Tag: Enterprise

The European Commission is being advised once more to focus on measures to provide support and financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are considered as the most important source of employment growth in the EU.

In the wake of the global financial and economic crises, the EU is developing a new labour market strategy as part of its successor to the 'Lisbon Agenda' for economic, social and environmental reform, which is due to end in 2010. The new roadmap will retain many of the previous ambitions, but will also be shaped by EU leaders' exit strategies.

European governments should do more to encourage disabled and disadvantaged people into the workforce, says Sally Reynolds, founder of Social Firms UK, but she warns that too much subsidisation can "kill the entrepreneurial spirit".

The number of advice agencies should be reduced in order to simplify support services for small businesses, according to David Archer, the strategic director of Scarborough Council, which won the Grand Jury prize at the European Enterprise Awards in Prague.

Traditional schemes aimed at tackling unemployment are outdated and will not help the large pool of high-skilled workers who lost their jobs in the global recession, according to a leading Irish SME association. Instead, it believes governments must take risks and design new methods to get people back to work.

The 2009 winner of the prestigious JA-YE 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year' award, Sweden's Oscar Lundin, believes successful business ideas can contribute to a better society. The EU should do more to encourage the teaching of entrepreneurial skills in schools, he told EurActiv in an interview.

The new President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, has decided not to challenge the legal basis used to adopt the European Company Statute. The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament had recommended to take the Council to Court on this matter, after its decision on 8 October to choose article 308 of the Treaty as the legal basis of this statute.

The Commission's reports on enterprise policy and competitiveness show that the EU is becoming more entrepreneurial, but that EU GDP is now less than two thirds that of the US. This EU-US GDP gap is the highest since the 1960s, even though there are important differences across the Member States.

The long-awaited EU legislation on the European Company Statute will get its second reading in the European Parliament on Monday 3 September. MEPs are expected to challenge the legal basis of the Commission's proposals and call for fiscal coordination to counter unfair tax discrimination.

Swedish Business leaders on Wednesday 10 January presented their priorities for the first Swedish EU Presidency in Brussels

EU Industry ministers will meet on Tuesday 5 December to discuss innovation policy and competitiveness of Europe's enterprises

UNICE presented to the press the latest Federation's report on "Stimulating Creativity and Innovation in Europe"