Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-22-Speech-3-257"
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"en.20031022.10.3-257"2
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"Mr President, I would like to congratulate both rapporteurs on this excellent report. As we have heard, the current challenge for the European Union is to identify key factors for building a climate in which entrepreneurial business activities can succeed.
People's attitudes towards involvement in entrepreneurship vary widely across the European Union, as we have heard from Commissioner Liikanen, although on average the European Union has no lack of business owners. In Lisbon, the European Union made a commitment to become more competitive and dynamic, but this commitment is still an abstract concept, and implementation is well behind schedule.
While I fully support the Lisbon aims, we need a stronger commitment by the Member States. The entrepreneurship paper clearly has a central role to play in this. However, we need to be aware that Europe still underperforms compared to the US and Australia in terms of number of new businesses. Clearly, if the European Union is to achieve the Lisbon goals for employment and prosperity, the situation for entrepreneurs will need to be improved.
One way of doing this is to tackle the main barriers. Many enterprises are facing obstacles such as cultural and social barriers, barriers posed by regulation – both from the European Union and national legislation, access to finance and education and training, and, of course, some of the negative media impact.
My concern is that these barriers are currently damaging the potential contribution, both economic and social, of small firms within the European Union. But why is it that entrepreneurship is important? In my region, in the West Midlands, I have seen how SMEs offer us an opportunity to engage in issues of productivity and competition and, at the same time, they give us the tools to empower disadvantaged groups, reduce social exclusion and contribute to regeneration. But we cannot see this just as an end in itself. It has to be a means to an end, and it is important that entrepreneurship focuses. It enables emerging firms to be more efficient and more dynamic and continue to thrive.
How are we to achieve this? Some steps have already been taken to remove some of the barriers faced by entrepreneurs. However, we need to give stronger direction to the Commission and Member States on many of the issues.
My concern is that although the stigma of failure for entrepreneurs is widely recognised as a problem within Europe, this is not being effectively tackled. Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a mindset, and it is very difficult to legislate for a mindset. You cannot force peopled to become entrepreneurs, but we can legislate and create the right framework.
We heard from Mr Langen about the EU citizen being more risk-averse than his American counterpart. We need to look at other communities within the EU to make sure that we learn the lessons. A couple of months ago, I chaired a conference for the Commission for involvement of ethnic minority entrepreneurs. That is a very good way for us to learn why certain communities are more entrepreneurial than the Europeans."@en1
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