Single Market Programme - Performance

Programme in a nutshell

Concrete examples of achievements

Budget for 2021-2027

Rationale and design of the programme

The single market is at the heart of the European project. Since its inception, it has proved a major contributor to growth, competitiveness and employment. It is one of Europe’s major achievements and its best asset in an increasingly global world. It is also an engine for building a stronger, more balanced and fairer EU economy. Thanks to the single market, people, goods, services and money can move around the EU almost as freely as within a single country. EU citizens can study, live, shop, work and retire in any EU Member State, and enjoy products from all over Europe. A properly functioning single market is not a given, however. It has yet to materialise in a number of areas, and in others the benefits could be more substantial.

The single market programme (SMP) improves the functioning of the internal market and helps protect and empower citizens, consumers and businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The programme supports the design, implementation and enforcement of EU legislation underpinning the proper functioning of the single market for goods and services. It assists the digitalisation of services and business operations and facilitates market access and international cooperation, especially in the areas of company law, contract and extra-contractual law, anti-money laundering, free movement of capital, financial services and competition, consumer protection and product safety. It also contributes to a high level of health and safety for humans, animals and plants, and supports the improvement of animal welfare, the fight against antimicrobial resistance and the development of sustainable food production and consumption. Overarching and contributing to all areas, the programme supports the development, production and dissemination of European statistics on all EU policies.

Budget

Budget programming (million EUR):

^{(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.}

  Financial programming:
  + EUR 117.9 million (+ 3%)
  compared to the legal basis*

^{(*) Top-ups pursuant to Article 5 of the multiannual financial framework regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.}

The 2022 EU budget for the SME pillar was increased by EUR 30 million, of which EUR 10 million was earmarked for tourism to help alleviate the impact of COVID-19 on the sector, with a further increase of EUR 10 million for the 2023 budget.

Negotiations with several non-EU countries⁽¹⁾ are nearing completion and their contributions will be included in the budget once the agreements are ratified. Countries will not necessarily participate in all strands of the SMP; this is discussed during the negotiation process.

^{(1)  Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye (enlargement countries); Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine (Eastern Partnership countries).}

Budget performance – implementation

Multiannual cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):

Annual voted budget implementation (million EUR)⁽¹⁾:

^{(1) Voted appropriations (C1) only.}

Contribution to horizontal priorities

Green budgeting

Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):

Within the SME pillar, the Enterprise Europe Network supports SMEs in the transition to circular business models and in making use of greener, more energy-efficient technologies. Over 200 expert business advisers from the Enterprise Europe Network specialise in climate-related issues. The 2023 SME pillar work programme also includes a new Enterprise Europe Network energy-efficiency action with a total budget of EUR 10 000 000.

The intelligent cities challenge (ICC) (with a contract renewal of EUR 7 435 915 ⁽¹⁾ – 2022 SME pillar work programme) helps cities to coordinate measures for delivering comprehensive business models, governance structures and networks to boost the transition to circular business models and a sustainable economy. It provides guidance and support to cities for putting in place local green deals, which address the green transformation in local industry and businesses.

At the individual project level there are several SME pillar projects focusing uniquely on climate goals under various measures such as joint clusters initiatives and sustainability and local green deals with a total maximum EU grant amount of EUR 5.8 million. The actual amount spent on climate-related initiatives is considerably higher, but as many projects focus on multiple goals simultaneously it is not possible to distinguish the exact amounts allocated to this area.

A number of SME pillar initiatives contribute to biodiversity goals. In particular, the SME Fund intellectual property voucher reimburses certain types of expenses incurred by SMEs in protecting their intellectual property rights, including plant variety rights (the total EU budget for this action in 2023 is EUR 2 100 000, of which EUR 100 000 is specifically allocated to plant variety rights). The European agrifood sustainability cluster partnerships action (with a budget of EUR 3 million under the 2023 annual work programme) will support the establishment and development of cluster partnerships to mobilise and support SMEs from this sector to engage in resource-efficiency and sustainability improvements, including improvements relating to biodiversity.

