Eurasia Press & News
A new web portal gives entrepreneurs easy access to information on doing business in other European Union member states.
The new portal, Your Europa – Business, helps small and medium-size businesses to take advantage of opportunities for trade and to offer their services on the single European market.
The Your Europe – Business portal was introdued following the Thinking Small First principle, providing answers to questions about legal requirements, possibilities and constraints of doing business in each EU member state and at EU level.
The site provides information on topics like how to register a company in a given EU member state, what permits would be needed to sell products in that country and what an entrepreneur would need to know about taxes or labour law.
The portal also provides direct access to e-government services, such as VAT refund procedures, and online administratrative procedures in teh EU member states. It gives companies an overview of the business support services in a chosen country, including the local branches of the Enterprise Europe Network.
The portal had originally been developed in close cooperation with member states as part of the implementation of the Small Business Act and was re-launched on March 26 by European Commission vice-president Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry, at the European Business Summit.
A media statement by the EU press office quoted Verheugen as saying “This initiative is another step to make life easier for SMEs (Small-to-Medium(-sized) Enterprises) and to help them to do business in other member states. The single market is too big an asset for European businesses to waste opportunities because of a lack of information.”
All information on the site itself is available in English and in the official language of the chosen country. Translations into other languages would be added at a later state, the media statement said.
