Enterprise Europe Network
The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) helps businesses innovate and grow on an international scale. It is the world’s largest support network for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with international ambitions.
The Network is active worldwide. It brings together experts from member organisations that are renowned for their excellence in business support.
The Communication Partnership Project (CPP) aims to raise awareness of the importance of OSH to SMEs and to provide them with easy access to practical information and useful contacts at national and regional levels, including national partnership meetings, awareness-raising packages and other activities such as EEN OSH Awards.
The EEN members are one of the main partners that help EU-OSHA achieve its objectives, together with the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and EU-OSHA’s national focal points.
The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs:
The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) is the European Commission service responsible for completing the internal market for goods and services; helping turn the EU into a smart, sustainable, and inclusive economy; fostering entrepreneurship and growth by reducing the administrative burden on small businesses; facilitating access to funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and supporting access to global markets for EU companies; and generating policy on the protection and enforcement of industrial property rights, coordinating the EU position and negotiations in the international intellectual property rights (IPR) system, and assisting innovators on how to effectively use IP rights.
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA):
The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) was established on 1 April 2021 with the aim to enhance innovation in the single market, by creating strong synergies to support the recovery of the European economy and grouping in one Agency all the activities of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the programmes related to SMEs.
The Agency is, indeed, responsible for developing and implementing the European Innovation Council and manages other EU programmes in the fields of SME support, innovation ecosystems, single market, consumer policy and interregional innovation investments.
Enterprise Europe Network Occupational Safety and Health Ambassadors and their role
Since 2009, the EEN has been cooperating with EU-OSHA to raise awareness of OSH among SMEs and micro-enterprises. To carry out this task, the EEN nominates OSH Ambassadors at country level. Their role comprises coordinating activities, promoting OSH to SMEs at national level and reporting back to EU-OSHA once a year on their OSH activities.
In 2021, the programme was extended to six non-EU countries (i.e. countries receiving financial assistance under the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Türkiye) and IPA EEN OSH Ambassadors were nominated.
See the complete list of EEN OSH Ambassadors
Within the CPP, the role of the Communication Partnership Working Group (CPWG), which is composed of three national focal points, three EEN OSH Ambassadors and representatives of EU-OSHA, DG GROW and EISMEA, is mainly to provide strategic and expert advice on the implementation and monitoring of the EU-OSHA communications partnerships strategy.
Enterprise Europe Network Occupational Safety and Health Award
In the frame of the agency's Healthy Workplaces Campaign, the EEN OSH Award aims to raise awareness of and promote OSH to SMEs. The EEN members of the 27 Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, and the IPA countries, are invited to put forward for recognition any of their projects that aim to promote better safety and health at work in SMEs and that fit into one of the following categories: activities and events promoting OSH; network building; and print and online communication and publications.