Europe should present entrepreneurship as a viable and promising future career path for young people, thus reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit. This was the main message from Markku Markkula, President of the European Committee of the Regions, at a conference on pioneering entrepreneurial regions today. "By generating synergies of cooperation among regionally-embedded actors, local and regional authorities can make a major contribution towards this objective" he underlined. The conference was an occasion for previous winners of the European Entrepreneurial Regions Award to showcase their best practise and the benefits of an entrepreneurial spirit.

Günther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society, agreed on the potential of entrepreneurs for growth. "Europe has not yet exited from the crisis" he said before adding "we need a good strategy to promote entrepreneurship and new companies." He also repeated the conclusions from last year's EPP Study Visit that entrepreneurs should be encouraged to visit schools and universities in order to build a culture of entrepreneurship and that success stories should be celebrated more widely across Europe's regions. He concluded by saying "young people need economic know-how and knowledge of the digital world to be successful today."

Two members of the EPP Group addressed the conference in their capacity as leaders of leading entrepreneurial regions. According to Christian Buchmann, Chair of the CoR's ECON Commission and Styria's Regional Minister for Economy, Tourism, Europe and Culture, cutting red tape is still a major priority for local and regional authorities that want to spur on innovation. "Overly complex regulations and administrative tasks are particularly burdensome for small and medium enterprises. They also stifle the creation of new technology-based firms, which are a major source of innovation, growth and jobs" he stressed. However, he also underlined that there are tools available for cities and regions to better promote entrepreneurial initiatives. Raffaele Cattaneo, Chair of the CoR's COTER Commission and President of the Regional Council of Lombardy, encouraged public administrations and decision-makers to improve the conditions for business to succeed while maximising the socio-economic value of doing business. "Innovation is at the heart of maintaining excellence in the future" he concluded.