Europos Sąjungos struktūrinių fondų paramos Lietuvos smulkiam ir vidutiniam verslui analizė

Small and medium size enterprises make 99,3% of all Lithuanian enterprises, which ought to sustain their competitive advantage in the enlarging global market and apply it to attain the micro and macro economic goals of the country. This investigative paper thoroughly evaluates EU Structural funds assistance for Lithuanian small and medium size enterprises. The first section explains the Structural funds’ general goals, which later are identified in the environment of Lithuanian strategic goals while promoting the the country SME’s competitiveness development, and a smooth integration into the aggregate market of the Europe Union. Some of the strategic goals discussed are the implementation of the country’s regional policy, Lithuanian SME definition unification with the EU standards, and the stimulation of innovation. The second section provides with the information of Lithuanian SME possibilities to attain resources from the Structural funds. Both directly provided financial support and the indirect benefit, which is experienced by the SME businesses while becoming suppliers of the projects, are analyzed. While analyzing the direct support, all the means under which SME business can get support are portrayed. The analysis provides description of every mean and the brief, supported by the mean, discussion of the congruity between the goals of the means and the needs of the SMEs. The main attention is given to the analysis of the goals of modernization and partnership between businesses. A separate section of the research is dedicated to analyze the effectiveness of the management of the Structural funds in Lithuania. First, a brief review of the management system and the pathway of the query to become a project, financed form the Structural funds, is provided. Later, each and every aspect is analyzed structurally and by comparison. The next section of the research analyses the attained results of the Structural funds support process, while valuating the efficiency of the support offering from structural and macroeconomic positions. The analysis is complemented and finalized by providing the Lithuanian SME representatives’ opinion and comprehension, collected during a survey, of the Structural funds.