Press Release: At the heart of business: Commission sends its staff to SMEs to gain in-house experience

Under the so-called ‘Enterprise Experience’ programme launched on 17 July 2006, the Commission will send out all of its senior staff (administrators) from the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry to work for one week in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). This unique programme is designed to enhance the knowledge of all 350 senior civil servants in the Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry about the environment in which enterprises, and in particular SMEs, operate. 'Enterprise Experience' will help Commission officials to better understand the needs of SMEs and to better appreciate business-specific problems. This will also facilitate the Commission’s objective to improve the quality of its lawmaking under its Better Regulation drive. Commission officials going local to gain hands-on business experience, to listen and explain the EU is part of the Commission’s intention to reach out to Europe’s citizens.

European Commission: DG Communication: MEMO/06/285 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/285&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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