Simplification of start-up procedures.
Europe needs more enterprises. One significant barrier to more entrepreneurs has been the time taken and the costs involved in the administrative procedures to start up and run a small enterprise. In 2006, the Council set a number of ambitious and concrete targets to facilitate start-ups throughout Europe before 2008. In 2008 these commitments were taken up and renewed by the SBA and the December 2008 Competitiveness Council with a set of wider and more ambitious targets.
There is evidence that heavy, expensive and time-consuming administrative procedures to start and run a small firm are a disincentive to too many would-be entrepreneurs and countries with lesser administrative burdens in the procedures required to create a company (cheaper and faster start-ups) have greater numbers of business start-ups.
Based on this evidence and building on the Comission efforts and initiatives since the mid 1990's the 2006 Spring Council asked Member States to take concrete and decisive steps to simplify the processes to start-up a business
2011 Commission study on "Business Dynamics": measuring the impact of (licensing procedures - non-efficient transfer of business - bankruptcy/insolvency procedures and lack of support for a second chance) on job creation and business births in Europe
Presented in February 2011 the study “Business Dynamics: Start-ups, Business Transfers and Bankruptcy” analyses the macro-economic impact of start-up, business transfer and bankruptcy legal and administrative procedures on entrepreneurship in Europe. Its aim is to identify the main problems faced by entrepreneurs along key instances of the business life of a company: start-up/licensing procedures, transfer of business, bankruptcy and second chance. Moreover, the study explores potential solutions and propose policies that may be recommended to increase the ease of doing business and eventually the number of entrepreneurs in Europe.
The study covers the current national practices in 33 European countries affecting key moments of a company's life cycle: licensing, transfer, insolvency and re-birth with the final goal of analysing what are the key problems in each of these areas and their impact in terms of companies, jobs or GDP loss.
The study is available here 
[4 MB]
Latest results: Member States performance in 2010
In 2010 average time and cost to start-up a private limited company is 7 days and cost is € 399, compared to 8 days and € 417 in 2009 or 12 days and € 485 in 2007.
In Italy it is possible to register a company in one day as from April 2010. The procedure requires a single form ("communicazione unica") which is sent electronically to the Companies Register which uses it for the registration and also re-submits it to the other relevant bodies (tax and social security offices). The system delivers a protocol number to the petitioner which allows him/her to start activities or request the necessary licenses if so required.
In 2010 Spain has considerably reduced both times -from 28/29 days to 17.5- and costs -from € 617 to € 115- via a new Royal Decree (RDL 13/2010 - December 2010). The Decree reduces the applicable notaries' fees, the registration fees and eliminates the tax on the company's capital. Also the amount of time required to register a company for those private limited companies founded using the newly approved "standard company bylaws" is reduced. Spain's sole problem to comply with the required time limits rests completely on the Municipal License ("licencia de funcionamiento de las actividades") which takes 15 days on average.
For a more detailed analysis and country by country information refer to Progress 2010
