Brussels, 03/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will present the results of the work on support services for small businesses, which has been carried out in close co-operation with the Member States, at a European seminar in Vienna on 11 and 12 April 2002.
Small businesses account for 98.9% of European businesses and 53% of employment in Europe. In order to help small businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed and face up effectively to the challenges set by their commercial, social and physical environment, governments have set up a number of business support services. These services are provided in areas as diverse as law, taxation, social and environmental considerations, finance, business management, research and innovation. However, small businesses, which are those most in need of support services, use them the least, because their needs are not met by the services currently available. For this reason, the European Charter calls on the Member States and the EU to promote top-class support for small businesses that is easy to use and meets their needs.
To assist Member States in the task of promoting quality support for small businesses that is easy to use and meets their needs, the European Commission will present two documents in Vienna: 1) "Creating Top-Class Business Support Services", a document that is the result of in-depth work carried out in co-operation with the Member States and emphasises the basic principles underlying a high-quality support service; 2) The study carried out at the request of the European Commission on "Support services for micro, small and sole-proprietor businesses". The Commission will structure the seminar in three workshops in order to review the current situation and to outline the possibilities for improvement. The workshops are as follows: Awareness and visibility of support services; Types of support services provided and demanded; Delivery mechanisms for support services. (Further information on the seminar is available at: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/craft-studies/vienna-conference.htm)