European Small Business Alliance

Founded in 1998 by eight independent national small business associations, The European Small Business Alliance (ESBA) is a non-party political group, which cares for small business entrepreneurs and the self-employed and represents them through targeted EU advocacy and profiling activities. ESBA also works towards the development of strong independent advocacy and benefits groups in European countries. ESBA's new website, which provides an innovative approach to communication amongst business organizations, reflects these three main fields of activity.

ESBA supports European Parliament's move towards EU patent — 16 February 2011, 13:14 CET

On 15 February, the European Parliament by a large majority voted in favour of a recommendation by the European Commission to move towards an EU patent scheme, using the 'enhanced co-operation' procedure.

Recast of Late Payment Directive Still Showing Holes — 07 September 2010, 14:09 CET

On 31 August, the European Commission, Council and European Parliament reached a draft deal on the recast of the Late Payments Directive, agreeing that the Directive will also apply to business-to-business payments, where all suppliers have to be paid within 60 days "unless otherwise expressly agreed between the debtor and the creditor, and provided it is not grossly unfair to the creditor".