Brussels, 11/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - Access to finance remains an important problem for companies (especially SMEs) in almost all candidate countries seeking accession to the EU. This is one of the conclusions of the most recent BEST report on candidates, published by the Commission on Friday and which examines around 200 measures for promoting the spirit of enterprise and competition adopted by the authorities of these countries, professional bodies and other organisation (universities, research centres etc.).
The aim of the report was to identify amongst these measures, "best practices" in company policy that could be adopted by the candidate countries and, indeed, by Member States themselves to encourage greater competition. Commissioner Erkki Liikanen stated that encouraging competition and an environment suitable to business were essential priorities in the Commission's enlargement strategy. The Commissioner also stressed that the Commission was committed to achieving the objectives of the European Council in Lisbon in March 2002, would be achieved in an enlarged Europe. For further information: http//europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/enlargement/best.htm