Supporting entrepreneurship and self-employment is an important part of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

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The economic crisis and the slow recovery from it accentuate the role that self-employment can play in creating jobs and giving unemployed and disadvantaged people an opportunity to fully participate in the economy and society.

Nevertheless, the scope for growth of self-employment varies markedly across Member States (its share of total employment ranging from 8% in Denmark and Luxembourg to over 30% in Greece), which implies differing policy responses to exploiting its potential.

The seminar covered various aspects of self-employment:

• The first session focussed on the profile of the self-employed, as well as changes in recent years in the face of ongoing structural changes such as technological advance, globalisation and demographic trends.
• The second session examined labour market policies implemented in EU Member States to encourage people, especially the unemployed, to become self-employed and their effectiveness as well as the possible barriers to self-employment and to start up a business.