EEN: a network to boost your international growth
How can we make the most of the opportunities offered by the European single market? What standards apply when exporting to our neighbours? Where can I find support for prospecting abroad? And how can you benefit from financing programmes? These are the questions that Enterprise Europe Network can help you answer.
Even though the borders have long since fallen within the European single market, too many companies - and especially SMEs - are still reluctant to venture beyond their national borders. This is even truer when it comes to going beyond the EU's borders. It's also true that exporting is not easy for an SME: it takes time and resources to study markets, prospect, find out about local regulations, develop a distribution network... Time that SMEs often lack. And yet, for many companies, exporting offers the best prospects for growth.
The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) was set up in 2008 to help them on this journey. Co-financed by the European Commission, the network brings together more than 3,000 experts linked to 600 organisations (including numerous chambers of commerce, local development agencies, etc.), active in more than 60 countries, as far away as China and Qatar. In ten years, it is estimated that the network has already helped nearly 3 million companies. Beci is part of the network as the EEN contact point in Brussels, in consortium with hub.brussels.
The services offered to SMEs by the EEN network focus on three main aspects:
1 Access to international markets
By helping companies to identify suitable markets for their growth and advising them on local market conditions, but also by putting them in touch with suitable foreign partners. This assistance also covers access to international public procurement markets, identifying opportunities in cross-border and European public procurement markets, and helping companies to bid for tenders. Another strand concerns intellectual property rights (IPR), helping to protect and extend these rights and to develop strategies for exploiting patents.
2 Access to financing
This involves identifying the sources of financing available and ensuring that the company is ready to benefit from investment. This of course concerns private and public sources of financing, but particularly European programmes that meet the needs of the company in question (COSME, Horizon Europe, etc.), as well as advice on submitting proposals.
3 Advice on European regulations
To help companies apply European regulations and standards, such as CE marking, regulations on the posting of workers, environmental rules, intra-Community VAT...
Info: www.brusselsnetwork.be
Contact: Jean-Philippe Mergen,
Internationalisation Director Enterprise Europe Network Brussels
Dare to realise your ambitions abroad
EEN's experts can help you find partners abroad and assist you with innovation, digitalisation and the transition to greater sustainability. The platform allows you to consult thousands of offers from companies looking for business collaborations and to publish your own business proposal.
Support by EEN
- Get to know your business and your international development project;
- Internationalisation check-up and support in drawing up an international business plan;
- Definition of the objective to be achieved over one to three years to develop your company's international growth and identification of your needs;
- Support and advice tailored to your company's needs and definition of the expected impact on your company's development;
- Progress report and possible adjustments every 3 to 6 months.
By becoming a member of the BECI Community, you gain access to the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the largest network for internationally ambitious SMEs. Present in more than 60 countries, this network created by the European Union brings together more than 3,000 experts from 600 member organisations, including BECI.