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EUROPEAN ACTIONS FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS. SMEs and Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy. Istanbul 19 June 2009 ANNA DANTI Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General. SMEs in Europe. SMEs backbone of European growth and creators of jobs Objective of the EU’s SME policy actions:
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EUROPEAN ACTIONS FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS SMEs and Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Istanbul 19 June 2009 ANNA DANTI Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General
SMEs in Europe • SMEs backbone of European growth and creators of jobs • Objective of the EU’s SME policy actions: promote successful entrepreneurship and improve the business environment for SMEs • 23 million SMEs in Europe • average size : 5 persons • 2/3 of total employment (>100 million jobs) • 99.8% of all enterprises • 90% of all enterprises: micro enterprises
EU / US attitudes towards entrepreneurship Source: Flash Eurobarometer 192, December 2006 - January 2007 Base: all respondents
Top 2 fears in the EU Source: Flash Eurobarometer 192, December 2006 - January 2007 Base: all respondents
SBA Role of the European Commission • Coordinate actions of Member States • Follow-up of MS performance • Good Practice exchange • Provide support to SMEs • Financial instruments • Support programmes and services • Ensure EU policies / programmes are SME friendly (better regulation)
WOMEN ENTERPRENEURS • At the heart of the Lisbon strategy: ensure that the proportion of women in active employment exceeds 60% by 2010 • The entrepreneurial potential of women constitutes an underdeveloped source of economic growth and of new jobs
PROMOTING WOMEN ENTERPRENEURSIS WISE AND NECESSARY • Women constitute, on average, 30% of entrepreneurs in the EU. • They often facegreater difficulties than men in starting up businesses and in accessing finance and training. • It is essential to provide women the support they need in order to start-up and manage their own enterprise. Access to finance, Information and Exchange, Assistance
1. ACCESS TO FINANCING • SMEs continue to face difficulties when applying for loans and they often have no sufficient collateral to provide to their financial institutions. • The Commission has increased significantly is financial supportthrough the COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME (CIP) 2007 – 2013. • This programme offers new guarantee instruments to boost the availability of equity and mezzanine finance for SMEs.
ACCESS TO FINANCING (cont) • The financial instruments are managed by the European Investment Fund through intermediary financial institutions. • 1 b EUR earmarked via CIP for 2007-2013 • 400 000 SMEs benefited: ~90% micro SMEs • They mainly include the SME loan guarantee facility and the micro-credit guarantee facility.
2. NETWOKING • The European Network to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship (WES) • Co-operation with business organisations of women entrepreneurs • Women’s entrepreneurship portal
2.1.THE EUROPEAN NETWORK TO PROMOTE WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP (WES) • launched in June 2000 • It is composed of government representatives responsible for the promotion of women entrepreneurship. • It has 30 members from the European Union, EEA and candidate countries.
WES NETWORK • Co-operation and exchange of information with DG Enterprise and Industry on specific programmes, research, collection of information, exchange of good practices • Meetings twice a year • Annual activity report • Advice on future policy orientation
2.3. WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP PORTAL Provideslinksto the websites of women entrepreneurs’ representative organisations, networks, projects and events that relate to the promotion of female entrepreneurship. • The information on 5 areas: • National organisations of women entrepreneurs • International organisations of women entrepreneurs • Networks • Projects • Events related to women entrepreneurship
3. A Small Business Act for Europe • A set of 10 politically binding principles and actions to implement them • A package of concrete measures (legislative and non-legislative) • An implementation mechanism embedded in the Lisbon strategy
10 politically binding principles 1.Create an environment in which entrepreneurs and family businesses can thrive and entrepreneurship is rewarded. This includes - the creation of network of female entrepreneurship ambassadors, - mentoring schemes for women to set-up their own businessand - encourage entrepreneurship amongst women graduates 2.Ensure that honest entrepreneurs who have faced bankruptcy quickly get a second Chance 3.Design rules according to the “Think Small First” principle 4.Make public administrations responsive to SMEs’ needs 5.Facilitate SMEs’ participation in P. Procurement and better use State Aid possibilities for SMEs
Principles (ctd.) • Facilitate SMEs’ access to finance and develop an environment supportive to timely payments in commercial transactions • Help SMEs to benefit more from the opportunities offered by the Single Market • Promote the upgrading of skills in SMEs and all forms of innovation • Enable SMEs to turn environmental challenges into opportunities • Encourage and support SMEs to benefit from the growth of markets
Legislative measures • Already adopted • General Block Exemption Regulation on State Aids (GBER) Enable state aid for small enterprises newly created by female entrepreneurs • Regulation providing for a Statute for a European Private Company (SPE) • Directive on reduced VAT rates (locally supplied services) As part of the SBA will also be prepared: • A legislative proposal to simplify rules on VAT invoicing • An amendment to the Directive 2000/35/EC on late payments
Study on women ınnovators and entrepreneurshıp • Women are lagging behind on innovative entrepreneurship and encounter specific challenges. • Women’s ideas for innovation are as marketable as men’s, but… • Innovative ideas are not recognised by predominantly male stakeholders. • Stereotypesabout women in innovative sectors and difficulties in balancing work and family still persist. • Stakeholders not aware of women’s different needs and there are no measures attempting to attract women.
THE WAY TO IMPROVEMENT Systematic intervention should tackle: • contextual obstacles (i.e. running informative events and providing entrepreneurship training in schools and universities, challenging stereotypes by raising awareness on women’s contribution in entrepreneurship.), • economic obstacles (i.e. access to capital to develop and growth their business ideas), and • soft obstacles: (access to business networks, business training, role models and entrepreneurship skills). Nature and type of challenges areconsistent across Member States.
EU Network offering high quality services to the benefit of SMEs Organizing business cooperation across boarders Help accessing EU projects and funding Advising on EU legislation, standards and intellectual property rights Assist SMEs in raising their innovative capacities Collecting SME feedback more than 500 regional organisations more than 4.000 experienced professionals active in 40 European countries Enterprise Europe Network
EU Network offering high quality services to the benefit of SMEs Organizing business cooperation across boarders Help accessing EU projects and funding Advising on EU legislation, standards and intellectual property rights Assist SMEs in raising their innovative capacities Collecting SME feedback more than 500 regional organisations more than 4.000 experienced professionals active in 40 European countries Enterprise Europe Network
Information and Contacts • WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP PORTAL http://europa.eu.int/comm/womenentr.htm • THE EUROPEAN NETWORK TO PROMOTE WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP : WES http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/craft-women/wes.htm anna.danti@ec.europa.eu Fax : +32 – 2 - 29 66278 12
Information and Contacts • SME Portalhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sme/index_en.htm • SBAhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/sba_en.htm • Entrepreneurshiphttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sme/promoting_en.htm • Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industryhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/index_en.htm • European SME Weekhttp://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/entrepreneurship/sme-week/