TY  - BOOK
ED  - Comisión Europea
TI  - Annual report on European SMEs 2020/2021: : digitalisation of SMEs : SME Performance Review 2020/2021
SN  - 978-92-9460-422-4 (PDF)
SN  - 2467-0162
PY  - 2021///
CY  - Luxembourg
PB  - : Publications Office of the European Union
KW  - Empresas
KW  - Europa
KW  - SMEs
KW  - economía
KW  - UE
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - digitalización
KW  - tecnología
KW  - empleo
KW  - industrias
N2  - The COVID-19 crisis brought to an abrupt halt or even reversed the gains made by the EU SME sector 
over the past decade. However, the various business support measures implemented by Member 
States during the pandemic limited the employment impact of the decline in economic activity.
The first part of this report reviews the impact of the pandemic on EU SMEs in 2020, and the likely 
performance of EU SMEs in 2021, after providing a brief overview of their pre-pandemic 
performance.
The second part of the report focuses on the digitalisation of SMEs. The use by SMEs in 2020 of 
various digital tools (e.g. remote working, online/click and collect selling, etc.) helped to mitigate 
the impact of the pandemic. In this regard, the 2020 ‘EU SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital 
Europe’ was launched at the most opportune time. It aims to “support European SMEs through 
strengthening their capacities to adapt to climate neutrality challenges, help them to reap the 
benefits of digitalisation, reduce the regulatory burden that SMEs face, and improve their 
opportunitiesto access finance”. This report supports the SME Strategy, by reviewing and assessing 
the digitalisation activities undertaken by SMEs so far, especially during the pandemic, as well as 
the digitalisation issues and challenges faced by SMEs, and actual and potential policy responses 
to these challenges.

UR  - https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/46062
ER  -