In light of this week being dedicated to European Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Antonio Tajani, commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship and vice president of the European Commission spoke on the subject. His main argument was that financial assistance to SMEs is essential for the European economy to recover.
It has been shown that around 45% of Europeans would like to be their own boss, but only 11% of those actually start their own business. If this percentage could be increased, these new creative and innovative companies would rejuvenate the European economic base. This would make it more robust and resilient to economic crisis, like the recent one, and at the same time create many jobs.
Between 2002 and 2008 the number on SMEs increased by 13 % or 2.4 million, which created 9.4 million jobs. In the last two years, following the economic crisis, 3.25 million jobs were lost in the SME area. Of course, SMEs usually can’t help themselves; they need assistance from banks, which recently have often rejected loan applications based on fears of another crisis.
Thus, the onus is on the European Commission to take action and facilitate access to financial assistance. In light of this, the Small Business Act has been created and it “aims to improve the overall approach to entrepreneurship, to irreversibly anchor the “Think Small first” principle in policy making from regulation to public service, and to promote SMEs’ growth by helping them tackle the remaining problems which hamper their development” (http://bit.ly/9Y6be4).
Further measures that the Commissioner aims to take are to create a permanent dialogue between entrepreneurs and financial institutions, a reward system for entrepreneurs and even integrate entrepreneurship into the curriculum at all stages of education. A program called ‘Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs’, where entrepreneurs can exchange experiences and network, has already been set up.
