NEWSLETTER, FEBRUARY 2008
The construction of “Era City” in Skopje has started
The cornerstone for the construction of the business building was formally laid on February 1. Gvido Omladic, chairman of the Slovenian ERA Group Steering Board, marked the beginning of the project “ERA City” - Skopje at the Skopje Fair, a project worth 150 million euros, which should be realized in the next 5 years. The laying of the cornerstone actually marked the first step of the construction of the project “City in city” respectively construction of a business building. It will be the first building from the multipurpose complex, which will offer the visitors a wide spectrum of activities and purposes at only one place. The business building will be constructed at 33. 600 m2. It will have ten floors and three underground garages. The construction of the shopping mall for food and other purposes will follow. It will be constructed at 85. 000 m2. The construction also includes another shopping mall for other purposes at 22.000 m2, as well as 5.000 parking lots. In the complex the visitors will be offered a wide spectrum of activities such as multi - cinema, restaurants, wellness center, sale of furniture, tools, household gadgets situated in a mega market. The shopping mall including the mega market will be located in the center of “ERA City” – Skopje.
“ERA City” - Skopje is a priority project of ERA Group, investing about 150 million euros in the next five years, and the entire investment is expected to open about 800 jobs” – emphasized Omladic. He hopes that the beginning of the construction will open new business opportunities and in the same time will join the economical interests of Macedonia, Slovenia and the European Union. The project “ERA City” has a multipurpose significance not only for Skopje, but also for the whole country – highlighted the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Moreover, the foreign minister Antonio Miloshoski and his Slovenian colleague Dimitrij Rupel attended the event. “It is one of the biggest foreign investments since the country’s declaration of independence. The multipurpose complex will also attract a numerous well-known brands, which would contribute to the image of our capital and the whole country” – pointed out Gruevski. He emphasized that the new Slovenian project is above all one more proof for the friendly relationships between Macedonia and Slovenia. The Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel stressed that Slovenia invested 120 million euros in Macedonia so far and that the Slovenian investments increase daily. He pointed out that through the Slovenian investments 2.500 job vacancies are opened so far and he also promised an opening of 1.000 new jobs this year. According to him, in the last year was effectuated an increased export volume of goods from Macedonia by 32 %. “Slovenia is a big supporter of Macedonia. The both countries share a common history and a common European future” – said Rupel. It is estimated that “ERA City” will become the largest and the most modern business, shopping and fun center in the region.
The book “How to start your own business” was promoted
Everyone who wants to start a good business should read the book “How to start your own business’, which was promoted on February 1. The book’s publisher is the University “St. Cyril and Method”. Twelve professors, as well as law and economical experts, worked on the book. It contains 11 chapters and it emphasizes the entrepreneur business spirit. The promotion of the book took place in the Rectorate. It was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski, the EU ambassador Erwan Fuere, the Rector of the University “St. Cyril and Method”, Gorgi Martinovski, academic Taki Fiti, as well as the 12 authors.
The Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski expressed gratitude to the representatives of the Center for development of new businesses that worked intensively on the stimulation of the entrepreneur spirit among the young people in the previous months.
Vice President Verheugen launches Enterprise Europe Network, European business support at your doorstep
European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen on February 7th in Brussels launched Enterprise Europe Network, a new and powerful European support network for enterprises. All major players of the business support community in Europe have united to offer a one-stop service to assist especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop their full potential and innovative capacity. The Enterprise Europe Network includes more than 500 contact points for entrepreneurs in Europe. They provide a full range of support services in close proximity to SMEs covering the whole EU territory and going even beyond. Participants at the launch event included Janez Potocnik, Commissioner for Science and Research, Slovenian Minister of Economy Andrej Vizjak, the President of the Committee of Regions Luc Van den Brande and the President of the Group of Employers of the EESC Henri Malosse, Presidents of business organisations and representatives of SMEs.
Commission Vice-President Gunter Verheugen responsible for enterprise and industry policy said: “The new Enterprise Europe Network is a milestone in the Commission's integrated policy for promoting entrepreneurship and growth of enterprises in Europe. I call on all entrepreneurs in the EU and beyond to use it to the best of their needs".
