Struggling to start-up an EU company?
Here is a chance to win a trip to Brussels and tell the Commission your experience when starting your company. EU Commission knows that something is wrong and is looking to listen to presentations based on actual experiences. That's why a workshop on "Business Start-up procedures" in Brussels on the 13th November 2006 is organized.
It's over 5 years since I started my first EU limited company in Greece. At the time, both me and my business partner we were university students and our legal advisor told us that the process to set up the company would take nearly a month and would cost around 3000 EUR (plus 18000 EUR required for capital). Luckily, university professors were on strike that period, so we decided to handle the red tape ourselves, as we badly wanted to get started asap. We finished everything in 7 days, running from one government office to another from early morning to closing time...
This is my last experience struggling to start a business, as for the next one a legal advisor did the work. So I don't think I can send a presentation to the Commission as my experience is out-of-date. They should definitely do something to simplify the process and lower the cost. They're supposed to be smart people, so I guess they can understand the importance of helping an entrepreneur at his first steps...