The Commission’s renewed Market Access Strategy (COM(2007) 183 of 18 April 2007) makes an essential contribution to supporting the internationalisation of European SMEs.

Market Access Teams exist in 34 key export markets for EU companies. EU Delegations coordinate and supervise their work pooling resources of Commission departments, Member State embassies and EU business representatives. These teams collect information about locally available expertise to identify, analyse and help dismantling trade barriers faced by EU companies in a coordinated manner. Market Access Teams do not perform diplomatic functions nor are they linked to local authorities.

The organisation and operational tasks of these teams vary depending on the country, the business climate prevailing locally and the available EU business structures in the country. Their meetings can be either specific or part of the more regular discussions among EU economic counsellors. There is no specific budget for Market Access Teams.

The role of these teams is being extended to support SMEs internationalisation in line with the communication ‘Small Business, Big World’ (COM(2011) 702 of 9 November 2011). For more information, see also:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/trade-topics/market-access/index_en.htm