EN
This paper picked a topic of small and medium-sized enterprises to highlight several related problems. It is dedicated to the characteristics of small to medium enterprises, its definition and role within nancial and economic crisis and present recession. There are analysis and comparison of their development during the last ve or ten years in the Czech Republic and EU. The data based on which the analyses and comparison were carried out was obtained from the public databases and other cited sources. The paper is trying to respond to the question: "How is the development of SMEs dependent on business?"