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entrepreneurship. Its funding primarily targets the early development stages oftechnology-focused ventures. The EIF does not directly invest in SMEs; rather,it operates under market conditions to provide financial guarantees that helpSMEs to access debt financing, and it works through intermediaries in itsventure capital activities.Suder and Lindeque (2018, p.278) also highlight the cons of these alternativefinancial resources. %u201cMany small internet entrepreneurs, however, prefer tooperate without VC because they wish to remain independent from VC returns,and sell off activity before growing becomes costly. Because they have lowerfixed costs for servers, storage, and software, self-funded micro-enterprisescan deal with costs for much longer and they can exploit ICT evolution. Webdesign and programming are often outsourced for cost efficiency. However,semiconductor and mobile technologies do rely on higher, mainly external,funds%u201d.The most significant source of external equity financing for young companiesare business angels. Angels provide straightforward deals, stay with theinvestment for longer, and offer knowledge, expertise, and business contracts.In Europe, the European Association of Business Angels (EBAN) operates withmore than 30,000 BAs. The majority of business angels are individuals whoinvest in projects or firms for which they feel an affinity.Crowdfunding is an emerging source of financing involving open calls to thepublic, generally via the internet, to finance projects through monetarycontributions in exchange for a reward, product preordering, lending, orinvestment.n 2. 2. 2. Financial support for SMEs in the EU Based on European priorities (1.1.6), European institutions support the creationand development of SMEs. The following main principles are linked to EU financing:%u25aa organisation of the distribution of tasks and finance among partners, %u25aa arrangement of intellectual property rights among partners, %u25aa precision of the legal representative of organisations, %u25aa precision of the project leader and contact persons, %u25aa respect of co-financing principles, %u25aa liaison with the EU at all relevant stages and during audit (steeringcommittee), %u25aa project outcomes need to be well defined: business plans, databases, %u25aa dissemination of findings: reports, conferences, publications. 772.2 Access to Finance for SMEs in the EU