Abstract
One can hardly doubt the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs): they are of special importance in such areas as the creation of the middle class and improving the quality of life. The success of European SMEs was embedded in the Lisbon strategy that has set up the goal of making the European Union (EU) the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world by the year 2010.
The new visions for the development of the EU also assume that European small enterprises will be successful in competing with their rivals from the United States or South-East Asia in globalizing and rapidly changing the world of tomorrow.