On 1-2 September, 2016, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, European Commission DG GROW and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) organized the Workshop of Danube Region Business Support Actors, held in Baden Austria. EBAN was honored to be represented at the event by Selma Prodanovic, Board Member of EBAN and the Austrian Angel Investors Association. The workshop was conducted to provide the opportunity to Danube region business support actors to discuss the question on how to increase the value of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) to businesses and exchange good practices.
The EUSDR is a macro-regional strategy adopted by the European Commission in December 2010 and endorsed by the European Council in 2011. The Strategy was jointly developed by the Commission, together with the Danube Region countries – which includes 9 EU Member States and 5 non EU countries – and stakeholders, in order to address common challenges together. The Strategy seeks to create synergies and coordination between existing policies and initiatives taking place across the Danube Region.
The objective of the workshop was to reinforce the tangible impact of the business dimension of the Danube region strategy and program by elaborating the context of the EUDRS for Business, identifying measures which would be appropriate, and shaping concrete actions to be taken. The target audience were actors in the area of business support in the whole Danube region, regardless whether they were regional, national or international. These included support organizations, public business support agencies, cluster organizations, incubators, et cetera, with just over 80 attendees from 11 countries and the EU.
The workshop resulted in the creation of the Baden Agenda, the main action lines of which specify the areas where more development and support is needed in the Danube Region. One of the action lines is Private Equity Facilitation, which addresses the lack of equity financing in the region, particularly in the form of “Smart Money” i.e. combining equity funding with mentoring. Thus, the Baden Agenda states that a co-operation between the relevant actors and a verification of the business environment for such alternative means of financing should be established. The potential for a cross border fund for business angels (Danube Business Angels Co-investment Fund) should be tested.
Download the-baden-agenda in full.
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