More than 700,000 EU companies export beyond the EU's borders.

Omissions

• The exact figure confirmed in the retrieved sources refers to 2017 (>700,000 EU27 enterprises selling goods outside the EU); no more recent (2024-2026) Eurostat figure on the total number of extra-EU exporting enterprises could be retrieved before the search limit, so the claim is verified against the most recent confirmed data point rather than a 2025/2026 reference year.
• Eurostat publishes this indicator with a lag (enterprise characteristics data); the figure varies by year (e.g. around 700,000 in 2017), so the 'more than 700,000' figure should ideally be tied to a specific reference year.
• The claim also includes other figures (30 million jobs, ~half of EU GDP, 45 FTAs with 81 countries covering more than half of trade) which were not part of this verification; only the 700,000-exporting-companies figure was assessed.
• Supporting evidence comes from a single academic source citing Eurostat (ResearchGate publication); the primary Eurostat Statistics Explained article on enterprise size confirms the indicator exists but its exact total figure could not be extracted from the search results.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat — Statistics Explained: International trade in goods by enterprise size (PDF)The share of SMEs in the number of enterprises exporting outside the EU (Figure 14) was highest in Italy (98.2%), Greece (97.9%) and Estonia (97.7%) and lowest ... — confirms Eurostat publishes the indicator 'number of enterprises exporting outside the EU'.
• AcademicResearchGate — 'The Role of SMEs in extra-EU Exports: Key performance indicators' (citing Eurostat)In 2017 (the latest available year from Eurostat), more than 700,000 EU27 enterprises sold goods outside of [the EU].