The European Commission focuses this year's SME Week in promoting women entrepreneurship. According to the Commission, women's entrepreneurial potential is underexploited and the EU needs more women entrepreneurs to create growth and new jobs.

SME Week is celebrating in 15-19 October and its main message this year is encouraging women to consider setting up and running their own business, usually a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The European Commission highlights that there is a considerable untapped human potential that is sorely needed to boost economic growth and create the new jobs. If more women can be motivated to start up and lead companies, this could generate growth and jobs across the EU, stressed the Commission. SME Week is being celebrated at the same time the Single Market Week.

The EU study on promotion of female entrepreneurship shows that women only account for 34.4% of the self-employed in Europe suggests that they need more encouragement to become entrepreneurs. Lack of take-up can partly be explained by difficulties they encounter in reconciling private and professional activities. In addition, existing business set-up support systems are not always tailored to women’s specific needs. The study also underlines that women also tend to be cautious and take more calculated risks, and to focus on creating companies in familiar areas and for which they can benefit from family support.

TheEuropean SME Week 2012 will include activities in 37 countries, to ensure events are easily accessible to existing and potential entrepreneurs. The events, arranged by business organisations, business support providers and national, regional and local authorities, will also enable existing companies to share their experiences and further develop themselves.