Grants to EFRAG (previously known as European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) support the development of European sustainability reporting standards, as provided for by the corporate sustainability reporting directive, adopted on 14 December 2022. This directive is a key instrument in supporting the EU sustainable finance agenda and is important in meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal. On 22 November 2022, EGRAG submitted the first set of 12 final draft European sustainability reporting standards, covering 10 topical sustainability matters including climate change, pollution, own work force and affected communities. The Commission plans to adopt the  standards by June 2023.

The action grants to the European standardisation organisations reflect the priorities of the annual EU work programme for European standardisation, of which the green transition is one of the main dimensions. The first three action grants under the SMP concern ambient air, plastic fishing gear and organic fertilisers.

One of the key priorities in the new consumer agenda for 2020-2025 is to support the green transition by promoting more sustainable production and consumption of goods and services. In this context, several procurement initiatives under the consumer pillar were concluded in 2021-2022 to support measures that empower and assist consumers to make sustainable and informed choices, by raising consumers’ awareness of the environmental performance of products, such as their durability, reparability and eco-design features. The initiatives will also protect consumers from harmful practices, such as greenwashing and planned obsolescence. To promote sustainable production, the consumer pillar launched the Green Consumption Pledge, which calls upon businesses in various sectors of the economy to undertake specific, public and verifiable commitments to reduce their overall environmental footprint, to produce and market more sustainable products and to change their business practices towards a more circular model.

^{(1)  This action also addresses digital transformation. The specific climate budget cannot be distinguished.}

Gender

Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):

<sup>(*) Based on the applied gender contribution methodology, the following scores are attributed at the most granular level of intervention possible:
- 2: interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality;
- 1: interventions that have gender equality as an important and deliberate objective but not as the main reason for the intervention;
- 0: non-targeted interventions (interventions that are expected to have no significant bearing on gender equality);
- 0*: score to be assigned to interventions with a likely but not yet clear positive impact on gender equality.</sup>

Measures supported under this programme respect gender equality principles and take the gender dimension into account.

Under the SME pillar, 59% of the operational coordinators of Enterprise Europe Network consortia are female and 41% are male. The network also has a dedicated group that supports women entrepreneurs and provides partnership and advisory services specifically tailored to their needs. In 2022, 61% of the total financial support provided for Erasmus for young entrepreneurs exchanges went to female new entrepreneurs (444 female new entrepreneurs benefited from the programme and received a total of EUR 1 330 891 to support the costs of their stay). The SME pillar has also created opportunities for businesses in sectors such as the social economy, which are known to attract a high percentage of women entrepreneurs. A total of 19 projects to support local green deals and boost resilience in the social economy sector started in May 2022 (with a total budget of EUR 4 million). Ten of the 19 coordinators are women, and 63 women (50%) are registered as contact persons out of the 125 partners in these projects.

Eurostat is paying special attention to the gender perspective in its programme by systematically collecting, providing and disseminating gender and discrimination statistics and by analysing gender-related aspects whenever possible. Eurostat developed a European Statistical System action plan for improved equality statistics. A stocktake of the availability of equality data in different statistical domains at Eurostat was carried out, and discussions with users were deepened to discover their data needs. The agreed initiatives aim at improving data availability and quality by improving the harmonisation of concepts and taxonomies used in equality statistics, including the equality dimension in existing data collections, and proposing new statistics relevant to equality in order to cover six of the grounds of discrimination (sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation). In 2022, Eurostat disseminated gender-pay-gap data for 2020, along with many detailed gender disaggregation and discrimination statistics. The first countries were disseminated for the EU-wide survey aiming to provide statistics on the prevalence and dynamics of violence against women and other forms of interpersonal violence.

Under the consumer pillar, a panel discussion, entitled ‘Safe for all? Gender and product safety’ was organised during International Product Safety Week in 2022. Although product safety has long been considered a gender-neutral field, in recent years an increasing amount of attention has been paid to how gender and sex differences affect health and safety. For example, product-safety panellists pointed out that products are not always modelled on women during their design process. Consequently, this may result in the creation of unsafe products for them. There are also gender differences in consumption patterns, and thus in the type of risks women face. In addition, women drive most households’ purchases, which means that they can play a key role in consumer safety. The session concluded with good practices on how to involve the gender dimension in policymaking, product design and education campaigns.

