Tackling policy frustrations to youth entrepreneurship in the Western Balkans

ABSTRACT

With renewed interest by the European Union in enlarging the bloc to include the countries of the Western Balkans comes the challenge for all countries to meet up to the competitiveness demands of the EU’s internal market. While youth entrepreneurship is increasingly considered an opportunity in building more entrepreneurial and job-generating economies, the paper argues for more order in the policy environment to maximize the potential of young people to the wider competitiveness drive. This includes defining more precisely in age terms who are young entrepreneurs and the recognition of both necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship to each country’s socio-economic development. Secondly, the case is put for more developed data and intelligence on youth entrepreneurship to support evidence-based policy-making, including improved capacity to monitor and evaluate, and independent research to support policy-makers. Finally, the paper recommends a better differentiation in start-up support including more customized finance options for young entrepreneurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurship
• policy
• training
• mentoring
• finance
• start-up
• competitiveness
• European Union
• Western Balkans
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo (without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence).

2. In this paper, region refers to the EU pre-accession countries of the Western Balkan region.

3. The Berlin Process is an intergovernmental cooperation initiative to improve regional cooperation in the Western Balkans. All countries have signed up to the establishment of a Regional Economic Area. Its objective is to promote economic integration of all countries in areas such as trade and foreign direct investment. The regional integration effort is also considered an important milestone for the region’s preparation for EU accession.

4. (a) The SME Policy Index is a benchmarking tool to support the transition countries of the Western Balkans in assessing SME policy, including entrepreneurship development. It is also used by the European Commission to track SME developments as part of the wider policy monitoring framework for the pre-accession region and (b) each country provides the European Commission with an annual update of its Economic Reform Programme which includes key socio-economic indicators and an assessment of progress in structural reforms to address competitiveness and employment.

5. On 12 July 2017, Heads of Government, Foreign Ministers and the Ministers of Economy of all pre-accession countries, Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and United Kingdom as well as EU and International Financial Institutions confirmed their commitment to the future EU integration of the Western Balkan countries, including reinforced regional cooperation, SME development and youth entrepreneurship. *This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.