ECU 17 million from Structural Funds for Swedish SMEs The European Commission has made available ECU 17 million from the EU's Structural Funds to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs in the sparsely populated, rural and declining industrial areas in Sweden. The aid comes under the Commission SME initiative and is matched by fun... The European Commission has made available ECU 17 million from the EU's Structural Funds to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs in the sparsely populated, rural and declining industrial areas in Sweden. The aid comes under the Commission SME initiative and is matched by funding of ECU 17 million from the Swedish authorities. To realize more fully the job creation potential of Swedish SMEs, resources available under this programme are concentrated on three priority areas: - Actions to promote national and international networking by small companies and to gain access to European markets; - Measures to make new technology more accessible to very small firms. Special attention will be paid to the use of information technologies by SMEs; - Actions to assist SMEs achieve the highest environmental standards in product and process technology. Countries Sweden