Digital

Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):

The 2023 SME pillar work programme includes an initiative with a budget of EUR 7 500 000 that is entirely dedicated to boosting the digital transition of social economy enterprises. Many of the Euroclusters projects provide support to businesses in relation to the digital transition (together with sustainability and resilience building). There is no clear breakdown of the percentage of the Euroclusters budget that is allocated to digitalisation. Reporting data will be available on the number of SMEs supported that undertook business process innovation tied to technological adoption leading to higher sustainability and digitalisation. One relevant project example is the AIBC Euroclusters project, which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain (BC) technologies. The ongoing work seeks to boost the capacities/skills of clusters to allow them to provide stronger support to European SMEs that develop artificial intelligence and blockchain solutions and to support the uptake of related applications by different industrial ecosystems. The Enterprise Europe Network’s service package includes advice to help SMEs prepare for and implement the digital transition (by adapting their processes, using digital technologies and developing new products and services using new digital means). These Enterprise Europe Network services are provided in collaboration with other relevant European networks such as the European Digital Innovation Hubs. As the Enterprise Europe Network grant agreement does not break-down personnel costs by topic, it is not possible to specify the percentage of the network’s budget that supports this goal. There is also an SME pillar initiative supporting the digital transition for tourism, and an initiative to boost construction businesses’ capacities (notably in the areas of digitalisation and sustainability) to facilitate their participation in lighthouse renovation projects for affordable housing and a project for digitalisation of the built environment, public procurement and construction SMEs that is ongoing until June 2024 (budget EUR 750 000 under the 2021 work programme).

The action grants to the European standardisation organisations reflect the priorities of the annual EU work programme for European standardisation, in which the digital transition is one of the main dimensions. Several action grants concern e-invoicing, the internet of things and interoperability activities.

One of the top priorities following the New Consumer Agenda is to ensure that consumers derive full benefit from the digital transformation while addressing digitalisation challenges for vulnerable consumers. In this context, in 2021-2022, the consumer pillar supported several initiatives aimed at ensuring digital fairness and protecting consumer’s rights when buying online (including in digital finance), addressing the new challenges to the safety of products brought by new technologies and online sales, as well as tackling unfair online practices and manipulations such as dark pattern models and hidden influencer marketing.

Budget performance – outcomes

With implementation in the third year of this new programme, there is not enough information from 2021-2022 to yet carry out a detailed performance assessment of the 2021-2027 SMP as a whole. A monitoring and evaluation framework will be established in 2023 on the midterm evaluation requirements. Additional second-level indicators (design and content level) for the pillars and the programme as a whole will supplement the 15 core performance indicators already established in the legal basis (Annex IV to the SMP regulation).

Making the internal market more effective by supporting the development, implementation and enforcement of EU law in the areas of the internal market for financial services

• In 2022, the SMP continued to support the Commission’s policy work, fostering stable and globally competitive financial markets in the interest of businesses and consumers and promoting growth and job creation. This resulted in the Commission adopting legislative proposals that will alleviate the administrative burden for companies of all sizes, in particular SMEs, so that they can better access public funding by listing on stock exchanges. The Commission also proposed a regulation on euro instant payments, allowing people to transfer money at any time of any day within 10 seconds, with a view to making such services available to all citizens and businesses with a bank account in the EU. Other proposals made in 2022 concerned stock-exchange clearing, the harmonisation of certain insolvency rules and multiple-vote share structures.
• The Commission also adopted regulatory technical standards for the disclosure of sustainability-related information by financial market participants and a delegated act under the taxonomy regulation to include, under strict conditions, specific nuclear and gas energy activities in the list of transitional activities covered by the EU taxonomy.

