Young entrepreneurs have the chance to be hosted by small and medium enterprises all over the European Union, with no extra costs – the programme is co-funded by the European Commission through its COSME (Competitiveness of SMEs) programme. It’s the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, that turns 10 this year.

The programme was created in 2009 and it allows young entrepreneurs to get a cross-border field training, enabling them to spend a period of time at another European small or medium enterprise. The call currently running covers the period 2016-2021 and, in this period alone, over 250 new companies and more than 2,000 jobs were created thanks to the EYE experience. As it’s stated in the call, “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) play a crucial role in reaching the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy” (here further infrmation about this last initiative).

EYE is a combination of fostering the entrepreneurial activities in the EU and, at the same time, their internationalisation, to exploit every aspect of the Single Market – one of the pillar ot the European Union. SMEs make up for “99% of businesses in Europe and contribute to 60% of European private sector employment, creating 85% of new jobs”, as reported on Forbes. Developing the skills of the young entrepreneurs is then fundamental to improve European economic performance as well, not last in terms of employability.

How to do so?

It works trhough a call for proposal. The main characters are the new and young entrepreneur, the hosting enterprise and intermediary organisations (IOs), that are selected to manage the programme local level.

What’s the role of such organisations? The call specifies nine main tasks:

• Promotion of the programme;
  
• Enrolment of entrepreneurs;
• Assessing applications from NEs (new entepreneurs) and HEs (hosting entepreneurs);
• Building relationships;
• Management of grants, commitments and financial support to new entrepreneurs;
• Preparation of the exchange;
• Follow up of the exchange;
• Active networking;
• Reporting.
  

Further details are available in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Implementation Manual for Intermediary Organisations (Quality Manual).

How much is the budget?

The total budget for the whole programme amounts to 80 million for the years 2016-2020. However, the allocation for each single year depends on the annual budget adopted for that year.

As stated in the call, during the first SGAs (specific agreements) arranged from 1 February 2017 to 31 January 2019, “Financial assistance to new entrepreneurs participating in a mobility action shall take the form of a scale of unit cost of maximum EUR 6.600 per entrepreneur. The maximum grant amount per Specific Agreement resulting from the first consultation for SGAs will be EUR 800.000“.

Speaking of which…

If you’re interested in youth entrepreneuership, have a look at some of the project results available here on the dedicated page.

L'articolo Erasmus for young entrepreneurs 2009-2019: ten years of innovation proviene da Youth Networks.

Part of the financing will be deployed for three main programmes:

• The “Youth in Action” programme (€60 million), whose aim is to improve economic, political, and social inclusion of the most vulnerable among Tunisian youth. This will be done by developing the skills and competences of the youngsters (in order to facilitate their access to the job market), by investing in culture and sport and, eventually, by improving policy participation of young people at the local level.
• The “EU4Innovation” programme (€15 million), whose aim is to strenghten and structure the Tunisian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem by improving the possibilities for start-ups and entrepreneurs and by the implementation of an enabling regulatory environment for innovative entrepreneurship and start-ups.
• The “Support to local governance” programme (€70 million), for boosting
  local development and reduce regional and local disparities as part of its decentralisation process. This last will imply the improvement of living conditions for the locals, that means the guarantee of basic services; the boosting of steakeholders’ capacities; and, eventually, the
  analysis and dissemination of good practices.

The other key economic sectors, such as the private one, urban development, culture and tourism, together with the modernisation of Tunisian public administration, will be boosted with the rest of the availbale funding – €160 million.

This is the highest financial contribution that the EU has ever allocated for Tunisia under the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). For the long-term period 2014-20, the funding allocated for the ENI amounted to €15 billion.

All of this is part of a set of initiatives that fall within the framework of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, for which the negotiations are still ongoing.

L'articolo Record EU financing for Tunisia under ENI partnership proviene da Youth Networks.

The changes that the EU market has to face, due to digitalisation, are actually being studied for almost one year. Three external advisers – Professors Heike Schweitzer, Jacques Crémer and Assistant Professor Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye – have been working on a report since 1 April 2018, which has to be released on 31 March 2019.

The full program of the conference (topics, speakers and how to send your questions) is available here.

The topic

The issue of digitalisation and how it affects the competitiveness of the markets is part of a wider reflection over how competition policy can best serve European consumers. The importance of competition in the markets was underlined by Vestager in a speech dating back to 18 September 2017, when she said: “Just as the competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society, competition in our markets is fundamental to a fair one (…). Competition is the motor that drives businesses to do better for consumers. To cut prices. To offer more choice. To produce innovative products”.

The Commission will also use the contributions of several stakeholders that have to deal with digitalisation, who will also take part in the conference.

The contest

Also university students will have the possibility to get involved in the field. The Commission has in fact launched a Student Challenge: whoever wishes to take part in the contest should follow the conference (it will be web streamed here) on 17 January, come up with contributions to the discussion – just as they were part of the speakers – and, starting from the following day and until 31 January, send them to the Commission. Here the full Student Challenge rules.

The best entries, selected by a jury of DG Competition officials, will be published on the Commission website no later than 7 February, where it will be possible to vote for the best ones until 21 February 2019. The winners will be offered a trip to Brussels on March 13, where they will present their submissions and have an hour-long meeting with Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition.

L'articolo “Shaping competition policy in the era of digitisation” student contest proviene da Youth Networks.