In 2003
DG Enterprise launched a comprehensive study among the EU 15 countries on the obstacles that dependent employees face when they try to become self-employed.
The
report resulting can be
downloaded here:
"Overcoming the obstacles faced by dependent employees who want to become self-employed and/or start their own business". It is also available in
French and
German.
According to this report, obstacles are related to following areas:
- General requirements related to start-ups,
- Financing the start-up of a business,
- Insolvency and seizure procedures,
- Social security systems in general,
- Social security: Unemployment, Social security (Sickness, Disability, Medical costs, Old age, Pregnancy and child care),
- Taxation,
- Labour Law,
- Private labour contracts,
- Miscellaneous topics,
- Hiving-offs
The report includes twenty pages about
Entrepreneurship in the EU (p15-24) with facts and figures (p15-19), the
demographic characteristics of those who choose to start a business (Entrepreneurs in the EU, p20-23) and
data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2004 Global Report (
download here).
It also includes a synthesis chapter structured as follows. For each item (see list above) a general description is provided in a separate section, explaining why it may form an obstacle. Next, the practical legal situation in the Member States is described in brief. Does an obstacle exist? How severe is it?
The
sections continue with a short description of good practices in the Member States (EU 15), provided that such practices have been identified regarding the topic at hand. Each section is concluded with a short summary with a EU-wide scope. In the last section of this synthesis the focus is on the situation of hiving- offs in all the Member States. For details regarding obstacles, good practices and hiving-offs, we refer to the Country Reports in the following chapters.
The
last part of the report focuses on each Member State (EU 15), introduces the national background, the description of every obstacles (see list above) in regard with the national context, and policy measures and legislative system.