SMEs Guides

Doing business in France: Sustainability by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:40 CET

CSR encourages businesses to take account of social and environmental concerns in their business strategies, management and operation methods, and the design of their products and services.

Doing business in France: Environmental rules by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:47 CET

France adopted its national sustainable development strategy in 2003 and its environment charter in 2004. The purpose of sustainable development for businesses is to improve and assess environmental, social and economic performance.

Doing business in Belgium: Environmental rules by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:43 CET

The following guidlines provide information about the environmental regulations in Belgium that help companies run sustainable businesses without adversely impacting the environment.

Doing business in the UK: Environmental rules by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:42 CET

Businesses in the UK have a legal responsibility for the impact they have on the environment.

Doing business in Germany: Sustainability by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:41 CET

Germany has no overall Act covering sustainable development, but rather a sustainability strategy adopted by the Federal Government in 2002.

Doing business in Germany: Staff welfare by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:49 CET

Social support in Germany is handled via the individual branches of social security: statutory medical, healthcare, pension, unemployment and accident insurance. The legal basis is provided by the Social Security Code (Sozialgesetzbuch) and the specific Acts.

Doing business in Germany: Environmental rules by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:48 CET

The devolution of competences to the Länder means that the Federal Government is responsible for some aspects of environmental protection while the Länder handle others.

Doing business in Belgium: Staff welfare by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:48 CET

Social legislation in Belgium prohibits discrimination and advocates equal opportunity and gender equality. Employers are responsible for promoting welfare within the company.

Doing business in Belgium: Sustainability by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:39 CET

The following guidlines provide information about the environmental regulations in Belgium that help companies run sustainable businesses without adversely impacting the environment.

Reducing administrative burdens on small businesses - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 23 February 2012, 19:40 CET

European Commission efforts to reduce regulatory burden, including administrative burden, are part of its smart regulation agenda. Smart regulation is intended to ensure that European laws benefit people and businesses. It is essential if the EU is to deliver the ambitious objectives for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth set out by the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Commission therefore evaluates the impact of legislation during the whole policy cycle: when a policy is designed, when it is in place, and when it is revised. As smart regulation is a shared responsibility of all those involved in EU policy-making, the Commission works with the European Parliament, Council and Member States to encourage them to apply smart regulation in their work. Below are an overview of Commission achievements and examples of administrative burden reduction.

Doing business in the UK: Staff welfare by Ina Dimireva — last modified 30 March 2012, 00:48 CET

Labour legislation covers basic workplace standards which employers must follow. These include protection against discrimination, the right to equal pay and the national minimum wage.

Consultation on the future of European company law - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 21 February 2012, 00:14 CET

The European Commission has launched an in-depth consultation on the future of European company law. Europe needs a company law framework that is adapted to the needs of the society of today and to the evolution of the economic environment. EU company law has played a central part in building the single market. The Commission says it is now time to see whether today's needs are still met by the existing legal framework. An on-line public consultation paper has been launched to collect comments from all stakeholders. The deadline for sending contributions is 14 May 2012.

Doing business in the UK: Sustainability by Ina Dimireva — last modified 27 March 2012, 13:04 CET

UK legislation requires businesses to comply with minimum social and environmental rules. This guide provides general information on environmental rules and sustainability.

Easier access to EU funds - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 08 February 2012, 23:28 CET

Since the presentation of its proposal for the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) last June, the European Commission has proposed over 120 changes to simplify the rules governing EU funding for Small and Medium Enterprises, towns and regions, students, scientists and others. Today's communication "A simplification agenda for the 2014-2020 MFF" brings them altogether in one single document. The key question now is whether the European Parliament and the Member States are ready to make the life of EU funds' beneficiaries easier by reducing the administrative burden on them.

Proposal for a Regulation on the Statute for a European Foundation - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 08 February 2012, 22:49 CET

The European Commission has presented a proposal for a European Foundation Statute to make it easier for foundations to support public benefit causes across the EU.

Extending a Community Trade Mark outside the EU by Ina Dimireva — last modified 31 January 2012, 00:46 CET

A Community Trade Mark (CTM) application or a registered CTM can be used as the basis to extend protection internationally via an International Registration (IR). This is governed by the Madrid Protocol system, which offers CTM owners/applicants the possibility to have their trade marks protected in several countries besides the EU member states by simply filing one application directly with their own national or regional trade mark office.

Financial Reporting: burden reduction for micro-entities - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 15 December 2011, 23:34 CET

The European Parliament has voted to approve measures to considerably simplify life for more than 5 million of the smallest companies in Europe. The measures will allow these companies to benefit from a very simple system of financial reporting, which will mean they can free up resources to invest in their businesses and deliver further growth.

European Social Entrepreneurship Funds - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 07 December 2011, 19:21 CET

Social businesses are companies that have a positive social impact and address social objectives as their corporate aim rather than only maximising profit. It is a growing sector in Europe, already representing 10% of all European businesses and employing over 11 million paid employees. While these businesses often receive public support, private investment via funds that invest in social entrepreneurs remains vital to their growth. However, such specialised social investment funds are rare or are not large enough. Cross-border investment in such funds is unnecessarily complicated and expensive. With today's proposal for a Regulation, the Commission lays the foundations for a strong European market for social investment funds. It introduces a new "European Social Entrepreneurship Funds" label so investors can easily identify funds that focus on investing in European social businesses. The approach is simple: once the requirements defined in the proposal are met, managers of social investment funds will be able to market their funds across the whole of Europe. To get the label, a fund will have to prove that a high percentage of investments (70% of the capital received from investors) is spent in supporting social business. Uniform rules on disclosure will ensure that investors get clear and effective information on these investments.

Venture capital for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 07 December 2011, 19:16 CET

The EU Action Plan to improve access to finance for SMEs presents the various EU policies and measures to make access to finance easier for Europe's 23 million SMEs. It covers actions to improve the venture capital market and facilitate access to financial resources. It contains also financial products to ease access to bank lending, for an amount of at least € 20 billion allocated to SMEs from the new Multiannual Financial Framework. A new survey published today shows that difficult access to finance is among the top concerns (15%) of SMEs. Almost two-thirds (63%) of the EU SMEs who applied for a bank loan during the last six months received the whole amount they asked for. However, 11% of the applications were rejected and 17% received less than they applied for. In addition 4% declined the loan offer from the bank because they found the conditions unacceptable. So about one third of the SMEs did not get the finance they had planned for.

Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs - COSME - guide by EUbusiness — last modified 30 November 2011, 17:09 CET

Promoting access to finance and encouraging an entrepreneurial culture, including the creation of new enterprises are the core issues of the new financial support programme, tabled by the European Commission in Brussels today.