Council conclusions of 3 March 2003 on the promotion of entrepreneurship and small firms
Date: 2003-03-03
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU policy, European charter, business policy, entrepreneurship, small business

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Article 2

The Council shall appoint at a later date the members not yet nominated from Belgium,
Netherlands and Portugal.

Italy, the

Article 3

This Decision shall be published, for information, in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Done at Brussels, 6 March 2003.

For the Council

The President

D. REPPAS

COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS

of 3 March 2003

on the promotion of entrepreneurship and small firms

(2003/C 64/04)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLING:

— the Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council on the
strategy for making the EU the world's most competitive
capable of
and dynamic knowledge-based economy,
sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs
and greater social cohesion by 2010 and the further elab-
oration of this strategy by the Stockholm, Gothenburg and
Barcelona European Councils;

— the European Charter for Small Enterprises, which calls for
the creation of the best possible environment for small
enterprises;

— the Maribor Declaration, which commits the candidate
for

to implementing the European Charter

countries
Small Enterprises;

— the Conclusions of

the European Charter

the Barcelona European Council,
inviting Member States to speed up the implementation
for Small Enterprises and to
of
the Council will
learn from best practice, stating that
meet before every Spring European Council
to assess
progress in creating a more favourable environment for
entrepreneurship and the competitiveness of small enter-
prises;

and the Council Conclusions of 30 September 2002 on
simpler legislation;

— the Council Decision on a Multiannual Programme for
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, and in particular
for
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (2001-2005) (1);

— the Council Conclusions of 26 November 2002 on a more

competitive environment for enterprises.

2. WELCOMES:

— the Green Paper ‘Entrepreneurship in Europe’;

— the 2003 Report from the Commission on the implemen-
tation of the European Charter for Small Enterprises;

— the Communication from the Commission ‘Thinking small
in an enlarging Europe’ and related Staff Working Papers,
which point
to the need for providing a constantly
improving environment for small businesses and exploiting
the entrepreneurial potential in an enlarging Europe.

3. EMPHASISES:

— the Conclusions of

the Seville European Council which
welcomed the communications from the Commission on
better lawmaking and,
in particular, the Action Plan for
simplifying and improving the regulatory environment;

— that the Green Paper on ‘Entrepreneurship in Europe’ is the
starting point for an important, wide-ranging debate on the
future of entrepreneurship policy;

(1) OJ L 333, 29.12.2000, p. 84.

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future,

to promote

— the need for the European Union, in order to preserve its
its competitive position and its
job creating potential,
economic
thus
creating more new firms, making them grow and become
attention
more
should be paid to fostering women entrepreneurs and
potential entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas and socially
excluded groups;

innovative and competitive. Particular

entrepreneurship,

— the need for a coordinated approach to entrepreneurship
policy, that involves all relevant policy-makers at European,
national and regional
to provide a coherent and
consistent response to the needs of entrepreneurs and
that concentrates on three pillars for action:

level,

— bringing down barriers to business development and

growth,

— balancing the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship,

— fostering a society that values entrepreneurship;

— that learning from good practices can effectively improve
Member States and candidate countries' small business
policies;

— the need to improve opportunities for small
express their concerns in policy and law making;

firms to

— that education,

in particular for the young, training and
life-long learning can play a determinant role in fulfilling
the Lisbon strategy, by promoting entrepreneurial culture,
thus providing Europe with more successful entrepreneurs;

— that

reducing administrative burdens

firms,
improving legislation and facilitating access to finance,
information and knowledge is of utmost importance to
foster a favourable business environment;

small

for

— that facilitating the transfer of business to new owners is
essential, since one third of European enterprises will need
successors in the next 10 years.