Product market surveillance

• The EU Product Compliance Network, composed of Member State representatives in the area of market surveillance and officials of the Commission, continued working on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance, which entered into force in July 2021. The implementation of the regulation includes initiatives financed by the EU budget.
• Under the SMP, the Commission provides yearly financial support for joint actions between the market surveillance authorities of different Member States, to undertake joint product inspection campaigns. The purpose of the cooperation is to harmonise the ways of working at the EU level, especially in terms of risk assessment of the products tested. When a campaign is finalised, the market surveillance authority coordinating the action presents the results to the EU Product Compliance Network, and follow-up action is undertaken to remedy any issues identified. This is a way to share best practices, and is much appreciated by the members of the network. Two campaigns were finalised in 2022 (portable heaters and recreational crafts). Thirty product campaigns are currently ongoing.
• The Commission supports the market surveillance authorities with the development of three information technology pilot projects meant to facilitate and automate the work of market surveillance inspectors. A special focus is put on e-commerce surveillance. The development of the tools is ongoing and should be finalised by December 2023. The purpose of this initiative is to provide the Member States with effective tools, especially for less digitally advanced market surveillance authorities.
• The Commission continues to offer Member States a platform for the exchange of information between market surveillance authorities, the Information and Communication System for Market Surveillance. The platform is continuously maintained and developed to meet the needs of market surveillance authorities.
• Various cooperation agreements have been set up under the SMP in the form of administrative arrangements. The purpose of these activities is to collect relevant information in order to implement evidence-based policy. DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs cooperates with the Joint Research Centre for the collection of national market surveillance indicators and peer reviews between market surveillance authorities. The first results were delivered in 2022. DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs also has a cooperation agreement in place with DG Taxation and Customs Union for the development of a system for exchanging data between customs authorities and market surveillance authorities, under which the first data was delivered in 2022.

Consumer protection pillar

• Under the consumer protection pillar, the programme continued to finance Safety Gate, the EU’s rapid alert system for the dissemination of information on dangerous non-food products, so the national authorities in the single market can take effective action. Every day, 50 new alerts and follow-ups are circulated through the system. The consumer pillar also facilitated cooperation among enforcement authorities by financing the joint sampling and testing of products, along with the sharing of knowledge and best practices. In 2022, to enhance authorities’ capacity to trace dangerous products, the Commission launched the e-surveillance web crawler to trace whether dangerous products banned from sale are removed from all online listings. During its first 9 months of operation, this powerful tool detected 5 068 online offers from 2 079 web shops concerning unsafe products that should be removed from sale.
• In 2021-2022, the programme provided EUR 14 million to the European Consumer Centres Network, which helps consumers with cross-border purchases and educate them about their rights when shopping on the single market. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the European Consumer Centres have been at the forefront in helping consumers confronted with cancellations of flights and package travel, problems related to online shopping and the increase in the number of scams. In 2022, the network received 126 000 requests for assistance. In 26 000 cases it acted as an intermediary with the trader in obtaining redress, which resulted in the recovery of over EUR 6 million.
• The consumer budget supports the operational capacities of the national Consumer Protection Cooperation authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws. The action grants were awarded to Consumer Protection Cooperation authorities to assist them in, for example, exchanging good practices, creating online investigation tools, training staff, developing artificial intelligence tools to detect online infringements and creating a new database of consumer complaints to allow similar market issues to be detected in several Member States. The grants also support EU authorities’ networking activities with non-EU enforcement bodies as part of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network.
• The programme offers grants to Alternative Dispute Resolution entities to support activities including training for practitioners, customised assistance for vulnerable consumers, the creation of an online case-handling tool and exchanging best practices. Sectoral seminars and workshops organised in 2021-2022 brought together more than 300 practitioners to attempt to strengthen the effectiveness of Alternative Dispute Resolution bodies and to address challenges relating to the energy crisis and the shift towards digitalisation.
• The programme has supported several capacity-building, awareness-raising and education activities, for example Consumer-Law Ready training courses dedicated to SMEs, Consumer Pro training courses dedicated mainly to consumer organisations and an Enforcement Academy aiming to improve the digital investigation and enforcement capacities of national consumer protection authorities and Consumer Safety Network.
• The programme also provided an operating grant of EUR 2.4 million to the European Consumer Organisation BEUC to support various activities aimed at defending the interests of European consumers and providing support to the consumer organisations.

Enhancing the participation of consumers in financial services

• In 2022, the programme provided action grants to two organisations (Better Finance and Finance Watch) for their actions contributing to the SMP’s specific objectives on enhancing the participation of consumers, other end users of financial services and representatives of civil society in financial services policymaking; promoting a better understanding of the financial sector and of the different categories of commercialised financial products; and ensuring that the interests of consumers in the area of retail financial services are protected. Since the launch of the SMP, the two beneficiaries have been working successfully towards the achievement of the programme’s objectives, including by producing a number of position papers, research reports and replies to public consultations informing EU policymaking in the field of financial services.

