European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva met students, researchers and early-stage entrepreneurs aged 16 to 30 in Sofia to discuss what young innovators need to build and grow companies across the EU.
The meeting brought together participants to share experiences of starting up and scaling a business — expanding a young company into a larger one — and to set out what support would help them grow in different EU countries, the European Commission reported on Friday.
Talks focused on four areas raised during the discussion: making early-stage funding easier to access, widening access to advanced technology infrastructure, reducing the gap between university research and commercial markets, and tackling the gender gap in the technology sector.
The Commission said the conversation also addressed entrepreneurship and growth in Central and Eastern Europe.
Report to feed into upcoming EU startup plans
Recommendations from the Sofia exchange will be compiled into a report that will feed into EU initiatives including the upcoming implementation of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and programmes such as Lab to Unicorn and the Blue Carpet initiative, the Commission said.
The report is also expected to inform work linked to Horizon Europe — the EU’s research and innovation funding programme — and the European Competitiveness Fund.
“Europe's position as a global innovation leader relies directly on the vision and ambition of our young people,” Zaharieva said.
The Sofia event formed part of the Commission’s Youth Policy Dialogues, which it said are designed to bring young people’s views into EU policy-making, as set out in Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s political guidelines for 2024–2029.
