The meeting heard that Croatia had made significant progress in a number of areas from the EU Charter for Small Enterprises, but that it had not done enough with regard to establishing new companies, financing entrepreneurship and establishing e-business.
One of the biggest problems in the development of small businesses is a long, expensive and complicated process of opening companies, said the State Secretary for the Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, Tajana Kesic-Sapic, and Edward Tersmette of the European Commission's Enterprise Directorate-General.
Tersmette told reporters after the meeting that this process was longer, more expensive and more complicated not only in relation to the European Union but also in relation to some Western Balkan countries. He added that this particularly referred to the process of issuing various permits, including building permits and permits for the procurement of equipment.
He underlined the need to create new possibilities of funding small enterprises, including guarantees from the Croatian Agency for Small Enterprises and venture capital funds.
The European Commission official said that further initiatives were necessary to enable the development of all aspects of e-business despite the existence of the Law on Electronic Signature.
The areas which experienced progress include certification (the number of certified firms has increased over the past year from 250 to 430), informal training for small business owners, and accelerated procedures for opening small businesses.
The Charter for Small Enterprises was adopted by the EU member states in 2000. It contains ten principles which the member states, candidate countries for EU membership and signatories to the Stabilisation and Association Agreements should incorporate in their economic policies with a view to promoting small businesses.