SME Policy Index: Eastern Partner Countries 2024
Building Resilience in Challenging Times
The SME Policy Index: Eastern Partner Countries 2024 – Building resilience in challenging times is a unique benchmarking tool to assess and monitor progress in the design and implementation of SME policies against EU and international best practice. It embraces the priorities laid out in the European Union’s SME Strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe and is structured around the ten principles of the Small Business Act for Europe, which provide a wide range of measures to guide the design and implementation of SME policies. This report marks the fourth edition in this series, following assessments in 2012, 2016, and 2020. It tracks progress made since 2020 and offers the latest key findings on SME development and related policies in the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). It also identifies emerging challenges affecting SMEs in the region and provides recommendations to address them. The 2024 edition benefits from an updated methodology that also offers a deeper analysis of policies to support the digital transformation of SMEs.
Pillar D – Access to Markets
Pillar D examines the progress made by Eastern Partner countries regarding SMEs’ access to both domestic and foreign markets. The chapter starts by looking at policies and tools in place to allow SMEs better access to public procurement markets, focusing on the legal frameworks and the strategies developed to support SME participation. It then reviews recent improvements in standards and technical regulation, looking at overall co-ordination and general measures, level of harmonisation with EU acquis, SME access to standardisation, and digitalisation of standards and technical regulations. Finally, this chapter investigates efforts to boost SME internationalisation through support for export promotion, SME integration into GVCs, and the use of e-commerce, as well as through the adoption of trade facilitation measures. For each one of these three areas, a set of dedicated policy recommendations is provided to guide EaP countries in their strategic actions for the forthcoming years.
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