As the world is changing the EU has to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy so as Member States to achieve employability, sustainability, productivity and social cohesion.

Taking into consideration that more than 99% of all European businesses are SMEs that provide two thirds of the private sector jobs and contribute to more than half of the total value-added created by businesses in the EU, the critical role of SMEs in achieving the Europe 2020 strategy becomes more evident.

Despite this strategy and the hard efforts of Europe to recover from a severe economic crisis, unemployment rates are still high, especially for the countries as Greece 26.5%, Spain 24.5% and Portugal 14.1%. Germany and Italy are less affected since Italy accounts for approximately 73%of GDP and is also the fastest growing segment (The Bank of Italy, Reuters, Kpmg, OECD, ISTAT) and Germany invests EUR 158 billion in new buildings and facilities, representing a share of 27% of the total gross fixed capital formation and 45 per cent of total corporate investment. They employ 29.1 million people, or 68 per cent of the working population.

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