Meetings & Events

The promotion and support of self-employment and business start-ups remains underdeveloped in many countries, in particular by groups that are disadvantaged or under-represented in the labour market and entrepreneurship, such as the unemployed, youth, seniors, migrants, women, people with disabilities. The potential of inclusive entrepreneurship schemes, particularly within the context of the current crisis, is still not fully realised.

To demonstrate the importance of the regions and cities in the success of the Europe 2020 strategy and to encourage the exchange of good practice, the EU Committee of the Regions will organise a thematic exhibition during the conference “An agenda for new skills and jobs” in Dublin. The conference will focus on the reform of the labour market, the increase of the skill levels, job growth and job quality.

The conference, which will be opened by Koos Richelle, Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, will give the opportunity to listen to experiences from entrepreneurs from all over Europe and the views of academics on obstacles and enablers of business and thus job creation in Europe.

In the afternoon, good practices from across the EU to address these obstacles will be presented in three parallel workshops on how to

The European Microfinance Network (EMN) is holding its 9th Annual Conference in Bucharest on the 8-of November 2012. The EMN Conference will focus on how to build a sustainable Microfinance Industry in Europe and will serve as a platform for debate, learning and exchange experiences between practitioners.

For more information on the event please go to the event website.

Under the title of 'Supporting Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Europe: Creating Sustainable Employment and Promoting Equal Opportunities', the Centre for Parliamentary Studies in Brussels runs a one-day event on inclusive entrepreneurship in Brussels on September 18, 2012.

The OECD LEED seminar provides an opportunity for policy-makers to discuss policy options, objectives, design and results for programmes that support access to business start-up financing by under-represented groups. Particular focus is placed on understanding the key factors that determine why certain policies and programmes have demonstrated positive results and others have not.

COPIE's lead partner Germany has been invited to participate in the dissemination conference of the Transnational Learning Network ENYE. Bettina Reuter will join a meeting on a common paper on youth entrepreneurship and present the COPIE Toolkit to the delegates of the conference as part of panel discussion.

The half-day workshop will present the tools that COPIE members have developed, adapted and tested to a targeted group of EU and regional decision-makers. The main focus will be on the practicalities of implementation from a policy perspective.

The workshop will offer an opportunity to see how the tools are used in practice by the ESF Managing Authorities and Implementing bodies; and to discuss the added value with COPIE regional and national members and experts. It will serve as a ‘taster’ session to the Policy Forum in Germany in April 2012.

The two day technical workshop of 15-16 December in Brussels is hosted by ESF Flanders. ESF managing Authorities from across Europe will be invited to give feedback on a draft manual written by German Micorfinance Institute (DMI) which will bring together relevant information, considerations, experience, tools and examples relevant for the design of microfinance operations under the ESF.

The COPIE Policy Forum on 'Entrepreneurship for All: Promoting inclusive growth in Europe through the European Structural Funds' will bring together policy-makers, ESF and ERDF Managing Authorities and business support intermediaries from across Europe to discuss the results of COPIE's work.

On November 21 the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Mr Guenter Baaske, will present the Brandenburg entrepreneurship funding in Brussels in a discussion with representatives of the European Commission, of other EER regions and the audience. Afterwards successful entrepreneurs and protagonists of the program will present and discuss their specific experiences and future challenges.

COPIE's lead expert on quality management, Norbert Kunz, will present COPIE at this event.

As part of a European-wide initiative and the EU SME week, the autonomous region of Galicia will host a Day of the Entrepreneur in the three cities of Santiago, Lugo e Ourense. As a core partner in COPIE's Thematic Group on Quality Management, Galicia will use this opportunity to present the advisor standards and instruments that were developed in this group for the past two years to a broader audience. For more information on the event, please see here.

COPIE's lead expert Ivan Diego will present the work of COPIE in the field of entrepreneurship education to an international audience of practitioners, policy makers and social partners from seven European countries. For more information on this event please go to the Thematic Group section of this website.

This event has been postponed to November 2011. A new date and more information will be published here shortly.

Hosted by the German ESF Managing Authority, in collaboration with the Learning Network on Transnational Cooperation in ESF, the Peer Learning Seminar will:

There are various paths to growth and sustainability across microfinance providers in Europe moving their business models towards viability, financial self-sufficiency and sustainability, in other words, minimizing dependency on traditional “fund-raising” like government or charitable foundation grants.

The workshop will present the efficacy of these efforts in order to disseminate good practices and highlight problem areas so that the industry as whole can benefit, including case studies of specific organizations.

On the 6th and 7th of October, the German Federal Ministery of Labour and Social Affairs will host a two day event in which its representatives will be reflecting on the function and duties of the stakeholders within the German microfinance sector with the thematic group partners and other interested representatives from the European context.