The serious economic crisis hitting Greece will prompt in the first half of this year the closing of some 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, the European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajan.
At the end of a visit to Greece, Tajan insisted that the difficult situation in the country is reflected in that the revenue of six out of every 10 businesses failed and 150,000 jobs were lost in 2011.
In a communiqué of the said Commission, Tajan expresses the willingness to check that escape of human and financial resources and calls for assisting family businesses, the main core of Greek economy.
According to statistics in 2010, Greece had 742,600 small businesses employing more than 2.5 million people, over 85 percent of the country’s full work capacity, the highest in Europe.
That structure produced 35.3 percent of the country’s added value against 21.8 percent on average in the EU, figures that fell dramatically last year.
Due to the marked fall in productivity because of limited credit and loans and lack of access to markets, the EU created in March this year a special guarantee fund with 500 million euros to back investment in small and medium businesses.
Greece is the crisis worst-hit country in the European community, with effects prompting it in April 2010 to ask for a loan to the European Union, in what constituted its first rescue package request as it found it impossible to sustain public debt.
It became the first European country in asking for external help amid the financial crisis and another rescue operation was also needed in the summer of 2011, with a threat of a third, besides implementing several adjustment and privatization plans.
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