(NACE Sections C to I <strong>and</strong> K) workforce <strong>in</strong> the EU-27 was employed <strong>in</strong> an SME, while
57.6% of the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy’s value added was generated by <strong>SMEs</strong>.
Key <strong>in</strong>dicators for enterprises <strong>in</strong> the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy, EU-27, 2005
Total <strong>SMEs</strong> Micro Small Medium Large
1 - 249 1 - 9 10 – 49 50 - 249 > 250
Number of enterprises (millions) 19.65 19.60 18.04 1.35 0.21 0.04
Share <strong>in</strong> total (%) 100.0 99.8 91.8 6.9 1.1 0.2
Persons employed (millions) 126.7 85.0 37.5 26.1 21.3 41.7
Share <strong>in</strong> total (%) 100.0 67.1 29.6 20.6 16.8 32.9
Value added (EUR billion) 5.360 3.090 1.120 1.011 954 2.270
Share <strong>in</strong> total (%) 100.0 57.6 20.9 18.9 17.8 42.4
Source: Eurostat 2008
With<strong>in</strong> the group of <strong>SMEs</strong>, the vast majority (over 90%) are micro enterprises with less
than ten persons. Micro companies employed more than one third of the <strong>Europe</strong>an
workforce but at the same time accounted only for one fifth of the value added <strong>in</strong> the
EU-27 non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy. The second largest SME group is made up of
small enterprises def<strong>in</strong>ed as hav<strong>in</strong>g 10-49 persons employed. This group <strong>in</strong> 2005
consisted of about 1.3 million enterprises (exclud<strong>in</strong>g agriculture, f<strong>in</strong>ancial services <strong>and</strong>
public services) employ<strong>in</strong>g a workforce of around 26 million throughout <strong>Europe</strong>, i.e.
around 7% of all <strong>Europe</strong>an enterprises <strong>and</strong> around one fifth of their workforce.
However, the share of small companies <strong>in</strong> turnover <strong>and</strong> value added is nearly that of
the micro enterprise sector despite the significantly smaller number of persons
employed.
2 It should be noted that <strong>in</strong> this report we are us<strong>in</strong>g the EU def<strong>in</strong>ition of micro, small <strong>and</strong> medium-sized
enterprises accord<strong>in</strong>g to which an SME is made up of an enterprise which employs fewer than 250 persons
<strong>and</strong> which has an annual turnover not exceed<strong>in</strong>g 50 million Euro, <strong>and</strong>/or an annual balance sheet total not
exceed<strong>in</strong>g 43 million Euro. See <strong>Europe</strong>an Commission: The new SME def<strong>in</strong>ition, DG Enterprise <strong>and</strong>
Industry, Brussels.
3 SME data at the <strong>Europe</strong>an level are available only <strong>in</strong> the context of the Eurostat’s structural bus<strong>in</strong>ess
statistics (SBS) provid<strong>in</strong>g the most updated statistical data on certa<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>dicators accord<strong>in</strong>g to enterprise size
classes. However, SBS data are not cover<strong>in</strong>g the whole <strong>Europe</strong>an bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy but only the so-called
“non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess” is <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dustry (NACE sections C to E), construction (NACE section F) <strong>and</strong>
non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial services (NACE sections G to I <strong>and</strong> K). This means that sector such as f<strong>in</strong>ancial services or
agriculture are not <strong>in</strong>cluded. See Eurostat: Enterprise by size class – overview of <strong>SMEs</strong> <strong>in</strong> the EU, Statistics
<strong>in</strong> Focus 31/2008.