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This paper offers a broad overview of the papers contained in Part II of "The Blackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship," in the section titled "Government Impacts on Entrepreneurship." The papers included are "SME Policy in Europe," "Entrepreneurship in Germany," "Regulatory Policies and Their Impact on SMEs in Europe: the Case of Administrative Burdens," "The Climate for Entrepreneurship in European Countries in Transition," and "Six Steps to Heaven: Evaluating the Impact of Public Policies to Support Small Businesses in Developed Economies.".

This paper explores what small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policy is about, how it is pursued in Europe, and the differences between the European countries. According to the author, the overall objectives of SME policy are to create employment, foster economic growth, improve competitiveness, and regional/structural development. The SME-related policy pursued in most European countries involves a collection of various objectives and fields of economic policy rather than a conceptual framework. The author discusses the various approaches of SME policy that take place in the following European countries: Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, and Belgium. The author also discusses the variation of instruments used in the following fields of SME policy: start-ups, finance, exports and internationalization, information, research and development, labor, and red tape.