Irish Regions Office Website

July 11, 2008

Small Business Act: approved and set for Athlone conference

The Commission unveiled its much-anticipated Small Business Act (SBA) on 25 June as a key piece of legislation intended to unlock the potential of 23 million European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The SBA contains almost one hundred initiatives on cutting red tape for entrepreneurs, increasing SME investment prospects, facilitating access to public finance and improving the perception of entrepreneurship and risk-taking. More than half of these initiatives are to be within the competence of Member States and despite indicating broad support for the Act, EU ministers meeting as the informal Competitiveness Council at Versailles on 17 July have yet to clarify how and when these are to be implemented. On a related matter Athlone will host a 2-day conference with a strong SBA focus entitled ‘Supporting our SMEs – overcoming barriers to their development’ on 29-30 September. Organised by the EU Committee of the Regions (through Cllr. Constance Hanniffy, President of the Committee’s Commission for Economic and Social Policy) in conjunction with the Association of Irish Regions and BMW Regional Assembly, the conference will be opened by an Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD and will include contributions from Hervé Novelli, French Secretary of State for Trade, Crafts and SMEs, Tourism and Services, (on behalf of the EU Council Presidency); Frank Ryan, CEO of Enterprise Ireland; Maive Rute, Deputy SME Envoy with the European Commission DG for Enterprise & Industry; Philippe Vanrie, CEO of EBN - the European BIC Network; and Patricia Callan, Director of the Small Firms Association, among others. To register for the conference contact: pgrennan@bmwassembly.ie

Posted by iroronan at July 11, 2008 03:22 PM