EPP-CoR member Borboly Csaba, Vice-President of Harghita County Council (Romania), has tabled a series of amendments to the draft opinion on the European Commission’s Communication “The EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy – Choose Europe to start and scale”. His proposals aim to ensure that the strategy delivers real opportunities for young people, rural communities, peripheral regions and minority youth across Europe.
Borboly’s amendments underline the need for special support for rural, creative and culturally based startups, with a strong focus on helping regions facing demographic decline to retain their young people. They call for less bureaucracy for rural enterprises, in particular through simpler permitting and application procedures, as well as fair access to skills development and digital tools for young people in all regions. The amendments also seek more balanced geographical distribution of venture capital, incentives for investment in peripheral and less developed regions – especially mountainous and non-touristically developed areas – and stronger inclusion of young people from national and ethnic minorities by removing linguistic and cultural barriers to EU startup and innovation programmes.
Speaking in the debate, Borboly Csaba highlighted the central role of Europe’s young generation in the Startup and Scaleup Strategy:
“For me, one part is especially important: the role of young people. Europe must be a place where every young person feels at home, feels free, and feels that they can try, fail and try again. If we support startups and scaleups in all regions, we give young people real chances to test their ideas without leaving their home area. These amendments go exactly in this direction. They help rural and peripheral regions, they reduce barriers for minority youth, and they make skills and digital access more fair. This is why I strongly support the rapporteur and invite all colleagues to vote in favour of the opinion and the amendments.”
In line with the EPP-CoR’s priorities, Borboly’s proposals stress that innovation and competitiveness must go hand in hand with balanced territorial development. They call for stronger regional cooperation and the involvement of local stakeholders at every stage of innovation policy – from planning, through implementation, to monitoring – so that EU measures genuinely reflect needs on the ground and help keep young talent in their home regions.
The opinion on the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy was adopted today within the European Committee of the Regions’ SEDEC Commission. Through these amendments, the EPP-CoR is working to ensure that the strategy not only boosts Europe’s global competitiveness, but also creates opportunities for all regions and all young people – including those in rural, mountainous and peripheral areas – to start, grow and scale their businesses at home.