Enterprise Experience Programme - background information
Enterprise Experience Programme (EEP) is a unique action to give civil servants working in the European Commission's Directorate General for the Enterprises and Industry practical and hands-on experience of life in a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME).
Many of the activities of the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry focus on the needs of small and medium sized enterprises (SME). (For more info about the EU SME policy see the European portal for SMEs.)
But if EU officials are to address the needs of European companies most effectively, they need to build their awareness of these companies' needs and circumstances (in particular those of SME's, which play such a crucial role in innovation and growth). The Enterprise Experience Programme does this in the most concrete possible way - by giving civil servants hands-on, on-the-job experience of life in a SME. The aim is that by 2009 a substantial number of officials in the Directorate General of Enterprise and Industry should visit an SME, shadowing key personnel and experiencing the different functions or departments of the company.
| Video
The programme responsibles explain how the Enterprise Experience Programme (EEP) functions, and an EU official shares his experiences after visiting Malta with EEP. Watch on YouTube |
