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Europe For Citizens

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Euc4Biz

European Cities Network For Business Friendly Environment

About the project

Two European capitals and five European mid-sized and smaller cities, from five different EU countries, despite their differences in size, number of inhabitants, cultural and historical diversity, have identified unfavourable entrepreneurship climate as a common problem which is to be discussed on the EU level. In all cities it is evident that citizens are reluctant to start a business, mostly due to common inherited traditions of being employed rather than an employer, low self-esteem within unemployed persons, inadequacy of their skills and competencies with current market needs, low level of managerial skills and the lack of an effective entrepreneurship support system. The national and local environments for business start-ups are very different, but the entrepreneurship climate depends primarily on society’s recognition of entrepreneurs as generators of employment and economic prosperity. According to the European Commission’s policy agenda for SMEs “Small Business Act for Europe”, the general climate in society should lead individuals to consider the option of starting their own business as attractive and should create an environment within which entrepreneurs and family businesses can thrive and entrepreneurship is rewarded.

Objectives

The partners of Euc4Biz acknowledged the common need for a more effective approach in promotion and support of entrepreneurship in order to create a more favourable entrepreneurship climate. Unemployment is a growing problem in the whole of Europe and a decreasing number of entrepreneurs, whether medium, small or family businesses additionally increase the economic crises we are facing. None of the national and local economies are immune to the global changes; therefore solutions are to be found not at the national or local level, but at the European one.

The project aimed to:

1. Exchange needs and to transfer know-how in supporting entrepreneurship on the European level

2. Develop guidelines and recommendations for creating a more favourable climate for entrepreneurship

3. Create a long lasting cooperation between twinned cities on this specific subject among different stakeholders

Activities

1st Transnational meeting
Ferrol (ES)
16/19 April 2013

2nd Transnational meeting
Warsaw (PL)
8/11 October 2013

3rd Transnational meeting
Norrköping (SE)
20/23 May 2014

Impact

The project unfolded in 4 international events which includes seminars, workshops, study visits, the final conference and two local events in each participating city/ municipality, all followed by the pre-project situation research as local assignments. The target groups involved in the activites have been able to:

1. Exchange best practices in the field of promotion of entrepreneurship with relevant stakeholders from different EU cities

2. Disseminate lessons learned locally and validate their practical use with a broader network of local stakeholders

3. Work together with experts in the field from different European cities in the development of common solutions for the creation of a more favourable climate for entrepreneurship on the European level

4. Create closer ties with other European cities

At the end of the project the partners have produced some recommendations for a more effective approach in creating business friendly environments.

News from the Project
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