Brussels, 12/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at the Startup Europe Summit on 12 February, the European Commission, represented by its Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, said that the Commission would be launching a series of projects as part of the Startup Europe programme.
This event is being held on 12-13 February in Berlin and is bringing together the founders of several young start-ups in Europe. Vice-President Ansip and the Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Günther Oettinger, are attending the event. The former pointed out “It will be small businesses and web startups that will create the ideas and jobs that we need for our economic growth”. The Vice-President pointed out, however, that few European start-ups successfully become world leaders due to the lack of qualified staff available and access to finance.
The Startup Europe programme seeks to create bridges between new start-ups, entrepreneurs and investors (see EUROPE 11003). The projects planned by the Commission seek to develop improved connections and collaboration between the start-ups, promoting skills and encouraging women entrepreneurs. They also seek to tackle the received idea that failure is necessarily a bad thing.
Ansip said that they had to get rid of bureaucracy so that entrepreneurs who were trying to innovate, could create and register small enterprises, with cross-border rules and facilitate access to financing, particularly from the private sector. He suggested that a Europe-wide licence could be set up for small technological companies with standard rules throughout the EU. (Isabelle Lamberty).