SME pillar

• The SME pillar of the SMP continues to implement the SME strategy and the SME components of the updated industrial strategy. It has a strong focus on supporting SMEs’ growth and recovery and the green and digital transitions, while helping them to achieve success in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving environment.
• The 2022 SME pillar work programme included the budget contribution for multiannual initiatives launched in 2021 (the Enterprise Europe Network, the joint cluster initiative, Erasmus for young entrepreneurs and the intellectual property voucher for post-COVID-19 recovery and the green and digital transitions). There were also calls for proposals for the tourism and social economy sectors.
• The 2022 projects and support services under the SME pillar are appreciated for the pragmatic and tailor-made assistance they provide to SMEs and for their effectiveness in helping SMEs to deal with new challenges. For example, the Enterprise Europe Network and the joint clusters initiative put in place new services to help SMEs resolve supply chain issues relating to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The circular economy for regenerative tourism project under the 2021 tourism call is a transnational project supporting a network of tourism SMEs across five partner European hubs in the areas of sustainable practice, the circular economy and regenerative tourism. It is providing tourism SMEs with the tools to implement regenerative practices as a long-term strategy within their region and to contribute to the continued resilience, viability and competitiveness of the industry.
• Enterprise Europe Network advisory services are now available in Ukraine (an Enterprise Europe Network Ukraine grant agreement was signed in October 2022), and Ukrainian businesses are also active participants in Erasmus for young entrepreneurs exchanges. The EU–Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation and the EU SME Centre in China provide a wide range of services and events to help European businesses to access markets in these countries. For example, in 2022, the EU SME Centre in China organised 37 training sessions / webinars for over 3 000 SMEs and dealt with more than 300 requests for technical assistance and advice from SMEs. The EU–Japan centre organised 38 webinars with over 900 participants, produced 20 market intelligence reports and provided a technology transfer and space help desk. Two 3-day SME assemblies and eight SME Envoy Network meetings were organised in 2021 and 2022, funded by the budget of the SME pillar. The meetings of the SME Envoy Network supported its work in delivering a number of valuable reports and outputs, including a detailed analysis of the impacts of the Russian aggression in Ukraine on European businesses, advice on priorities for reducing the administrative burden of EU legislation and its 2021 and 2022 annual reports.

Standardisation pillar

• The 2022 indicator shows that most European standards are available in all Member States, and this supports the smooth implementation of EU legislation and policies in the single market. Financing focuses on projects that support the strategic priorities for European standardisation and ensures the effective participation of all relevant stakeholders in the standardisation processes. The high implementation rate is additional proof of the quality and wide acceptance of European standards in the single market.
• In 2023, the programme provided operating grants to three organisations (EFRAG, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and the Public Interest Oversight Board) for their work on the development of international financial reporting and auditing standards.
• In addition to continuing its financial reporting advisory activities, EFRAG received a new mandate from the corporate sustainability reporting directive, adopted on 14 December 2022, to develop European sustainability reporting standards. This directive is a key instrument in supporting the EU’s sustainable finance agenda and is important in meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal. On 22 November 2022, EFRAG submitted the first set of 12 final draft European sustainability reporting standards, covering 10 topical sustainability matters including climate change, pollution, own work force and affected communities. The Commission plans to adopt the European sustainability reporting standards by June 2023.
• In 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the work of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, EFRAG and the Public Interest Oversight Board in several ways. The three entities not only adapted by changing the way they worked, but also extended deadlines to recognise stakeholders’ circumstances and to allow them to provide input and, where applicable, seek input from their constituents. The International Accounting Standards Board supported stakeholders with various COVID-19-related amendments. One example of this was the temporary amendment of International Financial Reporting Standard 16 on leases, which was extended for another year in 2021. In addition, the board continued its work on new amendments to several international accounting standards.

Statistics pillar

• Eurostat continued to provide high-quality European statistics to support the Commission’s six headline ambitions. Moreover, it provided European statistics specifically supporting EU policymaking in response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the related energy crisis, along with the management and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The key performance indicator, measuring Eurostat’s impact on the internet, shows that the programme has performed well. The number of times that Eurostat is mentioned on the internet has increased and is on track to reach the target. The percentage of negative opinions continues to be extremely low, showing trust in and satisfaction with the data produced.

