Commission emphasises regional factor
European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, has detailed the strategic importance of regions with regards to promoting start-ups and SMEs.
The former Estonian prime minister introduced President of the European Committee of the Regions Markku Markkula, with whom he announced the launch of Startup Europe Week 2017, which is designed to bring European entrepreneurs closer to European regions and regional authorities for mutual benefit.
Ansip said: “Stronger, broader support for start-ups and new business creation at local and regional level complements the work being done by EU institutions – particularly the European Commission’s Digital Single Market (DSM) project – as we progress towards a single and connected European ecosystem.
“In the DSM strategy, we address many of the problems that start-ups face today. The aim is to reduce the obstacles so that they have more freedom to innovate and scale up in Europe, while operating across the EU’s borders within the internal market.”
Ansip then gave the podium to Markkula, who emphasised the function of regional authorities in bringing new business ideas to market, and their concomitant commitment to digital innovation.
Markkula stated: “Digital trends – cloud computing, mobile internet and social media to ecosystem thinking and speeding up globalisation of businesses – have become the single most important catalyst for market-based innovation.
“As policy makers, we have to create the right conditions for the emergence of strong entrepreneurial ecosystems. This includes promoting an innovative mindset, cutting red tape and improving regulation as well as addressing the funding gap for businesses that are ready to scale up and go global.”
To read the joint statement in full, click here. To find out more about Startup Europe Week, click here.
