Brief history of ESBA

Brief  history

The European Small Business Alliance was formed in 1998 by a group of small business organisations in Waxholm. Sweden, who had been members in a Pan EU organisation which merged into another SME organisation that year. The ‘ESBA’ group decided to form a new organisation.

The preliminary work was led by Brian Prime, International Affairs Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses in the UK along with Marie Lou Guerrero, Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses; AMU Germany; Swedish Association for Free Enterprise (SAFE). WVO Austria and Patrons Independent. France.

A meeting in Germany on the 14th September 1998 set in place the statutes for the new organisation which we formally adopted by the member organisation representatives on the 8th November 1998.

Brian Prime was elected as the first President of ESBA at the Waxholm meeting and continued in post until the 2006 AGM. Brian was a regular supporter of ESBA’s work until his very sad death in 2015.

Tina Sommer, from the UK, succeeded Brian and handed over the batten to David Caro, our current President in 2011. David is a member of the European Commission’s EU Envoy Network. Tina continues to support our work as our Hon President (Patron).

Norman Mackel, who became Hon Treasurer in 2001 until he retired from that role in 2016, and in recognition of his long service, he became an Hon President (Patron) until his very sad passing in 2023.

During the period since being formed, the Board has visited many of our members of the day, including Sweden, North Cyprus, Austria, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Poland,Turkey, Bulgaria, Portugal, Croatia. France and Belgium.

As part of our 25th Anniversary, it was most fitting that a visit to Gibraltar was held in May 2023 for the celebrations, hosted by our remaining founder member and Eran Shay. Senior Vice President.

We look ahead to our 30th Anniversary in 2028.

Updated February 2026