(23 October 2013) – Some of Europe’s top tech entrepreneurs and startup community pioneers are today presenting EU leaders with their manifesto on how Europe needs to adapt for the digital age.
Drawn up by the 9 members of the Startup Leaders Club, the Startup Europe Manifesto contains 22 recommendations to the European Commission, EU Member States and EU companies in the fields of education and skills, access to talent, access to capital, data protection and thought leadership. For example:
- Companies and Member States should encourage university students to start a business before they graduate.
- Member States and the European Commission could turn Europe into the easiest place for highly skilled talent to start a company and get a job by rolling out a pan-European Startup Visa.
- Companies and EU governments should buy more from smaller businesses.
- The European Commission should remove the requirement for data providers to store information in any given country.
- Member States should appoint a Chief Digital Officer for every country in the EU.
The Startup Europe Leaders Club is an independent group of founders in the field of tech entrepreneurship, who act as role models for European web entrepreneurs and provide guidance to the Commission on how to strengthen the environment for web entrepreneurs to start in Europe and stay in Europe.