The Portuguese government, in cooperation with 26 EU Member States, Iceland and the European Commission, recently launched the European Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA).
The European Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA) is a new body that will support 26 EU Member States and Iceland, which, having signed the EU Startup Nations Standard (EU SNS) declaration in March 2021, are committed to ensuring that domestic startups are given the best conditions to grow at every stage of their life cycle.
ESNA will strengthen the project of these countries to become “startup nations”, promoting the exchange of best practices, the provision of technical support for the implementation of concrete changes and the monitoring of progress.
ESNA will work closely with European countries that have signed the EU SNS, supporting them in the following 8 steps in the field of startup entrepreneurship:
1. The rapid creation of new businesses and their smooth entry into the market (e.g. the establishment of a new company within one day),
2. Attracting and retaining talent (e.g. faster process of finding technology talent from outside the EU);
3. Share options (e.g. non-taxation of stock options before they are redeemed);
4. Innovation and regulation actions (e.g. regulatory sandboxes that allow start-ups to experiment),
5. Innovation in relation to procurement (e.g. removing administrative obstacles that would put startups at a disadvantage in developing ideas);
6. Access to finance (e.g. increase in the amount and variety of VCs);
7. Social inclusion, diversity and protection of democratic values (e.g. incentives for recruitment regardless of gender, nationality, age and religion);
8. Digital first (e.g. all interactions between public authorities and Startup to be done through digital interfaces).
The launch of the ESNA took place during the second day of the Web Summit in Lisbon, with the official presentation of the Portuguese Minister of Economy Pedro Siza Vieira.