Summary Report: The Public Debate Following the Green Paper 'Entrepreneurship In Europe'

This report provides a concise overview of the results of the public debate launched by the Green Paper on Entrepreneurship (the Green Paper). The Green paper invited public consultation on a series of key questions that mainly covered the following topics:

• How to have more entrepreneurs?
• How to get more firms to grow?

It asked ten questions that can be categorized under the following three pillars of action:

• Bringing down barriers to business;
• Balancing the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship;
• Building a society that values entrepreneurship.

Respondents at the public consultation identified challenges in the following policy areas and provided suggestions to proceed more effectively:

• Areas where work needs to continue:
  • Administration and regulation;
  • Access to finance;
  • Support and training services;
  • Innovation;
  • Facilitating transfer of business;
  • Entrepreneurship education.
• Areas where more work is needed:
  • Social protection for entrepreneurs;
  • Public procurement;
  • State aids;
  • Taxation;
  • Labor law complexity and inflexibility;
  • Regional dimension.

The respondents suggested the consideration of:

• The diverse needs of entrepreneurs;
• Co-ordinated policy making in different areas of activity;
• Systematic and active dialogue with small and medium enterprises and their representatives;
• The relevance of existing regulation.