As negotiations on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) intensify, it is difficult to overstate what is at stake – not just for Brussels policymakers, but for the millions of small and medium-sized enterprises that underpin Europe’s economy. The MFF is not a dry budgetary exercise. It is, in effect, a test of whether Europe’s productive fabric – its SMEs – will be genuinely supported over the next seven years, or whether support will remain concentrated in the hands of a limited number of champions.
Let us be clear: SMEs do not ask for favours. They ask for predictability, fair access to funding, and a regulatory environment that rewards risk-taking rather than smothering it in red tape. Yet as the next MFF takes shape, we continue to see a familiar pattern: ambitious headline figures for competitiveness and resilience often do not translate into practical, low-barrier support for the vast majority of smaller firms. Too much funding still risks being channelled through complex application procedures, co-financing requirements that many SMEs cannot meet, and a one-size-fits-all logic that overlooks the realities of micro-enterprises, family-run businesses and local suppliers.
Our message to negotiators is simple. If the next MFF genuinely aims to strengthen Europe’s industrial base, strategic autonomy and long-term competitiveness, it must do more than back a narrow group of scale-ups and high-potential firms. It must widen the base. That means simplifying access to programmes such as the Single Market Programme and the European Innovation Council. It means ensuring that debt finance and grants are not effectively reserved for large corporations or research-intensive firms with the capacity to navigate the system. And it means giving local chambers and other proximity actors a stronger role in implementation, so that funds actually reach the workshops, shop floors, service providers and digital start-ups that sustain regional economies.
For many SMEs, the real challenge is not the absence of funding in principle, but the fact that too much is designed only for the few firms already investment-ready – not for the everyday businesses that quietly sustain Europe’s economy. When programmes become too complex, too centralised, or too detached from local ecosystems, even well-intentioned investments risk missing their target. Simplification is necessary, but simplification alone is not enough if access remains structurally narrow. Horizontal support actions should be strengthened and given more budget and greater reach.
What is needed is a more balanced approach. Europe does not need an MFF built only around excellence. It needs an MFF also built around diffusion. Supporting European champions and strategic industrial projects is important, and their success can generate opportunities across entire value chains, benefiting thousands of SMEs. But Europe cannot rely on trickle-down competitiveness alone. The real challenge for the next decade is not simply helping a few firms become global leaders, but enabling millions of businesses to adopt new technologies, develop skills, access finance and participate more effectively in European and global markets. Competitiveness should be measured not only by the success of the few, but also by the capacity of the many to innovate, modernise and grow. A stronger Europe requires both: world-class champions and a broad, dynamic SME base capable of translating strategic investments into lasting economic resilience.
The EU level may argue that these issues are for national authorities. But the MFF is not just a spreadsheet: it is a political and legal framework that determines what counts as ‘competitiveness’, what is fundable, and what is not. Without a clear mandate and signal from the EU level to support the broad SME base, the systemic bias towards high-potential scale-ups will simply continue.
So as negotiations move into a more decisive political phase, we will be watching closely. And we will continue to raise our voice – not to oppose an ambitious EU budget, but to demand one that also works for the businesses that sustain Europe’s economy. The MFF should not be a test of Brussels’ ability to fund a handful of champions. It should be a test of its ability to listen, simplify, broaden access and deliver for the many.
That is the framework Europe’s SMEs need. Anything less is a missed opportunity we cannot afford.
Ana Sarateanu
Director of Unioncamere Europa