European Commission

The European Charter for Small Enterprises

Edward TERSMETTE

Enterprise and Industry Directorate General

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The European Charter for Small Enterprises

- Created at the request of the Lisbon European Council in 2000 as a first concrete step on the Lisbon agenda

- Self-commitment of Heads of State of the Member States to improve the administrative and regulatory framework for SMEs

- A tool to structure and systematically improve SME-policy in 10 Charter action lines

Charter signatories

• 2000: Original signatories andNorway

• 2002: Candidate countries

• 2003: Western Balkans (sorry, old Map..)

• 2004: Moldovaand the Euro-Med Charter

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The Charter action lines

1) Education and training for entrepreneurship

2) Cheaper and faster start-up

3) Better legislation and regulation

4) Availability of skills

5) Improving online access

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The Charter action lines

6) Getting more out of the single market

7) Taxation and financial matters

8) Strengthening the technological capacity of SEs

9) Making use of successful e-business models and developing top-class business support

10) Developing stronger, more effective representation of small enterprises’ interests at Union and national level

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The Charter good practice exercise

- MS submit their good practices in SME- policies yearly to the Commission

- the most relevant ones are published and translated to foster exchange and learning from each other

- a selection of them is presented at the annual Charter conference

- Good practices are made accessible via online-catalogue at: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/gp

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The 2007/2008 good practice exercise

• Participation by all Member States + Norway

• Charter focus areas 2007:(1) Education and training for entrepreneurship(2) Better legislation and regulation, especially

how to think small first(3) Top class small business support, especially

support to internationalise

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The Charter conference 2008

- 3-4 June 2008 in Bled/Brdo, Slovenia

- Target group: policy makers, business organisations, business support organisations, entrepreneurs

- 300 participants expected from the Member States, Candidate countries, countries from the Mediterranean and Western Balkan and from European regions

- co-organised together with the Slovenian presidency

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Western Balkans

• Developed a series of 50-60 indicators to measure performance

• National reports and a national « consultation » meeting

• G4 group: EC, OECD, ETF (education, training and HRD issues), EBRD (access to finance issues)

• Plus an independent evaluation

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Montenegro

• 2007 report: ranked in second place with Serbia and FYRo Macedonia. First place: Croatia. Third group: Albania, BiH, Kosovo/UNSCR 1244

• April 2009: new « G4 » report to be issued, will track progress and report more specifically on innovation and competitiveness. Bilateral meeting in Montenegro in September 2008.

• Bilateral meeting Montenegro would benefit from a wider participation

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The Charter conference 2008

The conference Workshops:

(1) Education and training for entrepreneurship(2) Better legislation and regulation,

especially how to think small first(6) Top class small business support,

especially support to internationalise(4) Best of other Charter areas(5) Successful promotion of entrepreneurship(3) Fostering high growth innovative SMEs

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The Charter conference 2008

Where to register?

Website and Online registration at:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/conf2008