Institutional and economic aspects of regulation of small and medium-sized businesses in the EAEU countries

The article reveals the institutional and economic aspects of regulating the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EAEU countries, whose members are five states: the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, the Kyrgyz Republic. The “Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union” (2015) and “Strategic Directions for the Development of the Eurasian Economic Integration until 2025” (2020) are the main documents regulating business activities in the EAEU countries. For the development of entrepreneurship, each of the Union countries implements strategic documents and national programs to support SMEs. These documents are characterized by an expert-oriented orientation with the predominance of national interests over the interests of the Union. In the countries, there is a unified approach to classifying enterprises as SMEs by the average number of employees, with the exception of the Republic of Belarus by income for the past calendar year. The dynamics of absolute and relative indicators characterizing the activities of SMEs demonstrate an increase in the role of SMEs in the economic development of the member States of the Union. A positive aspect is the growth of the share of gross value added of SMEs in GDP in all EAEU countries.