The SBA Fact Sheets, which examine the business environment for SMEs across Europe, found that Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, along with Lithuania and Estonia, are the top-performing member states.
The news comes as the first European SME Week is launched with a series of events across all member states and an opening event in Brussels today (6 May).
Under the SBA, member states are encouraged to design their enterprise policies to meet the 'Think Small First' principle, meaning SMEs should be a priority for national and local governments when drafting new legislation.
Facilitating access to finance, upgrading skills, promoting innovation and encouraging small firms to make the best use of the internal market are among the priorities outlined in the SBA.
Underperforming member states include Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain, leading researchers to conclude that countries of all sizes in Southern and Central Europe tend to have the least attractive environment for fostering entrepreneurship.
Individual reports on each country have been published in conjunction with the annual SME Report for 2008, which collates statistics on the contribution of small businesses to the European economy.
SMEs account for over 99% of the EU's non-financial business economy, with micro-enterprises making up the vast majority of the SME sector.
The report finds that 84% of new jobs created in 2007 were in small firms, but warns that SMEs' ability to generate employment has been severely hampered due to difficulty accessing credit. Start-ups face a particular challenge as they have no track record or credit history.
"SMEs are particularly vulnerable to the credit crunch due to their heavy dependence on bank credit and limited recourse to financial markets," according to the SME report.
