The ceremony for the award of the the Erasmus Entrepreneurship Awards 2012 has been the perfect occasion to mark an important milestone of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme. The prize, which is one of the actions put in place by this programmes is a key initiative in promoting exchange of knowledge between entrepreneurs and in supporting SMEs.

The Erasmus Entrepreneurship Award is one of the initiatives put in place by the Support Office of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, which each year recognized successful stories that have been developed thanks to the programme. Just a few days before the celebration of the SME Week from 15 to 21 October, entrepreneurs and the local contact points were rewarded for their active and successful contributions to the Programme.

The growing number of participants taking part in the contest shows the relevance the Programme has achieved so far by putting in contact young entrepreneurs with established ones so that they can mutually benefit from experience and knowledge sharing. The 2012 award marks an important milestone in the implementation of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme, since it has already surpassed the figure of 2600 young entrepreneurs who have received support thanks to Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs funding.

On the occasion of the award of the Erasmus Prize for Entrepreneurship 2012, Commissioner responsible for Industry, Antonio Tajani, stressed the need to support the internationalization of European SMEs since there are still few small companies that export their goods and services outside the European Union. With this program, both the young entrepreneur and his host benefit from a collaboration scheme identifying potential partners outside the EU.