A new European Union debate will attempt to establish quality guidelines for services offered to small businesses.
The conference entitled 'Enterprise Europe', will be held in Brussels on 1 October 2004 and will focus on the quality of support provided by the EU in helping small businesses achieve success.
Small companies are recognised as an essential component of European economic growth and one of the main EU objectives is to develop a productive economic environment for entrepreneurs.
EU small business programmes in the past have included the provision of education and training as well as help and advice on matters such as responsible entrepreneurship and the transfer of business.
Topics to be discussed in October include the quality of support for small enterprises, how to respond to their needs and top class business support service.
It will involve the main players working in the field of business support within the various member states. These will include networks of business support service providers, small companies and their respective organisations as well as public authorities in charge of support service policy.
A 2002 survey of 1,200 small businesses found that only a fifth of them had benefited from support services during the previous five years. Those firms also witnessed a higher rate of failure, with around half of newly created small businesses disappearing within five years.
A spokesman for the EU commission said, “First class business support services are seen as an important factor for the survival rate and competitiveness of European small enterprises.
“The Commission and the Member States committed themselves, by adopting the European Charter for Small Enterprises in June 2000, to make concrete progress in this area.”
