Online tools and services for smaller businesses

Services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

• The Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest support network for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with international ambitions. It has 3,000 experts across 600 member organisations in more than 60 countries. Member organisations include chambers of commerce and industry, technology centres, and research institutes.
• Trade Defence SME Helpdesk The Helpdesk offers importers and exporters easily accessible personal advice in case they are affected by Trade Defence Instruments, i.e. as anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures, imposed in the EU) or elsewhere in the world.
• The IPR SME Helpdesks The IPR SME Helpdesks support European Union (EU) SMEs to both protect and enforce their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the partner country, through the provision of free information and services (China, Latin America, South-East Asia)
  • China IP SME Helpdesk
  • Latin America IP SME Helpdesk
  • South-East Asia IP SME Helpdesk.
• Your Europe - Business provides multilingual information and online government services for companies looking for business opportunities inside and outside Europe (click on the map, select a EU country to find out the Member States business support activities).
• Entrepreneurship and SMEs provides an overview what the EU does for SMEs.
• The eTranslation service is free of charge and will help you save time and money to translate your documents and text between any two official EU languages, and more!
• EU funded business support projects provide EU business with support services such as export market information, market access assistance, advice on regulatory issues and guidance on intellectual property rights
  • EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation
  • EU SME Centre in China
  • European ASEAN Business Centre(EABC), Thailand
  •  ASEAN Trade Repository, ASEAN’s gateway to trade-related regulatory transparency for all ASEAN Member States
  • Support to European business in South East Asia markets (SEBSEAM )
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • Philippines
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • Cambodia
    • Myanmar

Information on trade fairs

• AUMA trade fair database Information on Trade Fairs in Germany and worldwide provided by AUMA, the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, offering details on the events such as the dates, distribution data, statistics and information how to contact the trade fairs and event organisers.

Small and Medium Sized Chapters in Trade Agreements

All new trade agreements will contain a SME Chapter, if the partner country agrees. This would allow a better information exchange on market access issues, as well as a fruitful cooperation between the Commission and the partner country when addressing SMEs-related-issues in the trade agreement.

• EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

• EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)

Besides, on 26 September 2018, the Joint Committee of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic & Trade Agreement (CETA) agreed in a specific SMEs Recommendation that each Party provides online information to SMEs of the other Party about CETA and market access, and that a SME Contact Point on each side work together to tackle SMEs specific issues.

Contact us

You can address specific queries related to SMEs, market access and trade at TRADE-MARKET-ACCESS@ec.europa.eu or you can submit generic questions via the contact form on the Access2Markets website.