Small and medium enterprises make up over 99% of all enterprises in the territory of the Republic of Croatia, which indicates the exceptional importance of the sector for the national economy and development. Small and medium-sized enterprises encourage entrepreneurial skills and private ownership, generate employment and contribute to production and exports. All of the above directly affects the country's GDP. However, due to their size, this group of business entities is most often faced with the problem of access to financial resources, which is a key obstacle to their establishment, development and survival. Reasons for the difficulty of securing access to external sources of financing include greater uncertainty, information and lack of own capital. Following the aforementioned, the aim of this work is to investigate, present and explain in detail the financing program from the European Union funds for the program period 2021-2027. in order to bring the topic of external financing, i.e., financing from the European Union funds, closer to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and all those who plan to become one. An additional goal is to investigate the students' perception of obtaining grants from the European Union funds for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Previous research indicates that the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Croatia use external sources of financing, and bank loans are most often used. The research conducted in this paper indicates that students are not familiar with EU funds and programs available to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Croatia. Considering the increasing interest of small and medium-sized enterprises in using EU funds and programs, it is necessary to further encourage the interest of young people in the opportunities that EU funds and programs offer.