Ambtenaren van Europese Commissie gaan stage lopen in midden- en kleinbedrijf (en)

Instead of drafting EU legislation, 350 senior EU officials will be baking bread, working in carpentry or repairing oil and gas pipelines - and Vice President Verheugen and his private office are no exception. Under the so-called `Enterprise Experience' programme kicked-off today, the Commission will send out all of its senior staff (administrators)[1] from the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry to work for one week in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). This unique programme is designed to enhance the knowledge of all 350 senior civil servants in the Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry about the environment in which enterprises, and in particular SMEs, operate. "Enterprise Experience" will help Commission officials to better understand the needs of SMEs and to better appreciate business-specific problems. This will also facilitate the Commission's objective to improve the quality of its lawmaking under its Better Regulation drive. Commission officials going local to gain hands-on business experience, to listen and explain the EU is part of the Commission's intention to reach out to Europe's citizens.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry policy said: "I am looking forward to this. Enterprise Experience will give my staff and me hands-on, on the job experience about the life in and of an SME. In return, companies will not only get highly motivated trainees to assist in their day-to-day work, but also "EU ambassadors" who will be able to present and explain EU policies relevant to them."

After a successful pilot phase in 2005/early 2006, the Commission is now kicking off the Enterprise Experience initiative. It aims to train some 50 officials already in 2006. By 2009 all of the 350 or so administrators (AD staff) in DG Enterprise should have spent a week in an SME, shadowing key personnel and experiencing the different functions or departments of the company.

In order- to broaden the training experience, trainees will preferably visit a firm operating in a sector other than one for which they have direct responsibility in their normal work.

For this programme, DG Enterprise is working in close cooperation with three business organisations - UNICE (Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe), UEAPME (European Association of Craft, Small and Medium Seized Enterprises) and EUROCHAMBRES (Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry). It is these organisations (not the Commission) that will draw up the list of potential host companies and the following factors will be applied: