The Europe of the micro-companies: this is the picture shown by a Eurostat survey presented in Brussels today. In the era of globalisation and multinationals, the Statistics Office of the EU Commission finds a "fragmented" situation in the member states. "Virtually all the companies" working in Europe in 2005 (last available figure) are "micro-, small- or medium-sized companies". The first ones, with up to 9 employees, account for 92% of the total (the survey concerns all companies, except farms, public and financial companies) and employ 38 million people, i.e. 30% of the EU’s manpower. They produce 1,100 billion euros’ worth of added value, accounting for 21% of the total. Micro-companies are most widespread in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus; they are less frequent in Germany, Denmark, Romania. "The relative importance of micro-, small-sized (10 to 49 employees) and medium-sized companies (up to 249 employees) in terms of employment and creation of wealth "is less than their weight in terms of number of companies", explains the Eurostat survey. Large-sized companies, which amount to 40 thousand in the EU (0.2% of companies), "account for 33% employment and generate 42% overall added value".
