European Commission seeks ideas to improve startup ecosystem

The European Commission has launched an initiative to reinforce one of its key Digital Agenda Priorities – to strengthen the environment for web-entpreneurs in Europe.  What they’re looking to do is gather ideas directly from web-entrepreneurs on  “any actions in the area of ICT innovation for the benefit of web based entrepreneurship / web businesses, which could be undertaken and financed by the EU.” As reported in the Next Web, the Commission is hoping entrepreneurs’ ideas will offer much needed insight on how to increase in the number of EU-based startups as well as drive their growth. Ultimately, ideas selected by the Commission will be funded.
This effort falls under the EU’s Horizon 2020 project (running 2014 – 2020), where they’ve allocated a budget of around €80 billion to spur research and innovation across Europe.  Interestingly, Horizon 2020 is focused squarely on funding and development initiatives rather than laws and regulations.  The tech sector and startup community are expected to play a key role in driving the EU’s research and innovation agenda and this soliciation of ideas underscores this.
There’s often a lot of (justified) grumbling from enterpreneurs about the various obstacles that EU-based startups face.  However it does appear that with this and other recent efforts, that European Commission  is motivated to come up with ways improve the environment for entrepreneurs.  So, take this as your opportunity to make your voice heard.  If you have ideas, thoughts or observations that you’d like to contribute, send them to this email address  by December 5th.  Along with your ideas, they’re also looking for you to send a few additional details which you can read about here.