MFF 2014-2020 – Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

COSME supports measures to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs, which also achieve additionality at the EU level. This encompasses measures to foster growth; scale up and create SMEs; improve access to markets (including through internationalisation); improve access to finance for SMEs in the form of equity and debt; promote entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial skills, the business environment and digital transformation; create new business opportunities for SMEs (including those with innovative business models); improve the competitiveness of industrial ecosystems and sectors; develop industrial value chains; modernise industry; and contribute to a green, digital and resilient economy.

Budget

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2021 (million EUR):

Performance assessment

In 2019, SMEs accounted for over 60% of the increase in EU-27 value added, and 70% of the increase in EU-27 employment. In both cases, SMEs’ contribution was driven by micro-SMEs, which accounted for 31% and 56% of the total growth in value added and employment respectively.

However, in 2020, the COVID-19 crisis brought to an abrupt halt or even reversed the gains made by the EU SME sector over the past decade. Many industries, especially in the SME-intensive services sector, experienced large declines in sales as a result of the various lockdowns and other measures introduced by Member States, while some other industries saw their sales increase. The various business support measures implemented by Member States during the pandemic limited the employment impact of the decline in economic activity. Since 2020, a partial recovery has taken place. The 2022 SME Performance Review shows that across the EU, the number of SMEs has recovered partly from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased by 1.2% in 2021. Employment in SMEs rose by 0.5% in 2021 and SME value added by 8%. SME employment took until 2022 to reach 2019 levels.

Specific projects showed continued success and growth. The Erasmus for young entrepreneurs mobility scheme (active since 2009 as a pilot action and continued under COSME) demonstrates the need for entrepreneurial exchanges whereby would-be or newly established entrepreneurs receive practical support from experienced entrepreneurs. Experienced entrepreneurs in return increase their knowledge and access to other markets and gain new ideas and techniques for their business. The programme was hit hard by COVID-19, and the number of matched entrepreneurs dropped significantly in 2020 and 2021 (1 684 and 2 060 entrepreneurs were matched respectively compared to 2 672 in 2019). Despite the challenges caused by COVID-19, the programme has maintained its wide geographical reach, implemented by a network of over 180 local intermediary organisations in 37 out of 39 participating countries, including Kosovo ⁽¹⁾ and Martinique (an EU outermost region). In 2022 the programme has reached a milestone of 11 000 exchanges involving 22 000 entrepreneurs in business exchanges.

Around 263 898 SMEs received advisory services from the Enterprise Europe Network between 2015 and 2020. Specific initiatives in 2020 to help SMEs overcome the COVID-19 crisis were continued and consolidated in 2021, in particular virtual brokerage events to help SMEs find alternative business partners, advice on access to finance and single market advisory services. According to a survey by the Enterprise Europe Network, about 74% of responding companies were strongly or moderately affected by the crisis, forcing them to deal with supply chain disruptions, employee absences and temporary shutdowns (among other issues). The most obvious reasons were delays due to transport and logistics problems, border closings and national lockdown measures.

Up to September 2022, the Loan Guarantee Facility had enabled more than 850 000 SMEs to receive more than EUR 53 billion in financial support over the 2014-2022 period. In reaction to the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, EUR 714 million from the European Fund for Strategic Investments was redirected to the COSME Loan Guarantee Facility to allow the European Investment Fund to incentivise banks to provide liquidity to SMEs affected by the crisis. More flexibility was given to users of the facility, and the guarantee rate was increased from 50 to 80%. Up to September 2022 this helped more than 110 000 European SMEs to access more than EUR 10 billion in liquidity finance under the COSME COVID-19 measure within the Loan Guarantee Facility.

By September 2022, the funds supported by the Equity Facility for Growth had invested more than EUR 4 billion in more than 600 companies. Of this amount, more than EUR 3 billion was invested in more than 400 SMEs in their growth and expansion stage. The latter two indicators (EUR 3 billion and 400 SMEs) reached the long-term targets initially envisaged for 2020.

^{(1)  This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.}

MFF 2014-2020 – European Statistical programme

The European statistical programme provides funding to national statistical institutes for the development, production and dissemination of high-quality statistics to monitor the economic, social, environmental and territorial situation, thereby providing for evidence-based-decision making in the EU and measuring the impact of EU initiatives.

