Liikanen: tackling Europe's 'entrepreneurship deficit'
Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, has outlined his strategy for promoting entrepreneurship in Europe. In a speech at the Vlerick Leuven Gent management school, Mr. Liikanen said that in terms of entrepreneurship, research shows that Europe lags behind the US. He also suggested that an aversion to taking business risks among Europeans was a contributing factor. The key to closing the gap with the USA, said Mr. Liikanen, lies with the next generation of business owners. 'Entrepreneurial attitudes and skills can be encouraged in young people from school to university. Entrepreneurship should be promoted as an attitude [...] through the development of personal qualities such as creativity, risk-taking and responsibility.' As well as an emphasis on changing attitudes, the Commissioner outlined a number of practical steps being implemented to encourage entrepreneurship in Europe. These include: - Learning best practices from other Member States by comparing initiatives - Securing more private funding of entrepreneurship education at university level - Creating a more friendly environment for starting up and developing businesses - Improving links between universities, research institutes and private firms - Leveraging the benefits of a European research area to create a 'system of innovation' for Europe Stimulated by policies such as these, Mr. Liikanen believes that a new culture of entrepreneurship can be created, and in turn, the goals for progress defined by Europe's leaders in Lisbon in 2000 can be achieved.