Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) predominate in the Portuguese business structure, especially in more traditional economic sectors. The weaknesses shown by SMEs are varied in nature, most notably in the first place, the skills of entrepreneurs, as most do not have appropriate technical and vocational education and thus show greater difficulties to react and adapt to the economy global changes. On the other hand, the family nature of the overwhelming majority of SMEs do not allow the development of a culture of business cooperation. Moreover, the market for many of these companies is confined at the regional or, at best, national level, and limited the number of companies that achieved internationalization. Another striking weakness of Portuguese SMEs is the low development and integration of R&D, which is reflected in its ability to innovate. With the integration of Portugal in the European Economic Community, the national policy to support companies and meet their shortcomings regarding European integration began to be based on programmes supported by Structural Funds.

The study evaluated on an ongoing basis the contribution and impact of Structural Funds for the support and development of Portuguese SMEs in the period 1994-99 (CSF II), looking from the lessons of experience, for producing a range of recommendations to guide future programming Community support to our SMEs.