"Microcredit is an effective method to develop new firms or to help the unemployed to become part of the economic world as self-employed workers": today, in Brussels, Danuta Hübner, regional policy commissioner, presented an initiative meant "to increase opportunities to gain access to credit by small concerns and people who find themselves living as outcasts", "who wish to start an independent business". The initiative, considered in line with the Strategy of Lisbon for growth and employment, is meant "to make small loans, that is, micro credits, more accessible, with the aim to meet a still unsatisfied demand". The commissioner recalled that microcredit was highly successful in developing countries such as India, "and in this field, there are a few initiatives within the European Union, both on a community and national level". According to the Executive, the demand for this kind of credit (loans for an average sum of about 7 thousand euros) comes from people creating small facility enterprises, above all: people care, information technology assistance, enterprise services, garden care. In this case, "microcredit may help to change an entrepreneurial activity into individual skills and capabilities". Hübner estimated that, through microcredit, "we should be able to increase the money invested in Europe by 6.1 billion euros".
