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05/07/2008 Small Business Act: Commission publishes new practical guidelines for Member States on how to make public procurement more SME-friendly

In the context of the Small Business Act (SBA), the European Commission has published a set of practical examples and guidelines which will enable Member States and public authorities to make their public procurement rules and practices more friendly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Public procurement in the EU – i.e. the purchases of goods, services and public works by governments and public utilities - is a vast market, worth €1800 billion in 2006 and estimated at about 16% of GDP.

04/07/2008 First European SME week

The Commission is organising the first European SME week in May 2009 to inform SMEs about available support at EU and national level and to encourage more people to become entrepreneurs. The SME week will be a European umbrella campaign for activities that take place throughout Europe.

04/07/2008 Renewed Social Agenda adopted by the European Commission

Based on an open consultation, the New Social Agenda aims at better adapting social policies to the new socio-economic reality.

30/06/2008 The ECRC has published its Declaration

The European Coalition for Responsible Credit has published a Declaration on the financial crisis.

The European Commission has unveiled the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA), based on ten guiding principles and proposes policy actions.

The Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has produced a new video release on access to financial services.

Many well-established companies only exist because their founders did not give up after failing at their first hurdle. A new European Commission website is helping raise awareness of this issue.

The Enterprise Finance Index (EFI) website aims to provide data and trends about the development of access to finance for SMEs in the Member States in a clear and user-friendly manner. The final goal is to enable policy makers better to evaluate the effects of policies on SME finance across Europe.

The ECOFIN conclusions of May 14th, are in favour of a reinforcement of financial education for consumers due to the growing complexity of the financial system.

A public on-line consultation was launched via the IPM tool and run until 31 March 2008. More than 500 contributions were received as well as a number of position papers from SME stakeholders, national and regional administrations. All these inputs will be taken into account in the preparation of the "Small Business Act " for Europe. The report and the statistical overview published summarise the replies received through the on-line questionnaire.

The European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG has launched a new on-line magazine to present its policies and activities.

On 15th of April Maria Nowak, president of EMN (European Microfinance Network) and Adie, received a new award for her action in favour of economic inclusion of unemployed.