Euromed Invest – Good practice in small business support22/09/2011, Alexandria

Tina Zournatzi

Goals – Learning from Good Practice

• Overview of European SME Policy (SBA)• Main tools for accessing good practices in

improving the business environment both in EU and MED countries Good practice databases (EU and MED) Your Europe

• Countries are encouraged to learn from each other to take up successful measures from other

countries

Role of the European Commission• Coordinate action of Member States

Follow-up of MS performance with the help of indicators and targets

Good Practice exchange

• Provide support to SMEs Financial instruments Funding programmes Advisory and support services

• Ensure SME-friendly legislation

SBA

A Small Business Act for Europe

• From the European Charter to the SBA• 2008 Communication

A set of politically binding principles A package of concrete measures A monitoring mechanism, part of the Growth and

Jobs strategy

in order to

1. Improve the overall policy approach to entrepreneurship

2. Irreversibly anchor the “Think Small First” principle in policy-making

3. Promote SMEs’ growth and competitiveness

1. Entrepreneurship2. 2nd chance3. “Think Small First”4. Supportive public administration5. Public procurement + state aid6. Access to finance7. Single Market8. Skills and Innovation9. Enable SMEs to tackle environmental challenges 10. Access external markets

The 10 principles of the SBA

• Four priority areas: Smart regulation access to finance access to markets promoting entrepreneurship

• Enhanced governance

• 48 new actions

The SBA Review

Enhanced governance:the network of the SME Envoys

• At European level: the EU SME Envoy listens to SMEs and their representatives and act as internal “watchdog” for EU policy making.

• On the ground: Member States have appointed their national SME Envoys (regional Envoys can be nominated)

Enhanced governance: Give SMEs a greater role

• SMEs will have their say with the SME Assembly: representatives of small businesses from all over the 27 Member States will gather yearly

• European SMEs representatives are part of the Network of the SME Envoys.

First SME Envoy meeting – Brussels 14 September 2010

• Simplifying the business environment Target: start a business in 3 days at €100

• Improving SMEs’ access to finance More bank loan guarantees and micro credit Increase SME participation in public procurement

• Instituting the « SME Test » for all new policies and legislation affecting business

Good Practice Exchange at the core of SME policy making

• SBA Conference (Budapest, May 2011)

• European Enterprise Awards

• Expert groups

• Good Practice Databasehttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/charter/gp

Search screen

A Good PracticeMain information example

Title Business mediation

Country Hungary

Description Late payments seriously aggravate the business conditions of Hungarian SMEs. Nevertheless, they resort to law suits or liquidation proceedings only in about half of their justified complaints, because of the slowness, expensiveness and excessive complexity of bureaucratic judicial proceedings. To improve the situation, the Ministry for Economy started promoting mediation among SMEs by financing 10 model mediation cases selected by trade associations. The partner in this program was the Hungarian Mediation Association (www.mediacio.hu).

Good practice exchange- EU Mediterranean partnership

• Euro-Med industrial cooperation• Euro-Mediterranean Charter for

Enterprise• Annual progress reports• On-line tools for implementing the

Charter (guides, procedures, tool boxes, specialised info on each Charter line)

EuroMed Good Practice Database

• Charter coordinators encode EuroMed good practices

• Link: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/best-practices/database/euromed/index.cfm

Workflow

Criteria for good practice (for MED)Mandatory criteria

• The good practice should be particularly targeted at SMEs.

• It should exist already and have been implemented.

• It should have clearly identifiable aims and objectives.

• It should be adaptable and transferable.

A Good PracticeAdditional information

• Comments/testimonials by business organisation/entrepreneur

• Why is this measure a success?

• Problems that had to be overcome and lessons learned

• Information on the measures can be provided in the following languages

Criteria for good practice (continued)

Optional criteria

• The practice should have delivered tangible results. • It should include a communication strategy adapted

to its target audience.• It should foresee an evaluation of its results,

preferably on the basis of predefined clear and measurable targets.

• It should be capable of being continuously improved.• Over a range of relevant indicators, it should clearly

out-perform other practices in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Who is Your Europe – Business for?

• Jan Piotrowski Tiler from the South

of Poland Many clients in

Vienna Interested in setting

up one–man company in Austria

Speaks German

Entrepreneurs, SMEs looking for businessin other European countries

Your Europe – Business:Saving time by being well informed

Practical guide on doing business in Europe

Guide on rules, administrative steps at EU and national level!

all EU-27• Plus Norway

multilingual created jointly: EC &

national authorities

EU & national content Chapters’ structure: legal requirements /

administrative procedures programmes, initiatives personalised help, advice Legal texts, key

documents

Chapters’ content: Which department is in

charge of what? How to: which form, which

paper to fill in, in which order

Jargon-free texts + deep links

Highlight: e-Gov services Enterprise Europe Network

partners

Multilingual guide to information and online government services at EU and

national level

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EU & national content26 chapters (business life events) along the life-cycle of an enterprise per country:

from setting up a business to handling bankruptcy &

starting afresh

For each chapter: The entrepreneur’s

problem Answer at EU level

• 23 languages Answer at national level

• National language(s) and EN

Easy navigation

Where to find more information

• SBA and SBA Reviewhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/

index_en.htm

• European Small Business Portalhttp://ec.europa.eu/small-business/index_en.htm

• Your Europe Portalhttp://europa.eu/youreurope