Brussels, 23/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU included the issue of female entrepreneurship on the agenda of the informal Competitiveness Council meeting in Vilnius on Tuesday 23 July (see other article). Over a working lunch, European ministers discussed the issue, working from the premise that women entrepreneurs constituted an underused source of growth and job creation. Although women currently account for 52% of the population, they only account for a third of self-employed workers in Europe.
The Lithuanian Presidency provided European ministers with a number of avenues for discussion to guide the debate: what measures are being taken in member states to promote female entrepreneurship, what are the areas where the EU could make a contribution to changing the current situation and how could exchange of best practice be facilitated. In this connection, the Lithuanian minister for the economy, Evaldas Gustas, said after the informal exchange of views that “member states have agreed that they should proceed to an exchange of best practice at a European level”. (MD/transl.fl)