Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered the engine of any economy and actively contribute to the economic growth of countries. For this reason, there are concerns regarding the identification of the factors that influence the activity of SMEs and, in particular, how they manage to adapt and obtain better performance in a constantly changing economic environment. The tax burden is high and discouraging for many enterprises, so we aimed to analyse the relationship between the taxes imposed on SMEs and their performance. Thus, the main purpose of our study was to analyse the relationship between the taxes paid by SMEs and their performance. The period of analysis consisted of the 14 years between 2008 and 2021. The analysed sample comprised the 27 member countries of the European Union. To test the relationship, we used panel data methods, and we considered two indicators that measure the performance of SMEs as dependent variables and indicators that measure the taxes paid by businesses as independent variables. For a more in-depth analysis, we used clusters of countries. The main results show that the taxes that SMEs have to pay are seen as obstacles in the way of improving performance. Moreover, the relationship between taxes and the performance of SMEs depends on the specifics of the economy of the country.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are considered the engine of economic growth, as they play an important role in a country's economy by significantly contributing to its economic growth and job creation. However, one of the biggest problems SMEs face is the lack of access to finance. Lack of access to finance affects the existence of SMEs and the possibility of their speedy recovery from a crisis. The present study aims to conduct an empirical analysis of the influence of macroeconomic variables on the performance of small and medium enterprises. The study also includes the credit indicator granted to the private sector by banks, to analyze whether SMEs performance is influenced by access to finance, especially in a competitive economy. The main objective of the study is to investigate the determinants for improving the SME’s performance and the impact of access to finance on it among the Member States of the European Union located in south-eastern Europe. The economic theory states that access to finance influences a company's performance. The present study is based on the secondary data on the macroeconomic environment of the states under study and is obtained from the Eurostat and the World Bank. The study is empirical cum qualitative in nature and based on Panel data. The analysis period is 11 years from 2010 to 2020. The data analysis is done with the help of the econometric software “EViews”. The findings of the study indicates that the macroeconomic environment influences the financing decisions of most small and medium- sized enterprises. Also, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated, and access to finance is especially a vital issue for the SME sector. The results confirm that the real GDP growth rate influences the financing decision of SMEs. Considering the vital importance of the SMEs in a country’s economy and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium-sized enterprises, the paper is of high interest in solving the problems of access to finance.

On the background of the exponential decrease of natural resources and the continuous and accentuated degradation of the quality of the environment, ensuring the sustainability of economic and social processes has become a reality of everyday life. However, the primary focus is on the degradation of the quality of the environment, which has the main effect of global warming. The idea of sustainable development is based on 3 fundamental pillars, namely the economic, the social and last but not least the environmental. In contemporary society, direct investment is often seen as a vital source for development and even sustainable development. Thus, the desire for development must go hand in hand with sustainable development, implicitly with the quality of the surrounding environment. At the level of the European Union, it is important that all member countries implement common measures on sustainable development. This is the generous context in which the paper aims to analyse the impact of environmental effects in the volume of direct investments. We will analyse the countries of European country in the period 2004-2020, and we will use the Stata program. Thus, following the running of the multiple regression equation, we found that in attracting direct investments in European country in the period 2004-2020, the environmental effects have a positive influence.