European Entrepreneurship Action Plan to boost entrepreneurship at all levels

In these difficult times of increasing unemployment, Europe needs more entrepreneurs. Whilst actually only 11% of European citizens are entrepreneurs, 45% would like to be their own boss if they could.
To unlock this enormous potential for jobs and growth, the European Commission intends to launch in autumn 2012 a European Entrepreneurship Action Plan to boost entrepreneurship at all levels.

New companies represent the most important source of new jobs: they create 4.1 million new jobs every year in Europe. Without the jobs created by new firms, the average net employment growth rate would be negative. Moreover there is a need to preventing companies from disappear as a result of lack of support during turbulent times, and instead rather to help them to keep growing and developing their business. This consultation, which runs until 01.10.2012, seeks to identify measures that would have a significant impact on achieving the goals of such an Action Plan to boost entrepreneurship.

To overcome the current situation, the Commission is in particular interested in receiving ideas on how to:

• Unleash entrepreneurial potential
• Remove obstacles to entrepreneurial activities
• Support entrepreneurs in starting up businesses
• Help entrepreneurs to face challenges, particularly during the first years of life of the business.