The development of small and medium enterprises - SMEs in Romania stands below the European average with 14 SMEs per 1,000 Romanians, according to a European Commission representative to Bucharest, Giorgio Ficcarelli. The EU average stands at 52 SMEs per 1,000 citizens.

Ficcarelli warned that Romania is also lacking momentum when it comes to the pace of creation of new companies and it called for a greater initiative among Romanians to establish firms to better speculate the existing opportunities on the market.

He said that there are 25 million SMEs in the EU with over 100 million people employed, meaning some two thirds of the overall private sector workforce.

He also warned that the EU accession will intensify the challenges for Romanian SMEs, but that the funds they’ll have at their disposal will rise to billions of euros.