Briefing Note on the Regional Seminar on the Governance of the Small Business Act (SBA)

Briefing note on the regional seminar on the governance of the Small Business Act (SBA) for Europe

17-19 March 2015 - Barcelona

Objective of the seminar

A regional seminar on the governance of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) will be organised on 17-19 March 2015 in Barcelona, in the framework of the “Enhancement of the Business Environment in the Southern Mediterranean Region” (henceforth called the EBESM Project), a project funded by the European Union and implemented by GIZ. This seminar aims to improve the governance of SME policies and programmes based on principles 3 and 4 of the Small Business Act for Europe: Think Small First and Public administration responsive to SME needs. This regional seminar is based on the results and recommendations of the2014 Assessmentof the Implementation of the Small Business Act for Europe (SBA) in the Southern Mediterranean Region[1].

The regional seminar put the focus on three SBA governance issues:

• Delegation of responsibility for enterprise policy (not only enterprise creation but also their growth and survival);
• Inter-governmental coordination;
• Public-private dialogue.

Benefits of the regional seminar for stakeholders in the target countries

This regional seminar provides stakeholders working in the public sector and business with a unique opportunity to make a difference to improve the business environment in the countries participating in this seminar.

In particular, this activity will help all stakeholders involved to:

• Improve their capacity to deal with challenging governance issues as outlined above;
• Learn from good practice in SME policy development in EU and MED countries;
• Become aware of project management tools and methods and approaches;
• Network with colleagues working in the Southern Mediterranean Region;
• Implement a small-scale action plan supported by international experts and ‘critical friends’ from the Southern Mediterranean Region and the European Union;
• Showcase their achievements to a wider audience in the Southern Mediterranean Region and EU Member States.

Approach of the regional seminar

This activity will involve a three-stage approach: 1) Preparatory phase (January – Mid-March 2015), 2) Seminar in Barcelona (17-19 March 2015); and 3) Seminar follow-up phase (post March 2015).

1)Preparatory phase: planning of a concrete action to be implemented (January – Mid-March 2015).

Based on the results of the 2014 evaluation, each country will develop an action plan for a small-scale action to improve the development of SMEs in the respective target country. The proposed actions will correspond to the topics selected by all MED countries, as a result of the consultation exercise carried out in August 2014 and agreed upon in Naples on 1 October 2014. These topics are to be considered in a broad, flexible manner, with reference to all the indicators used in the 2013-2014 evaluation bearing on principles 3 and 4 of the SBA. The EBESM project will provide the SBA coordinators with a template for describing the proposal and criteria for assessing the quality of the proposal.

The EBESM project will provide experts to help stakeholders in the participating countries to design an action plan based on a sound analysis of the challenges in the specific country concerned, to identify the right stakeholders who need to be involved in the implementation of the action plan and to prepare the presentation of the proposals in a regional seminar in Barcelona.

In order to select the four participants in the seminar in Barcelona, the EBESM project will launch a call for applications and select participants, in cooperation with the European Commission and the EU Delegation, by 15 February 2015.

2)The seminar in Barcelona: presentation of the proposals of action, discussion and preparation of the implementation (17-19 March 2015)

During the seminar, each action plan will be discussed and reviewed with the experts and “critical friends” from Mediterranean neighbour countries and the EU who will suggest improvements. The experts will engage participants in group exercises to learn how to make use of methods and tools that can help translate proposals into action following the regional seminar (such as tools for managing projects, monitoring and evaluation, communication).

3)Presentation of the results of the regional seminar, turning proposals into action (post mid-March 2015)

Participants will present the results of the seminar and the action plan to key stakeholders in their country. Coaching on a “just-in-time” basis will be provided by the experts mobilised by the EBESM project to facilitate the implementation of the action plan. The stakeholders will be provided with the opportunity to showcase the results of their work in a brief case study which will be published on the website of the EBESM project as well as receive a certificate acknowledging their achievements.

Contact at the EBESM project:

For further information please contact the project team leader Ms Marie-José Char at

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