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> 6
Only 1.1% of enterprises <strong>in</strong> the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy <strong>in</strong> 2005 belonged to
the medium-sized company sector def<strong>in</strong>ed as hav<strong>in</strong>g 50-249 persons. With a workforce
of about 21 million people medium-sized companies are the smallest of the four
enterprise groups. However, the share <strong>in</strong> turnover <strong>and</strong> value added is rather similar to
both micro <strong>and</strong> small enterprises.
In spite of their t<strong>in</strong>y share of 0.2% <strong>in</strong> the overall number of enterprises, large
companies with 250 or more people) generated the highest amount of value added
(42.4% <strong>in</strong> 2005) <strong>in</strong> the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong> <strong>and</strong> employed nearly
one third of the workforce <strong>in</strong> the EU-27.
National varieties of <strong>SMEs</strong> across <strong>Europe</strong>
The geographic variety of <strong>SMEs</strong> across <strong>Europe</strong> reflects specific patterns of <strong>in</strong>dustrial
structures, economic traditions <strong>and</strong> other framework conditions, <strong>in</strong> particular the
economic <strong>and</strong> social transformation process <strong>in</strong> the Central <strong>and</strong> Eastern <strong>Europe</strong>an
Member States. With<strong>in</strong> EU member states, the relative importance of a particular size
class varied widely <strong>in</strong> 2005 (see table on the follow<strong>in</strong>g page). Very broadly, the
follow<strong>in</strong>g groups of countries might be identified <strong>in</strong> this context: With regard to the
overall importance of SME bus<strong>in</strong>ess organisations for the national economies <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong>
there are seven countries where the SME sector is employ<strong>in</strong>g more than three quarters
of the workforce <strong>and</strong> which are clearly above the <strong>Europe</strong>an average (67%): Cyprus
(84%), Portugal <strong>and</strong> Greece (82%), Italy (81%) as well as Spa<strong>in</strong> (79%) <strong>and</strong> Estonia
(78%). On the other end, most of the bigger EU countries are amongst a group quite
strongly characterised by high employment shares <strong>in</strong> larger enterprises: Nearly one out
of two employees are work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> large enterprises <strong>in</strong> the United K<strong>in</strong>gdom <strong>and</strong> Slovakia
(46%). F<strong>in</strong>l<strong>and</strong> (41.5%), Germany <strong>and</strong> France (39%) are also characterised by high
shares of large enterprise employment.
Density of <strong>SMEs</strong>: Number of <strong>SMEs</strong> per 1,000 <strong>in</strong>habitants, non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess economy, 2005
Source: Eurostat 2008
In the EU-27 there was an average of 39.3 <strong>SMEs</strong> with<strong>in</strong> the non-f<strong>in</strong>ancial bus<strong>in</strong>ess
economy per 1,000 <strong>in</strong>habitants <strong>in</strong> 2005. The highest densities of <strong>SMEs</strong> were recorded <strong>in</strong>
the Czech Republic (86.0) <strong>and</strong> Portugal (80.5), followed by the three Mediterranean
countries of Greece, Italy <strong>and</strong> Spa<strong>in</strong>. At the other end of the range, Romania <strong>and</strong>
Slovakia recorded the lowest density of <strong>SMEs</strong> per 1,000 <strong>in</strong>habitants (18.9 <strong>and</strong> 7.7
respectively).