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Growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can help boost the European Union's (EU) economy but they must be released from their "administrative shackles", an expert has said.

Tina Sommer, the EU and international affairs chair at the UK's Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), has urged EU officials to make a more concerted effort to help such firms thrive.

She made the comments ahead of the release of the EU Small Business Act, which is aimed at cutting some of the administration that SMEs face, however the FSB believes the legislation does not go far enough and has "too many caveats".

"The European commission's proposals are a good place to start but national governments must significantly beef up this document for it to offer tangible benefits to all small businesses," Ms Sommers added.

The importance of IT services to SMEs was recently highlighted by Microsoft Europe's chairman Jan Muehlfeit, who told Egovmonitor.com that the relationship between his company and small businesses is mutually dependent, commenting that "their success is our success".