COPIE (Community of Practice for Inclusive Entrepreneurship)

To develop more favourable conditions for the growth of self-employment and microenterprises in the EU, the Community of Practice on Inclusive Entrepreneurship (COPIE) was created in 2007. It is a learning network of ESF Managing Authorities and Implementing Bodies at national and regional level in Europe. COPIE puts a focus on the ESF priority groups: the (long-term) unemployed, economically inactive persons, single parent households, women, migrants and ethnic minorities, young people, seniors and disabled persons. The focus ofCOPIE is to describe and exchange good practice on inclusive entrepreneurship among EU Member States, to learn from each other and transfer knowledge and experience to other entrepreneurship support systems, in order to close existing gaps or simply to promote continuous improvement. COPIE has five thematic groups: Strategy and Action Planning, Entrepreneurship Education, Quality Management, Integrated Business Support and Access to finance (for more information, go to http://www.cop-ie.eu/). 

This manual was developed by COPIE’s Access to Finance thematic group. 

Hard copies of the manuel can be obtained for free by sending an email to emn@european-microfinance.org clearly mentioning your demand, name, postal address. 

The Overview of the European Microcredit sector is now available for download. The study, carried by evers&jung, is based on data collected during 2010-2011 in Europe, from microfinance providers. It gives a very clear overview of the state of the sector, its social and financial performance, country profiles and the current trends of the sector.