Budget

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2021 (million EUR):

Performance assessment

The implementation of the European statistical programme progressed well, producing significant results under the programme’s various objectives.

The general objective of the programme was for the European Statistical System to be the leading provider of high-quality statistics on Europe. Its performance indicator, measuring Eurostat’s impact on the internet, shows that the programme has generally performed well. The number of times that Eurostat is mentioned on the internet has increased and is well over target. The percentage of negative opinions is extremely low, showing trust in and satisfaction with the data produced.

The second performance indicator, statistical coverage, measures the relevance of the statistics published by Eurostat. It shows how the quantity and variety of data published by Eurostat evolve and are measured as the number of different statistics published on the Eurostat website increases. The statistical coverage shows a very high increase of 233 million (48%) compared to last year. The majority of the exceptional increase can be traced to the publication of the data of the 2020 agricultural census, which is organised every ten years, and to the dissemination of new asylum statistics tables, a topic in high demand due also to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The positive development of the two indicators demonstrates that Eurostat has enlarged its statistics offer to meet new user needs and that demands for new statistics are being satisfied, thanks in part to improvements in the production process, as the amount of available resources is not increasing.

MFF 2014-2020 – Food and Feed

The food and feed programme aims to prevent, control and eradicate animal diseases and plant pests, support sustainable food production and consumption and improve animal welfare and the effectiveness, efficiency and reliability of official controls.

Budget

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2021 (million EUR):

 Performance assessment

Among the important achievements in the area of food and feed (a high level of health for humans, animals and plants), it is worth noting the dramatic reduction of both food-borne salmonellosis in humans and classical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease, which has almost disappeared). Lumpy skin disease, an emerging disease of cattle, has also been controlled effectively (vaccination campaigns), with no outbreaks in south-eastern Europe since 2017.

In 2014-2020, the European Court of Auditors published several reports assessing the implementation of the food and feed programme. In Chemical Hazards in Our Food – Special report 02/2019, the Court emphasised that the EU’s food safety model in respect of chemicals is considered a point of reference, and that it is soundly based and respected. On 26 April 2016, the Court published Dealing with serious cross-border threats to health in the EU – Special report 28/2016 on a performance audit on animal disease eradication programmes, and drew positive conclusions on DG Health and Food Safety’s management of the programmes. All of the Court’s recommendations referred to initiatives that were already ongoing, and all of them have already been finalised.

The food and feed programme has contributed to the improvement of animal welfare through its financial support for courses (Better Training for Safer Food programme) in this area in several countries. This has led to improvements in this sector, as stated by the Court of Auditors, which emphasised in Animal Welfare in the EU – Special report 31/2018 that EU action on animal welfare has improved compliance with the EU’s requirements and has supported higher standards, with a clear positive impact on animal welfare.

In 2019, the Internal Audit Service requested that DG Health and Food Safety further improve and simplify the financial management of the veterinary and phytosanitary programmes. In the light of this process, DG Health and Food Safety signed an administrative arrangement with the Joint Research Centre of the Commission to develop new methodologies for the calculation of unit costs in both areas. The work has suffered slight delays because of the COVID-19 situation, but the final report on the review of the methodology for unit costs in the veterinary area was submitted by the Joint Research Centre to DG Health and Food Safety in March 2021. At the same time, the report for phase 1 concerning a new methodology for the calculation of unit costs for sampling activities in the phytosanitary area (where no such approach existed) was also submitted by the Joint Research Centre. DG Health and Food Safety intends to apply both methodologies in the near future.

The Commission acknowledges the existence of backlogs, especially in the area of regulated food ingredients, and is working to enhance its procedures for the monitoring and enforcement of all food and health legislation, which will cover the follow-up to recommendations arising from Commission audits.

MFF 2014-2020 – Consumer programme

The consumer programme promotes the interests of consumers and ensures a high level of product safety and consumer protection by empowering and assisting consumers, ensuring access to efficient redress mechanisms, supporting enforcement authorities and consumer organisations, enhancing the participation of consumers and other end users of financial services in financial services policymaking and promoting better understanding of the financial sector and the different forms of commercialised financial products.

Budget

Cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2021 (million EUR):

Contribution to the sustainable development goals