2011 European Business Summit started with focusing on SMEs & Entrepreneurship in Europe
This year’s European Business Summit started with a focus on smaller businesses with its session on SMEs & Entrepreneurship. Mr Zsolt BecseyState, Secretary of the Economy of Hungary, representing the Hungarian EU-Presidency, who was also the first speaker, said it’s “the most important topic for the future”.
Daniel Calleja Crespo, European Commission SME Envoy and Deputy Director General for Enterprise and Industry, added that the European Commission is focusing on three priorities. Following the introduction of the Small Business Act, the main objectives are:
- a) simplification – limit the number of days required to set up a company in each member state to three and aim at a cost of not more than 100 euro to establish a new company;
- b) access to finance – to improve access to EU programme funds, especially by encouraging micro-credit and
- c) access to markets - only a quarter of all European SMEs are currently exporting across borders within the EU and only an eighth are exporting outside the EU.
Luuk Borg, Head of the EUREKA Secretariat in Brussels presented the Eurostars programme, a successful funding programme dedicated to high-tech SMEs: "The way to success is to boost those SMEs – particulalry in the technology sector – which, if successful, will then promote growth."
EUREKA was also present with a stand during the two-day summit in Brussels. The Belgium company Connector GIE presented the E!4031 RECONOMAD project, dedicated to data acquisition and handwriting - recognition technology while the Swedish company SICS showcased its ITEA2 ESNA project for networking based on low-cost wireless sensors – from energy-efficient environmental controls to precision monitoring of agricultural resources.
