Northern Europe remains investors' preferred destination. - In the latest ECER-Banque Populaire European Cities Entrepreneurship Ranking, published in May, which assesses investors' favourite cities in Europe ("Which European cities are preferred by businessmen?") Northern European countries (Finland, Sweden, Germany and Austria) continue to be the business community's favourite destination. Since 2008, ECER-Banque Populaire has published a barometer of business leaders' favourite cities. This initiative aims to assess how business leaders' satisfaction indicators develop, and evaluates their expectations and progress in the different regions. The 2010 edition selected 27 European cities in 18 countries in an effort to calculate the most attractive business start up countries. Almost 4,500 entrepreneurs, whose businesses are based in the cities selected, were interviewed. The Top 10 is as follows: 1) Frankfurt; 2) Malmö; 3) Warsaw; 4) Hamburg; 5) Berlin; 6) Lisbon; 7) Helsinki; 8) Cologne; 9) Lyon; 10) Stuttgart. The study underlines that: 1) Germany is particularly well represented with five cities included in the Top 10. Their performances are due to: the German entrepreneurial model being based on intermediate size companies with robust reputations and which experienced the consequences of the crisis in other European countries later; a denser entrepreneurial fabric and networks that are closer to entrepreneurs; 2) Sweden is still as high a performer as ever, with many of its cities at the head of optimum performance levels in all areas; 3) all of France's major cities have improved their scores, with Lyon in the Top 10 and Lille remaining stable in 11th place. Paris (26th) and Marseilles (16th) have made significant progress; 4) British cities have improved their scores and mechanisms implemented since 2009 to tackle the crisis have borne fruit. (I.L./transl.fl)