4. INVITES THE MEMBER STATES TO:

— actively consider

the Green Paper

‘Entrepreneurship in
Europe’ and formulate their
responses as a positive
contribution to furthering the entrepreneurship agenda in
Europe;

— speed up implementation of the European Charter for Small
Enterprises and give strong consideration to good practices,
the Best
in particular those identified in the course of

Procedure and the annual report on the Charter implemen-
tation; close performance gaps between different Member
information in Member
States;
States'
include
and
contribution to this
report on the practical measures
taken and envisaged as a consequence, in particular to:

— improve opportunities for small enterprises to express
their concerns and opinions at all levels by developing
advisory/
consultation mechanisms,
consultative groups to the government,

example

for

— promote education in entrepreneurial skills at all stages
of the educational cycle taking inspiration from good
practices identified,

— improve the quality of legislation, through the intro-
duction of systematic regulatory impact assessment,
taking into account national practices and legal systems,

— further

simplify and reduce the cost and time of
company
particular
for
through on-line registration and building on other
good practices,

registration

start-up,

in

— improve access to risk and seed capital finance for small
firms, such as guarantee schemes, venture capital funds
in areas with financial
and bank sector micro loans,
market failures by increasingly focussing on incentives
and risk-sharing,

— stimulate innovation and technology transfer, through
promoting cooperation between universities, research
and development centres and institutes and small
firms, also through the use of intermediaries,

— remove barriers to the Internal Market by addressing the
fragmentation of the internal market for services and
transposing
set
targets
complying with the
Directives
are not
that new barriers
and ensure
created by legal and administrative measures,

for

— further develop quantitative and qualitative targets on a
voluntary basis in Charter areas where Member States
consider it relevant and with due consideration to structural
differences.

5. INVITES THE COMMISSION TO:

— as a follow-up to the public debate on entrepreneurship
policy propose an appropriate Action Plan on entrepre-
neurship by the end of 2003, taking full account of the
reactions
and
programmes;

instruments

and of

received

existing

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— establish projects, monitor developments and stimulate
policy implementation, by applying the Best Procedure
and other instruments,
to help Member States improve
their performance, in particular in the fields of:

— better involvement and consultation of small businesses

in policy and law making,

— education and training for entrepreneurship,

firms,

— improved access to risk and seed capital finance for
small
schemes, venture
such as guarantee
capital funds and bank sector micro loans, to address
financial market failures by increasingly focussing on
incentives and risk-sharing,

— innovation and technology transfer to small businesses,

— small firms' access to the internal market, in particular
with regard to services, as well as to international
markets,

— transfer of business;

— provide the means for a continuous dialogue with small
businesses,
the SME
Envoy, and to keep small and also medium-sized enter-
prises at the forefront of relevant Community policies;

through the activities of

inter alia,

— continue progress on the effective implementation of the
Action Plan for simplifying and improving the regulatory
environment.

6. INVITES THE MEMBER STATES AND THE COMMISSION TO:

— continue the work on a voluntary basis on quantitative and
qualitative targets with the aim of further integrating their
use in the implementation of the European Charter for
Small Enterprises;

— continue to involve candidate countries in the Charter
process and to encourage them to exploit good practices
as
and qualitative
and voluntary quantitative
instruments to build up an enterprise culture;

targets

the European Charter

— strengthen the review of national developments by priori-
tising a selected number of Charter areas each year and, in
the framework of
requirements,
report on progress made in creating a more favourable
environment for entrepreneurship and the competitiveness
inter alia, appropriate and
of
to allow the Council,
effective
meeting before the Spring European Council,
to assess
progress over time and discuss future strategy on entrepre-
neurship and small firms policy;

small enterprises, using,
indicators,

in order

— continue and reinforce their work on identifying, bench-
marking and exchanging best practices on entrepreneurship
and in all areas of the Charter in a more coordinated and
consistent approach, establishing synergies with other
relevant Community and related international policies;

— intensify diffusion of and discussions on small business
policies in all areas of
the Charter developed in the
Member States by organising, from 2003 onwards, annual
exchanges of experiences among Member States and by
also giving consideration to the possibilities of organising,
on a voluntary basis, peer reviews as a process of learning
together.