The commission has launched a public consultation in order to gather opinions of entrepreneurs, start-ups, but also other stakeholders, on how the environment can be improved for start-ups in the EU.
The consultation will help to identify possible solutions and, if needed, design new policies to help businesses grow. The goal is to create serial entrepreneurs, who will reinvest when they succeed, try again when they fail, and support a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout. As foreseen in the Single Market Strategy, the Commission will also take action to simplify VAT requirements and put forward a proposal on business insolvency, to give honest entrepreneurs who fail a second chance as well as to facilitate early restructuring – a public consultation on insolvency frameworks is currently ongoing.
Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness said: “Start-ups and scale-ups should exploit the full potential of the Single Market. We want to collect as much as possible new ideas from stakeholders on how to improve the environment for innovative start-ups throughout their life cycle. We need to create the best conditions for European entrepreneurs to take risks, invest, grow and become competitive on a global scale.”
Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Internal market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, also EU’s SME Envoy, will launch the Start-up Initiative with a TEDxBinnenhof Talk in the Hague in the afternoon: “While Europe can already rely on a strong and dynamic start-up ecosystem, many of these start-ups are facing obstacles when scaling up across Europe and beyond. It is a matter of competitiveness and innovative capacity for Europe to make sure that the Single Market is the launch base of our start-ups into the global competition. We are interested in the views of all, and in particular the start-up community, to achieve this and break down these barriers within the Single Market.”
- The consultation the Start-up Initiative will be open until 30 June 2016.
More about making your voice heard in the EU
The European commission strives to gather as much information as possible before drafting a legislation proposal, in order to make the suggestion accurate and suitable. This is done by gather knowledge from experts, but also through gathering opinions of public, stakeholders and other. All public consultations, and other ways to have an impact in the European Commission is gathered on this website, available in all official EU languages.
