1. 1 Typology of SMEs in EU Chemicals: Basic indicators 21 June 2010

2. 2 SMEs Definition  Micro-enterprises: employ fewer than 10 persons and have an annual turnover not exceeding € 2 Million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding € 2 Million  Small-enterprises: employ fewer than 50 persons and have an annual turnover not exceeding € 10 Million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding € 10 Million  Medium-enterprises: employ fewer than 250 persons and have an annual turnover not exceeding € 50 Million, or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding € 43 Million Source: EU Commission, 6 May 2003

3. 3 SMEs Definition

4. 4  96% of all European chemicals enterprises are SMEs having less than 250 employees, providing 37% of all jobs and generating 30% of sales Data source: Eurostat SBS (2001)

5. 5 EU Chemicals: Number of enterprises, sales and employment by size-class

6. 6  There are about 27 000 enterprises operating in the EU chemicals industry (excluding pharmaceuticals), providing employment for 1.2 million people,  Some 63% of these enterprises are micro (0-9 employees), 23% are small (10-49), 10% are medium-sized (50-249). 96% of all EU enterprises are therefore considered as SMEs (26 000) having less than 250 employees  Nearly 4% of all enterprises are large having more than 249 employees, 2.1% (250-499), 1.1% (500-999), and only 0.7% (1000 or more) SMEs: the real giants of the EU chemicals industry

7. 7 About 86% of enterprises have less than 50 employees Number of companies: 27 000 96% of them are SMEs (1-249) Data source: Eurostat SBS (2001)

8. 8 Nearly 70% of SMEs are located in 5 countries: Italy, Spain, UK, France and Germany Number of SMEs: 26 253 Data source: Eurostat SBS (2001)

9. 9 What are the most important problems that European SMEs are facing and which prevent their growth? *European commission: Report on the results of open consultation, 22/04/2009

10. 10  There are 17 093 enterprises (Micro) operating in the EU chemicals industry, having less than 10 employees.  These Micro enterprises are providing 3.8% of employment and generating nearly 2% of sales.  About 72% of them are located in six EU countries, Italy (22%), Spain (14%), France (12%), UK (11%), Germany* (7%) and Czech Republic (6%)  84% of Micro enterprises are active in consumer chemicals (32%), basic chemicals (26%), and other chemicals (26%) Nearly two thirds of EU chemicals enterprises have less than 10 employees (Micro) *estimated