ESBA - The Independant Voice for Small Business

ESBA WEEKLY of 1st April 2003 - VOL 5 - N° 10

Quote of the Week:

We easily accepted reality; perhaps because we intuited that nothing is real.
- Jorge Luis Borges

Headlines of the Week

In Brief

EU/ Entrepreneurship: Commission foster female entrepreneurship EU / Enlargement : New business support guide to help enterprises in the new Member States EU/ eEurope: Meeting in Rome on 7 April - "European Signatures versus Global Signatures?" EU/ Institutions: Access to EU documents increase, according to the Council

EU/ E-Business: Communication to reduce the gap between e-commerce and e-business In a Communication issued on 28 March, the Commission's re-affirms its ambition to boost the shift from e-commerce (buying and selling) to e-business, which would make use of e-tools to integrate all business processes. The Communication "Adapting e-business policy policies in a changing environment: The Lessons of the GO-Digital initiative and the challenges ahead" encourages Member States to review their e-business policies for SMEs and to launch e-business policy networking. With these targets in minds, the Commission considers that SMART targets (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-related), which point out examples of good practice, could enhance the efficiency of e-business policy measures. The Commission recently published an invitation to submit expression of interest to participate in the European e-business support network for SMEs, an initiative which is part of the eEurope 2005 action plan.

EU/ Environment: Consultation launched on how to reduce the barriers to green technologies The Commission, in a Communication published on 25 March, launched a wide stakeholders consultation on how to reduce the obstacles that hinder the full development and use of environmentally friendly technologies. Research, business, communities, governments and other parties are asked in a questionnaire to assess these barriers (red tapes, higher costs, public

attitudes) and the extent to which they prevent these new technologies. The answers of the stakeholders will help the Commission in the preparation of an action plan by the end of year.

EU/ SMEs: Benchmarking business angels - First Report on Business Angels in Europe A report recently published by the European Commission focuses on activities Business Angels provide to help enterprises access start-up and development money within the EU. The role of business angels (informal individual

investors) for the supply of start-up and early-stage equity finance is becoming more and more important as venture capital funds as not the most appropriate form to handle the increasing amount of small deals with high due diligence requirements. According to the report, although business angels networks have well expanded, their potential investment capacity still needs to be improved. One of the suggested instruments to boost this capacity would be to enhance the interventions of public sector to encourage the activities of business angels and business angel networks.

In Brief

EU / Enlargement: New business support guide to help enterprises in the new Member States A new guide on enlargement and its opportunities for enterprises is available on the DG Enterprises webpages. The overview, "Enlargement, what can enterprises in the Member States expect?" provides an update of a wide range of issues, such as EU business support mechanisms, rules and standards for industrial goods, accession economic impact (general and sector-specific).

EU/ eEurope: Meeting in Rome on 7 April - "European Signatures versus Global Signatures?" An international open meeting on electronic signature will be held in Rome on 7th April. The issue of the 'European Signatures versus Global Signatures" meeting is of high importance for any company hoping to rationalise its business processes through the use of information technology tools. "Generally recognised" standards, on which the European Electronic Signature Standardisation Initiative (EESSI) is currently working, aim to enhance the reliability of signature in the interest of all. The conference will highlight the importance of the Single Market and its implication on several levels.

EU/ Institutions: Access to EU document in the rise, according to the Council A new regulation on access and transparency to EU document came into force in 2001. Since then, the number of request to access documents from the EU Council of Ministers doubled and more than 80 percent of all requests has lead to full disclosure, the Council says. However, journalists and Member States officials are still unsatisfied with the situation. First, the public knowledge of the Member States' positions is not really improving, and second, the access to the documents is still slowed down by bureaucratic procedures.