| Risk Capital: a key to job creation in the EU |
 A communication from the Commission
On 21 April 1998, the Commission presented a communication on "Risk Capital: A Key to Job Creation in the European Union" to the ECOFIN Council. This communication along with its refined Action Plan, was endorsed by the Cardiff European Council in June 1998.
The Commission will prepare for mid-99 a progress report on the implementation of the Action Plan, both at Community and Member States level.
Download the full text of the documents published by the Commission on this matter:
- Communication of the European Commission "Risk Capital: A Key to Job Creation in the European Union", April 1998
- Action Plan, June 1998
- Conclusions of the round table on Risk capital markets, November 1998.
A conference called by the President
A one day conference was held on Tuesday, 24 November 1998 on "Risk capital markets - A key to job creation in Europe. From Fragmentation to Integration."
Efficient and liquid risk capital stock markets play a large role as a source of finance for high growth companies and are necessary for the development of venture-capital by offering an exit route for investors. In the US, the Nasdaq market has been developing for over 25 years and has become the market of choice for raising capital to finance fast growing enterprises. Today, the 5,500 companies quoted on it employ approximately 9 million people. In comparison, the new European stock markets dedicated to the financing of SMEs are still dwarfs.
Hence, the key issues under discussion were: Which reforms are necessary at European and Member State level to assist the creation of a large transparent and liquid European market to satisfy the financing needs of SMEs - there is a clear need for a push to a single European market in Financial Services. Which main barriers need to be removed? And what are the priorities for action at the European level?
Finally, President Santer underlined the importance of the conference:
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to help the Commission focus and identify the priorities to promote a widespread, integrated, freely available, pan-European risk capital market;
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and that risk capital is not enough: we need to build a political consensus on creating a better climate for entrepreneurship and to define common rules for new types of economic activities.
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