spain one-stop shops to assist entrepreneurs in setting up
new companies and expanding existing ones.
but financing
remains scarce.
sweden "greenhouse" business incubators located on
university campuses.
but more early-stage financing is
needed.
united kingdom regional venture capital funds, tax cuts,
review of all new business regulations.
but support services
are not always of equal quality countrywide.
source: the european commission, business environment
simplification task force
esperanto, no. english, yes.
it's getting a lot easier to eavesdrop in
paris these days. while
high school french still comes in handy, more and more of the
conversations you overhear in the city's cafes and restaurants are
studded with english words, especially when people discuss the
internet and business.
the spread of english through continental europe is nothing new.
the french have railed against the phenom-enon at least since the
1960s. yet the internet, combined with the spread of american-style
business practices around the world over the last decade, has
turned a leak into a flood. growing numbers of european companies -
including such giants as france's alcatel and germany's bertelsmann
- now use english for internal communications.
it is easy to understand the horror that many europeans feel toward
this invader. if everyone in europe ends up using english to
discuss business and science, does that mean french, german, and
italian will be relegated mainly to the theater, kitchen, and
bedroom? might some languages even fall from common use, following
in the path of, say, gaelic, which the irish government keeps alive
only through forced instruction in schools? the rise of english
also poses political challenges. in quadrilingual switzerland, many
fear that use of english will erode the cultural bindings that help
hold the country together.