Tajani unveils plan to make entrepreneurship more attractive

The European Commission has urged member states to change their tax regimes to be more encouraging to small businesses. It said it would be identifying best practices across the EU that were conducive to “an entrepreneur-friendly fiscal environment”.

Launching an action plan for entrepreneurship (9 January), Antonio Tajani, the European commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship, stressed the importance of tax regimes to small businesses and invite member states to:

• make tax administration more favorable to early-stage business
• promote cross-border tax co-ordination to minimise double taxation and other barriers to cross-border enterprise
• reassess corporate income tax regimes
• implement the option for small businesses of a cash accounting scheme for value-added tax
• allow owners of new businesses to ask for adjustments to their payment schedules for social security contributions

Tajani said he would be asking the Irish government, which has just taken on the presidency of the Council of Ministers, to put the action plan on the agenda of one of the meetings of the Competitiveness Council during its presidency.

Source.

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.

Consultations for the European Entrepreneurship Action Plan

A European Entrepreneurship Action Plan is needed to address areas where entrepreneurial potential can be unleashed and where key bottlenecks can be overcome and obstacles to entrepreneurial activities removed. This consultation seeks to identify possible measures which could usefully contribute to the goals of such an Action Plan. Progress in attaining the goals of this Action Plan will be measured through the recommendation and monitoring processes of the Annual Growth Survey and the Small Business Act and its Review. The Entrepreneurship 2020 Consultation is open until 1 October.

More information about this initiative