Article 53: Micro and Small Economic Enterprise Development

 

  1.        The Community shall adopt appropriate policy measures to encourage the development of competitive micro and small economic enterprises in the Member States.
  1.         Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the competent Organ shall encourage policy initiatives and the establishment of effective programmes to foster a facilitative legal, economic, and administrative framework in the Member States to enhance micro and small economic enterprise development, and shall promote:

(a) the development of the capacities of national and regional support agencies for micro and small economic enterprises, including the creation of entrepreneurial centres, by organising technical assistance inclusive of planning, delivery and evaluation of support services to the sector;

(b) access to, improvement in the quality of, and opportunities for training and education in areas such as technical skills, entrepreneurial competence and business management for micro and small entrepreneurs;

(c) access by micro and small economic enterprises to the technical assistance provided by the support agencies;

(d)        the establishment, development or modernising, as the case may require, of financial institutions to provide, to micro and small economic enterprises, services by way of appropriate and innovative instruments;

(e)        innovation within the micro and small enterprise sector; and

(f)         the creation of, and access to, trade and technology information networks.

 

  1.         For the purposes of this Article, micro and small economic enterprises shall be economic enterprises within the meaning of Article 32 that satisfy such other criteria as may be determined by the competent authorities.