The EESC shows a positive attitude to JEUNE proposals

JEUNE has been listened at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), exactly through the Young European Entrepreneurs Seminar , last 19 and 20 November in Brussels. In fact, the title of the event was "How to make your voice heard in European institutions?"

JEUNE representatives raised some issues at the meeting such as the importance of setting up an initiative similar to the Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors with Young Entrepreneurs. JEUNE also said that more initiatives like the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs should be created. Also, the EESC will invite JEUNE in future events tackling the issue of entrepreneurship.

Florin Jianu, from YEAR (Romania), Vasilis Triantopoulos President of Young Leaders (Greece) , and Rosa Solanes, from JEUNE, participated in the Working Group “How do we help European entrepreneurs better communicate with EU institutions?”. Besides, Abraham Tsoukalidis, Secretary General of Young Leaders Greece, took part in the working group “How to set up a European SME?”.

Florin Jianu, was appointed rapporteur of the first working group. As rapporteur Mr. Jianu summarized the main points of discussion at the last session of the Seminar on 20th November.

A representative from DG Enterprise of the European Commission was also present and also took note of JEUNE’s two main demands:

• The Young Entrepreneurs Ambassadors
• The Young Entrepreneurs day in the European institutions

This meeting enabled JEUNE to strengthen the contacts with the EESC and opened the door to future cooperation between JEUNE and this European institution.

JEUNE welcomes this initiative and hopes to receive information from the EESC on the seminar results and follow-up. Specially on the idea to create a network of Young Entrepreneurs Ambassadors.

We thank the EESC for listening to our voice!

Ambassadors for European Creativity and Innovation Year present their “manifesto”

The ambassadors for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 handed a “manifesto” on creativity and innovation in Europe to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso on Thursday 12 November. The manifesto aims to help shape the EU's strategy for promoting creativity and innovation for the next decade and is one of the main achievements of the European Year 2009.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr Barroso said: “Europe needs such vision more than ever as we seek to lead global efforts to recover from crisis and tackle climate change”. He went on to add that the manifesto would help inspiration to be found for future work.

The Commission will soon be publishing a working paper on this strategy, submitting it for consultation.

The manifesto, which is the result of a collective effort by 27 ambassadors, includes seven priorities and seven lines of action that give strong impetus for change. The priorities will:

1) nurture creativity in a lifelong learning process where theory and practice go hand in hand;

2) make schools and universities places where students and teachers engage in creative thinking and learning through practice;

3) transform workplaces into learning sites;

4) promote a strong, independent and diverse cultural sector that can sustain intercultural dialogue;

5) promote scientific research to understand the world, improve people's lives and stimulate innovation;

6) promote design processes, thinking and tools, understanding the needs, emotions, aspirations and abilities of users; and

7) support business innovation that contributes to prosperity and sustainability.

The lines of action are: 1) investing in knowledge; 2) reinventing education; 3) rewarding initiative; 4) sustaining culture; 5) promoting innovation; 6) thinking globally; and 7) greening the economy. The ambassadors underline that it is urgent to bring about a change and to launch a new initiative.

Europe and its member states must, in order to break the current deadlock, grant their full attention today to creativity and innovation, they say.

Plan to reduce red tape would allow businesses to save €40 billion in total

European Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen who, on Thursday 22 October, presented progress made in implementing the programme aimed at a 25% reduction in administrative costs imposed on EU businesses by EU legislation by 2012, called on EU member states and the European Parliament to approve the latest measures put forward by the Commission for completing its programme proposed in 2007.

In total, measures already proposed and those under preparation should, according to the Commission, allow European businesses to save nearly €40.4 billion from €123.8 billion on red tape stemming from 72 EU texts and measures that transpose and implement them in the member states.

Reduction measures put in place or proposed by the Commission and already adopted could bring a reduction of €7.6 billion, to which should be added €30.7 billion if co-legislators can ensure businesses can “feel the difference on the ground”, the Commission states in a press release. Also, further work with a view to more reductions of administrative costs could lead to more measures amounting to at least €2.1 billion.

The new measures include two key proposals presented early 2009:

-one on VAT intended to facilitate electronic invoicing, for savings of €18 billion, and the other on corporate law, aimed at exempting micro-entities from accounting obligations, for savings of €7 billion.

All member states have set themselves ambitious national targets. “The Commission is fully on track to deliver on its goals to reduce red tape for businesses. But better regulation is a job that never ends. It is not just about changing bad rules, but making good rules work better, using new technologies and new innovation. The next Commission' will work on promoting the “sustainable economic recovery”.

1st JEUNE Convention of young entrepreneurs of craft and small and medium-size enterprises

The 1st JEUNE Convention will take place in Brussels on Monday, 3rd December at the Representation of the Bavarian Region to the EU. This event is addressed to young entrepreneurs coming from JEUNE’s member organisations.

In the morning, the participants will attend the two-panel JEUNE assembly, which will address issues of interest for the entrepreneurs such as entrepreneurship and access to finance. Representatives of the European Commission (DG Education and Culture) and European Parliament will be among the speakers.

In the afternoon, the delegates will attend the PIN-SME Launch Event “ICT and SMEs: big opportunities for small players”, where Keynote speeches will be delivered by high level representatives from the European Commission and the European Parliament, namely Françoise Le Bail (EC SME Envoy), Othmar Karas (MEP, Vice-President of EPP-ED) and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (MEP).

We look forward to welcoming you at this event.

The final agenda will be sent to you shortly.

Starting up a new enterprise quicker and cheaper

JEUNE welcomes the European Commission’s mid-term review on SME policy published last 8^th October. JEUNE is pleased with the progress made in some areas such as the reduction of administrative burdens.

