It is not enough inspiration for potential entrepreneurs. That is why today we would like to introduce to you a competition focused on looking for and awarding successful initiatives, which support enterprises and entrepreneurship as such in Europe. The European Enterprise Promotion Award is also aimed at pointing out examples of best policies and practices in entrepreneurship, increasing public awareness of the added value of entrepreneurship, and, finally, encouraging and inspiring potential entrepreneurs. You can find out in our article, why just we and just here do write about that. Cross your fingers for us.

6 categories, 7 awards

1. Promoting the entrepreneurial spirit recognises initiatives at the national, regional, and local levels that promote an entrepreneurial mindset, especially among young people and women,
2. Investing in entrepreneurial skills recognises initiatives that improve entrepreneurial and managerial skills,
3. Promoting the business environment recognises innovation policies that support enterprise start-up and growth, simplify legislative and administrative procedures for businesses, and implement the “think small first” principle for small and medium-sized enterprises,
4. Supporting the internationalisation of business recognises policies and initiatives that encourage enterprises and particularly small and medium-sized businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by markets, both inside and outside the EU,
5. Supporting the development of green markets and resource efficiency recognises policies and initiatives that support SMEs and their access to green markets and help to improve their resource efficiency,
6. Responsible and inclusive entrepreneurship recognises initiatives of authorities or public/private communities that promote corporate social responsibility among small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, this category recognises efforts for promoting entrepreneurship among disadvantaged groups such as the unemployed, especially for a longer time, migrants, disabled, or people from ethnic minorities.

In addition to the six categories mentioned above, one can also win the Jury’s Grand Prize. It will be won by the initiative from any European enterprise promotion category considered by the jury the most creative and inspiring one. National, regional, and local authorities or public-private partnerships from any EU member state or from any country associated within the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) may compete.

After more than two years of our activities, we have decided to participate on the European Enterprise Promotion Award too. With the aim of simplifying legal and administrative procedures in the entrepreneurship and of implementing the “think small first” principle in the Slovak law to the maximum extent, we compete in the category No. 3 Promoting the business environment.

The competition consists of two selection rounds and competitors may not proceed to the European round unless they competed in the national round. The first national round had already taken place (the deadline for sending projects to the national round was 22 June 2018) and the Better Regulation Center is one of the two projects proceeding to the European roundopen_in_new. From now on, the expert juryopen_in_new is the body to select the winners of the competition. They will be announced at the award presentation ceremony in November 2018.

If you want to participate on the next year of the competition, detail information can be found on the page of the European Commissionopen_in_new. Results of the 8^th national round of the competition can be seen hereopen_in_new.