The European Commission published today a study analyzing the important role small and medium sized enterprises play in creating more and better jobs. SMEs provide a vital contribution to the European economy, being responsible for more than two thirds of the total employment in the private sectors and 85% of the net job growth.
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry has announced the names of organisations that will implement important new European projects on business and human rights.
In October 2011 compared with September 2011, the euro area industrial new orders index rose by 1.8%, after a fall of 7.8% in September. In the EU27new orders increased by 0.5% in October 2011, after a fall of 2.1% in September.
Companies in the EU can call for help if they fear that new technical regulations in other Member States could hamper the sales of their products.
The European Commission has adopted revised rules for assessing state aid for shipbuilding to take account of the more specialised nature of today's shipbuilding industry.
The European Commission is presenting a strategy to promote better access to finance for SMEs with an EU Action Plan which includes increasing financial support from the EU budget and the European Investment Bank and a proposal for a regulation setting uniform rules for the marketing of venture capital funds.
With a budget of € 2.5 billions over the period 2014-2020, the Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs, COSME is a funding instrument, which is largely continuing the activities under the current Competitiveness and Innovation programme (CIP).
In September 2011 compared with August 2011, the euro area (EA17) industrial new orders index 2 fell by 6.4%. In August the index rose by 1.4%. In the EU27 new orders decreased by 2.3% in September 2011, after a fall of 0.3% in August.
The Commission today presents a new approach to ensure that the EU responds better to the needs of small businesses. From now on, the European Commission will seek wherever possible to exempt micro-enterprises from EU legislation or introduce special regimes so as to minimise the regulatory burden on them.
A new European network of mentors to promote female entrepreneurship through the sharing of know-how and experience has been launched by the European Commission.
In September 2011 compared with August 2011, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 2.0% in the euro area (EA17) and by 1.3% in the EU27. In August production rose by 1.4% and 1.0% respectively.
European small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) should better profit from fast growing emerging markets. This is the key issue to overcome the crisis addressed in the European Commission communication ‘Small Business, Big World - a new partnership to help SMEs seize global opportunities’.
This seminar aims to bring together about 250-300 participants from companies, public organizations, policy makers at EU-national and local levels, experts to discuss the assessment of the Lead Market Initiative and to develop future demand-side policy actions with regard to supply-side instruments.
The European Commission has today tabled a plan which will fund €50 billion worth of investment to improve Europe's transport, energy and digital networks.
In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production1 rose by 0.2% in the euro area and remained stable in the EU 27 in August 2011, compared with the previous month.
"Nanomaterials" are materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 and 100 billionth of a metre, according to a recommendation adopted by the European Commission today.
Despite the success of the EU's Single Market, barriers to cross-border trade remain. Many of these result from divergent sales laws between the 27 Member States. They make selling abroad complicated and costly, especially for small firms.
The European Commission presented its 2010 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) report "Are EU SMEs recovering from the crisis?" - including surveys on each EU Member State (the SBA Fact Sheets) - on the occasion of the SME Week taking place throughout Europe from 3–9 October.
