The Commission's report says that Slovenian SMEs with up to 249 employees fared much better than big business in 2012-2016.

According to Commission figures, they increased the value added by 18.9% and employment by 6.8% in the period, far more than the bigger companies, whose value added grew by 12.9% and employment by 1.3%.

Despite the growth in SME jobs, the figure is still 1.2% below the pre-crisis 2008, the Commission pointed out.

But things are to further improve for SMEs in 2016-2018, as the value added is forecast to increase by 9.7% and employment by 3.1%.

The rise will be fuelled by micro companies employing up to nine employees, which are to improve their value added by 12.5% and employment by 5.2% in the period. In total, 13,800 new jobs are to be created in SMEs in Slovenia.

Slovenia is about average in implementing the small business act for Europe, with being second to best in second chance. It got the lowest ranking, slightly below EU average, in responsive administration and in state aid and public procurement.

The key challenge Slovenian SMEs will face in the coming years is ensuring qualified staff, the report indicates, with the Commission suggesting focusing special attention to raising workforce skills to increase productivity and introducing entrepreneurship into curricula at all levels of education.

Slovenia should also improve financing conditions for SMEs, especially access to alternative financing, actively back digitalisation of business and reduce red tape.

According to the report, as many as 99.8% of EU business outside finance are SMEs. Last year they employed 93 million people or 67% of the workforce outside finance. They generated 57% of value added in the EU.