CSES

CSES, in colaboration with EIM and the ENSR network, recently completed an evaluation of EU Member States' policies to facilitate access to finance for SMEs. The project included the creation of an inventory of 120 national and regonal financial support programmes in the 27 Member States that provides key information in terms of their characteristics, terms, conditions of those programmes. The project focused on non-EU funded projects.

The project also included an in depth assessment of the financing programmes in 5 Member States: Germany, France, the UK, Poland and Sweden. The conclusions of the study included, among others, the need for financing schemes to be linked up with other SME support schemes, the fact that the provision of business advice is a key aspect of some of these schemes and that the programmes benefit from a strong public-private collaboration.