Governments across Europe may be attempting to get their economies moving with the introduction of tax-cuts and a fresh round of borrowing to fund ambitious public spending plans, but here in the UK – as in the rest of Europe – a fundamental barrier remains firmly in place.

Earlier this week Procurement Leaders spoke to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in London and found that many SMEs were still struggling to bid for public sector procurement contracts due to the maze of bureaucracy that still exists in the bidding process.

Ulrike Diallo, a policy advisor at the FSB, said that recent research had shown that almost three quarters of SMEs rarely or never bid for government work, with half of those companies claiming that the process of tendering for government work was still far too complex and time-consuming.

Although these findings are UK-centric it’s hard to believe that the European Union’s procurement processes are any more SME friendly – which suggests that politicians across the continent have a lot of work to do.

After all, ploughing money into public spending will only reap dividends if companies across the board can benefit from it.