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European Commission
Enterprise and Industry Directorate General
The European Charter for Small Enterprises
Edward TERSMETTE
The European Charter for Small Enterprises
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Created at the request of the Lisbon European
Council in 2000 as a first concrete step on the
Lisbon agenda
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Self-commitment of Heads of State of the Member
States to improve the administrative and
regulatory framework for SMEs
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A tool to structure and systematically improve
SME-policy in 10 Charter action lines
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Charter signatories
• 2000: Original
signatories and
Norway
• 2002: Candidate
countries
• 2003: Western
Balkans (sorry, old
Map..)
• 2004: Moldova
and the Euro-Med
Charter
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
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MS submit their good practices in SME- policies yearly
to the Commission
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the most relevant ones are published and translated to
foster exchange and learning from each other
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a selection of them is presented at the annual Charter
conference
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Good practices are made accessible via onlinecatalogue at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/
gp
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The 2007/2008 good practice exercise
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Participation by all Member States + Norway
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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
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3-4 June 2008 in Bled/Brdo, Slovenia
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Target group: policy makers, business organisations,
business support organisations, entrepreneurs
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300 participants expected from the Member States,
Candidate countries, countries from the Mediterranean
and Western Balkan and from European regions
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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
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