The European Commission publishes the SBA Fact Sheets on an annual basis with the aim of improving and understanding trends and national policies that have been introduced which affect SMEs across the Union. The Fact Sheets form part of the European Commission’s 2015 Annual Report on the economic performance of European SMEs.
The areas covered by the SBA fact sheet include: “think small first”, entrepreneurship, “second chance”, “responsive administration”, state aid and public procurement, access to finance, single market, skills & innovation, environment and internationalisation.
“Ideas for Europe” competition
The aim of this competition is to find the best and most inspiring ideas with the potential to change the world for the better. Each Member State can nominate a candidate for the competition and they will present their ideas in a short “TedEx Talk”.
An international jury and delegates will select the top nine candidates and the tenth candidate will be selected by public voting. The Top 10 candidates will present their ideas in The Hague, The Netherlands in March 2016.
Ireland’s candidate is Dr Nora Khaldi, founder and CSO of Nuritas. The first round of the competition is currently underway in Luxembourg.