One of the main concerns of SMEs is how to obtain funding either for their projects or to continue with their activity without financial engineering and without depending on their clients payment terms. In fact this issue comes to light in any independent study of the last few years. The survey carried out by SEPA on SMEs access to financing showcased some noticeable results: • In 2013 one out of three SMEs did not obtain the needed funding. • 20% of SMEs did not use any funding source, a fact that is even more substantial in micro-SMEs of between 1 and 9 employees. Another European Commission study, specifically in its 2013/2014 annual report on SMEs, emphasizes that: • 66% of SMEs consider the access to financing as their biggest challenge. • The main obstacles to said access are the lack of access to bank loans and the excessive bureaucracy in accessing E.U. funds.

The E.U committed to supporting the SMEs

Given this context, the E.U., aware of the importance of the business network posed by SMEs in Europe, has made a commitment to improve their working environment enabling access to several funding sources by promoting loans, guarantees and other sources of capital funding. FEE (Fédération des Experts-comptables Européens – Federation of European Accountants – www.fee.be) has gathered the main sources of funding for European SMEs in a document in order to ease the access to said funding. You can access this document here.

FEE is an international non-profit organisation that represents 47 institutes of professional accountants and auditors (including the Spanish Institute of Chartered Accountants “ICJCE” (www.icjce.es) from 36 European countries, including all of the 28 EU Member States. FEE has a combined membership of more than 800.000 professional accountants, working in different capacities in public practice, small and large accountancy firms, businesses of all sizes, government and education, all of whom contribute to a more efficient, transparent and sustainable European economy.

* Víctor Alió member, on behalf of ICJCE, of the *SMP Forum (@FEE_SMP) group that works on specific matters of importance to SMPs to share information and best practices and identifying issues and projects on which FEE should consider undertaking specific work in line with its overall strategy.