Towards an Entrepreneurial Society: What Can the European Union Contribute?

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is a political system involving multiple levels of governance. Changing the institutional environment responsible for the quality of the entrepreneurial ecosystem will require changes on multiple levels. However, each level is not of equal importance. For some policy areas, the EU level is the most important level of policy-making, and for other policy areas other levels of governance are more important. This chapter will make clear that several institutions which might be reformed in the context of creating a more entrepreneurial society fall under the ‘shared’ or ‘supporting’ competence category of EU policy-making. This implies that the centre of gravity for institutional reform remains firmly on the level of the EU Member States or on the level of sub-national regions. The chapter shows that fostering entrepreneurship will require a multi-level approach with a strong focus on the level of EU Member States.