Committee of Regions President Luc Van den Brande said: “The Committee of the Regions fully supports the initiative because it is an example of Europe working in partnership. Regions and cities are Europe's engines of growth and jobs and real engagement with SMEs has to take place on their doorstep to be effective.”
European Social and Economic Committee President, Dimitris Dimitriadis said: “Entrepreneurship is the key for Europe to facing the challenges of globalisation, creating new jobs and innovation. Therefore is the launch of this Enterprise Europe Network an important step in the right direction."
Enterprise Europe Network combines the strengths of the previous Euro Info Centre with the Innovation Relay Centre networks. With the new network, business receives ‘Business Support on Your Doorstep’, as the slogan suggests. The ‘No wrong door’ principle will apply for the whole network and for each network partner. All SMEs will receive information and a personalised service tailored to their needs, making best use of modern technologies and from every organisation in the new network.
More concretely, the Enterprise Europe Network offers the following services:
1. Assisting companies in going international
An estimated one million European SMEs could be involved in cross-border trade and investment. The Enterprise Europe Network will help develop exchanges between enterprises, trigger new ideas, nurture potential partnerships and stimulate firms to develop beyond their initial horizons. One-to-one match making meetings will be organized to help identify trustworthy partners.
Building technology partnerships between SMEs based on the transfer of innovation is another way to ‘go international’ and generate return on investments in research. The network is assisting SMEs to identify partners and make the contractual arrangements with them.
2. Innovation, new products and grasping opportunities in the single market
Help small businesses with technical issues such as intellectual property rights, standards and EU legislation, as it can be difficult for companies to remain abreast of changes in EU related opportunities.
Promoting innovation: The Enterprise Europe Network encourages SMEs to become more innovative as sharing the results of research can trigger new ideas/opportunities. Ensuring access to innovative technology will help SMEs face global competition.
3. Accessing EU projects and funding
The Enterprise Europe Network aims to overcome the knowledge gap regarding different sources of EU financing and ensure companies are aware of the possibilities available. SMEs will in particular be encouraged to participate in research programmes.
4. Providing feedback to the Commission
The Enterprise Europe Network will act as a two-way street between entrepreneurs and the Commission, relaying views in both directions to ensure that the policies and initiatives the Commission prepares will be helpful for SMEs and do not mean additional administrative burden.
The new Enterprise Europe Network is part of the Commission's integrated policy for promoting entrepreneurship and growth of enterprises in Europe. It will support SMEs from all sectors to take greater advantage of the opportunities of the Single Market.
Turkey joins EU competitiveness programme
Turkey is the third candidate country, after Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia, to join the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) under which the European Commission promotes innovation, entrepreneurship and growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Croatia and the Republic of Macedonia joined the CIP on October 18th 2007.
“I welcome the decision of Turkey to join the CIP. Businesses and in particular SMEs will strongly benefit from this participation. In this context, I am particularly pleased that Turkey has joined the new Enterprise Europe Network. This will provide both EU and Turkish enterprises with new great opportunities for cooperation. I hope that this decision will also have a political effect of bringing Turkey and the EU closer together” – stated EC Vice President Verheugen.
On February 12th, European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen and Mr. Volkan Bozkir, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising the Republic's entry to the Entrepreneurship and Innovation pillar of CIP.
The possibility of participating in a host of joint projects and in Enterprise Europe Network with the 27 EU Member States is a substantial advantage for Turkey. It will allow the country to take full benefit of best practices on entrepreneurship, SME policy, competitiveness and innovation in the EU.
Convergence of innovation performance in the EU
 The 2007 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) published on February 14th
shows a continued process of convergence within the EU. Five EU Member States - Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom – continue to have a very strong performance as world innovation leaders alongside the US and Japan.
The continued improvement innovation performance across the EU is very encouraging and offers further evidence that the Lisbon process and the broad-based innovation strategy are working. But the apparent slowdown in catching up with the US and in particular the increasing gap in public research and development show that reinforced efforts are needed if we are to create more world class innovation in Europe.
Meanwhile, the large majority of other Member States are catching up with the
leaders, and three of the newer Member States - Estonia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania - are on track to reach the EU average innovation performance within a decade. The comparison with the US shows that an important overall lead continues to exist over the EU.
New boost for the internal market on goods - Parliament supports the proposed approach
The European Commission welcomed the adoption by the European Parliament on February 21st of a broad package of measures to facilitate the functioning of the internal market for goods. This will make it easier for companies, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, to sell their products in the EU whilst increasing the protection of consumers. For industrial products existing market surveillance systems will be strengthened and for the first time aligned with import controls. Accreditation has also been introduced. This is a formal system that may now be used to ensure that testing and certification laboratories provide the high quality services that manufacturers need. The introduction of these measures serves to reinforce the role and credibility of CE marking. Improvements are also proposed for the trade with goods that do not fall under EU-legislation. From now it will also be the duty of a Member State that intends to refuse market access for products that are legally marketed in other Member States to talk to the enterprise and to give detailed objective reasons for any possible refusal, This creates new benefits for entrepreneurs as well as for consumers broadening their choice. It is expected that the Council of the EU will approve the package of measures soon, so it can enter into force next year.
Commission Vice-President Gunter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry including the internal market for goods, said: “I strongly welcome the support of the European Parliament to give the internal market a new boost, in a way that it creates a win-win situation for enterprises and consumers. While product safety will be strengthened I also expect that consumers will benefit from a much wider choice. The market volume we are talking about is around 1500 billion."
The package strengthens and modernises the conditions for placing a wide range of industrial products on the Community market, as it:
- Introduces better rules on market surveillance to protect both consumers and professionals from unsafe products, including imports from third countries. This particularly applies to procedures for products that are hazardous to health or the environment which are withdrawn from the market; - Enhances the credibility and clarifies the meaning of CE marking. In addition the CE marking will be protected as a community collective trade mark, which will give authorities additional means to take legal action against manufacturers who abuse it;
- Establishes a common legal framework for industrial products in the form of a toolbox of measures for use in future legislation. This sets out simple common definitions (of terms which are sometimes used differently) and procedures that will allow future sectoral legislation to become more consistent and easier to implement.
The package also strengthens the internal market of a wide range of other products, which are not subject to EU harmonisation, such as various types of foodstuffs (for example bread and pasta), furniture, bicycles and precious metals, etc. Together they represent more than 15% of intra EU trade in goods. These products are very often subject to many different national rules laying down the requirements that these products should meet. Until now, the differences between these rules in many Member States discouraged companies, in particular small and medium enterprises, from venturing outside their domestic market because they had to prove that their products which were legally sold in a given Member State comply with technical rules in other Member States. Other companies were obliged to make expensive and often unnecessary adjustments to their products so that they became also more expensive for the consumers.
The adopted package will eliminate many of these technical obstacles and therefore eases the marketing of goods in other Member States. A national technical rule should no longer prevent that a product already lawfully marketed in one Member State could be sold on the market of another Member State. When a Member State intends to refuse market access, it will have to give precise and detailed objective reasons for doing so and it will have to give the importing company the opportunity to react before a final decision can be taken.
Another novelty is that Product Contact Points will be established in all Member States. They will provide information on national technical rules, so that enterprises, in particular SMEs, can obtain reliable and precise information about the law in force in the Member State where they intend to sell their products.
The project self-employment through crediting is starting officially
The project self- employment through crediting officially is starting on Monday. This project intends to provide the unemployed with about 3.000 euros in equipment, means, raw materials and / or money for every newly opened job vacancy, by 15.000 euros for projects with maximum 5 job vacancies and additional 1.000 euros for unemployed (longer than 3 years), on the basis of bankruptcy and liquidation.
The crediting will be carried out through business banks with annual interest rate from 1 %, grace- period from one year and payment period from 3 years. The personal contribution should be at least 25 %.
Every person that at least one year is on the list of unemployed in the employment agency, respectively at least 6 months, and who is maximum 27 years old, recipient of cash allowance or is older than 55 years can submit request for a loan.
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