Promoting small and medium-sized businesses in Europe for sustainable development in the digitalization era

Abstract

Taking into account the fact that enterprises of small and medium-sized businesses account for the largest share of all the EU- nterprises, create a significant number of jobs, make a great contribution to the development of the European countries economies, promoting their participation in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is an urgent problem. Therefore, its solution is of great practical importance. The use of a criterion analysis of different views on the forms of assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises shows that the need to find financial resources in order to participate in the “green” economy is not always taken into account. Based on the content analysis of the reports of the European Commission and national programs on sustainable development, the need for comprehensive support for small and medium-sized businesses is justified. This particular study emphasizes the need to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in order to overcome the negative consequences of the corona-crisis for their activities. A comparative analysis of the sustainable development practices of European countries led to the conclusion that a comprehensive form of assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises can be their cooperation with large business, which receives state support in the form of grants and subsidies and is able to attract small and medium-sized businesses to participate in global value chains, which in the future will expand the number of participants implementing the European Green Deal.