Marina Yannakoudakis
Conservative MEP for London 

As European Union (EU) governments face economic turmoil, it is vital that we harness existing resources to the maximum.

There is so much untapped business potential in the UK and across the EU.

Prime Minister David Cameron has pointed out that “If women were setting up new businesses at the same rate as men we would have 150,000 more start-ups in the UK each year.”

This is one of the reasons I championed the issue of female entrepreneurship in a European Parliament own-initiative report. Also as a mother and a businesswoman, I know exactly how hard setting up a small business can be.

Furthermore, we find even now that most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are run by men, which means that a large sector of the population is still failing to reach its economic potential.

My report recognises the value of women entrepreneurs in SMEs and acknowledges that women face many different problems in different member states in accomplishing their objectives.

The report also recognises the contribution women in employment can make both to the local community and to the economy of the EU, and points out that women have the right to choose the role they play within the home or the community they live in.

Many women have to juggle their own aspirations to succeed alongside their commitment to their family.

The aim of the report is to make this choice a reality through practical guidelines and best practice recommendations which member states could adopt if they so wish.

My main objectives were calling for fair access for women to start-up and expansion grants as well as targeting women with the right information about how to launch a business.

EU member states differ in their approach to women looking to run their own businesses and in the support they give these women.

While researching my report, I found that the difficulties women faced in setting up SMEs within member states were more or less the same.

Often they were unaware of how to set about starting a business, they lacked the confidence or were unsure where to seek advice, and found financial institutions unsympathetic to their specific needs.

To address these difficulties I made the following proposals.

Firstly, to make better use of funding opportunities that are available to female entrepreneurs, especially those which allow equal access to finance.

Secondly, to promote young entrepreneurship in schools to girls, for example, or to encourage female one-year entrepreneurship or apprenticeship programmes in universities.

And thirdly, to recognise the importance of female ambassadors in inspiring women and young girls to set up their own businesses.

I ran my own company for 25 years and I know first-hand the problems that women can encounter when trying to establish a viable SME.

I hope that EU member states, including the UK, can use my report as a basis for supporting women who wish to move forward in business.

In spite of all the constraints and restrictions upon them, women have proved to be more than capable in the workplace when starting and running a business.

We need not only to encourage women to move into the world of business, but also to ensure that when they are there that there is an even playing field free from gender discrimination.

With the right tools we can help produce a new generation of women entrepreneurs.