Wedged between Europe’s SME sector and the biggest companies, there is a dynamic, innovative, but often overlooked category of businesses: mid-caps. With institutional and private sector partners, the EPC has established a three-year task force project to explore and structure the debate around mid-caps’ role in Europe’s economy.
Relying on what is often a specific economic model, mid-caps are an important part of Europe’s capacity to face the current economic shocks. They deliver on the EU’s overarching strategies, from the green and digital transitions to economic security. As entrepreneurial and innovative companies focused on the long-term and territorially anchored, they are the backbone of Europe’s growth and jobs. Through their technology and export focus, they often develop in global niches but can also be dependent on global supply chains. In this regard, Mid-caps now stand at the hard edge of Europe’s economic, industrial policy and strategic autonomy debates.
There is, however, a lack of data and understanding of the mid-caps category at the national and European levels, which in the worst case, will result in sub-optimal policy choices. As the EU has engaged a broad rethink of its single market, investment and industrial policies, it is critical to make up for this inattention. Working with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other partners, the EPC is looking to bring forward Europe-wide data on mid-caps’ role in growth, employment, investment, innovation and international exposure.
The EPC’s mid-caps project also functions as a task force, aggregating stakeholder actors interested in exploring the links between the sector and the EU’s overarching strategic and economic goals through research and policy exchange. The project’s work will be structured in several workstreams, the first two focussing on ‘Financing and investment conditions for mid-caps’ and ‘Shaping an enabling ecosystem across the single market’.