Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant said that it was very interesting to hear about successful stories by European Small and Medium Sized Industries, however, in order to know how the funding to SMEs works, it would be just as important to collect information about non successful stories including firms/enterprises that didn't obtain support from banks or that had problems to develop their business due to excess of bureaucracy. Dr Sant  addressed  the event "SMEs aim higher with Eurostars" at the European Parliament in Brussels which was focused on the potential of the EUROSTARS funding programme for the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the EU organised by EUREKA.

 “We have to take a number of firms and follow their development, since the beginning (when they get funding from EUROSTARS) until the end, throughout all steps; not only at the end. Only through this accurate assessment and more evidence we could really understand what approach or strategy to take towards policies and tools related to the funding of SMEs.”

The Maltese MEP underlined that SMEs in the EU are very much based in their own country and they don't move across the EU. “The idea of building a Capital Market Union could help internationalisation and to have access to funding.” Dr Sant told the Conference.

Replying to a question from the audience on why the SMEs ecosystem in the EU is less performing than the SMEs ecosystem in the US, Dr Sant said that in the EU SMEs are more based on bank lending compared to the US. Moreover, there is a more cautious approach to set up business in the EU compared to the US.

EUROSTARS is a joint programme between EUREKA and the European Commission, co-funded from the national budgets of 36 Eurostars Participating States and Partner Countries and by the EU through Horizon 2020.  In the 2014-2020 period it has a total public budget of €1.14 billion (€861 million of national funding from its countries + €287 million of EU funds).

The countries participating in Eurostars through the EUREKA network of national offices are the EU 28 Member States + Canada, Iceland, Israel, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey. EUREKA is a publicly-funded, intergovernmental network, involving over 40 countries. It aims to enhance European competitiveness by fostering innovation-driven entrepreneurship in Europe, between small and large industry, research institutes and universities.