Country Close-Ups

Global


For this edition, with a wider array of cities, it was interesting to collate the ECER data by country. The interpretation of the results admittedly demands caution, especially in the - many - countries represented by only one city (Finland, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Poland, etc.). But countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and France have several participating cities.

The most salient feature is that all of these countries make progress in entrepreneur satisfaction. With the notable exception of the United Kingdom, where the current crisis seems to have affected entrepreneurs' impressions, Europe seems to be increasingly upgrading its entrepreneur support provision. This is good news, especially as the improvements are fairly well spread geographically. But Europe is still off the pace for entrepreneurship, as often shown by the GEM data. Conscious of this lag, most European cities have adopted a dynamic policy of driving entrepreneurial development. ECER 2009 seems to reflect this positive trend, although it will need confirming in future years.