However, legislation should be conceived for smaller companies since the very beginning. It is important to underline that the European Commission should be more active in promoting entrepreneurship, in developing entrepreneurial skills through education and in improving the image of entrepreneurs. These factors are currently quite poor across the EU.

In spite of some good results such as the reduction of the average cost of setting up a new company in the EU, which has fallen from 813 Euros in 2002 to 554 Euros in 2007 as well as the reduction in the time needed to register a company from 24 days to about 12 days today, much more needs to be done.

Europeans remain reluctant to start their own business. Three quarters of EU citizens are doubtful of the feasibility of establishing their own company, but attitudes towards entrepreneurship are more positive among the younger generation.

In response to this situation, the European Commission is proposing action to help entrepreneurs avoid bankruptcy, reduce the stigma of business failure and provide a second chance.

JEUNE calls the European Commission to act in this direction and to apply the “think small first” principle in all Community actions.

JEUNE AT THE WORLD STANDARDS DAY CONFERENCE

The World Standards Day: “Standards and the citizen: contributing to society” took place yesterday, 17^th October, in Brussels As every year, JEUNE participated in this event.

This year, the conference was devoted to the citizens and the topics addressed were: : standardisation in the field of health and local authorities, standardisaton in the area of Social Responsibility, standardisation for the consumer and in the end the standards and accessibility.

It was a comprehensive and very interesting conference because it gave a good overview of the issues at stake and it clearly explained how the EU is working in this field.

JEUNE as the European Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Craft and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises closely follows the standardisation process through the activities of NORMAPME. Standardization is a modern and democratic process that concerned everybody and specially Craft and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Should you like to receive more information on this event, please do not hesitate to contact the JEUNE Secretariat.

The big issue of restructuring for SMEs

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Event: The big issue of restructuring for SMEs

Event date: 26 - 27 November 2007

Venue: MCE - Management Centre Europe

Rue de l'Aqueduc 118,

1050 Brussels

Phone: +322 543 2100

The European Commission is organising another session of the Restructuring Forum in

Brussels, dedicated to SMEs. Bringing together the European institutions, governments, cross industry and sectoral social partners, academic experts, business support providers such as chambers of commerce and industry and regional development agencies, this conference will highlight the specific challenges that restructuring can pose for SMEs and will provide a platform for the exchange and discussion of best practices on how to adapt to change.

We highly encourage you to participate in this event!

To register, please write to the following address mentioning the code "FORUM 10-07 ENTR":

empl-restructuring-forum-sme@ec.europa.eu

For further information about the Draft Agenda see link below:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=546

For further information about the event see link below:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/newsbytheme.cfm?displayType=consultations&tpa_id=118

LIPS FINAL CONFERENCE

At the end of August JEUNE organized the final LIPS Conference. This conference was the final event of the, Linguistic and Intercultural Preparation of Students for the workplace (LIPS) project. This project, which started in October 2005 and finishes in September 2007, has been funded with the support of the European Commission in the framework of Leonardo student mobility. JEUNE is a partner of this project and was in charge of organizing the final conference. The project aimed at developing pilot measures to improve students’ skills and competences for their successful completion of work experiences abroad. The project has developed pilot measures to improve students' skills and competences for their successful completion of work experiences abroad.

Interactive modules including video and podcast all aimed at successful preparation for key situations, have been created by the project team. For more information, you can view the LIPS website: http://www.eu-lips.de/ space This is an example of LIPS Intercultural Project: space The "European Twinning module" for working in a SME Apart from their language and intercultural preparation, the students will be trained as "cultural brokers". Too often student interns are seen as a “challenge” for the workplace as they need a lot of training and have little to offer when they arrive.

How can this be changed?

This measure has been designed to raise the value of the interns for the company they will work for. In their respective home countries, the students should get in touch with companies similar to the one they are going to work for abroad. They should analyze the company at home in detail and be prepared to share this knowledge with the company abroad. With this special knowledge, the value of the trainee will be raised. space JEUNE would like to thank everyone who joined the meeting!

JEUNE’s comments on the Communication on Youth

"Better involvement of young people in society is a key element for the promotion of entrepreneurship"

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More emphasis should be put in promoting entrepreneurial mindsets

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JEUNE, the organization representing young craftsmen and young entrepreneurs of SMEs in the European Union, welcomes the Communication COM(2007)498 “Promoting young people's full participation in education, employment and society” released on Wednesday (5^th September) by the Commission. This is an important documentfor all young people in the EU.

The Communication addresses relevant issues such as education, employment, social inclusion and active citizenship that can greatly contribute to the empowerment of young EU citizens.

Likewise, the Communication refers to the need to promote entrepreneurship among young people by providing favourable conditions for young entrepreneurs. JEUNE is of the opinion that the promotion of entrepreneurship must be a target in itself and not just a target within the fight against unemployment.

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Elena Pellaschiar, JEUNE’s President pointed out that “There is a need to change the approach to entrepreneurship in Europe. It is not enough to launch a campaign on entrepreneurship but to set up long-term objectives and work by society as a whole in order to foster an entrepreneurial EU culture”.

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JEUNE welcomes the initiatives of the Commission in this direction in particular the improvement of geographic mobility initiative for young workers and the pilot project to promote the mobility of young entrepreneurs. In this line, JEUNE calls on the Commission to take into account the specific needs of young entrepreneurs in terms of the duration of the placement and its content.

With regards to entrepreneurship education, JEUNE strongly believes that entrepreneurship education must be an integral part in all stages of education and that education centers have an important role to play. In this line, it is important to increase the cooperation between entrepreneurs and education centers (Universities, vocational training centers, etc). Pellaschiar continues “students do not have the chance to interact with entrepreneurs during their studies. Putting these two realities together can enormously influence the professional choice of many youngsters”.