Since August 1st, 2019 the Mazovia Development Agency PLC, has been implementing the project “Smart tools for quick and easy business start-up in Europe: the once-only challenge” with the acronym START EASY within the INTERREG EUROPE program.

START EASY is a project of the Catalan government that aims to improve regional policy and provide smart tools to enable companies to set up, develop, combine and integrate the principles of “Think Small First”.

The first phase of the project ended on July 31st, 2022 according to the design specifications, the second phase (implementation phase) will last until July 31st, 2023.

As part of the first phase of the project, a Regional Action Plan for the Mazovian Voivodeship was drawn up. The actions aim at improving - in a regional and local context - public services supporting entrepreneurship and at strengthening the tools that can facilitate the entry of new companies into the market.

The Regional Action Plan focuses on:

• the creation of a single uniform programme to promote One-Stop Shop standards for the local authorities (Local Government Units) of the Mazowiecki Regionalny Region (NUTS2 - PL 92);

• raising awareness and sensitization of the regional administrations involved in the implementation of RIS to the problems of setting up a business, and to the needs of entrepreneurs.

The activities foreseen in the Regional Action Plan are listed under the RAP’s action “Promotion, training, and the provision of supporting activities for substantive staff and local authorities of local government units (LGUs), aimed at promoting innovative solutions in public administration focused on creating OSS, or creating and introducing new services to the existing OSS”.

On 08 and 26 November 2022, both webinars planned in the RAP for Local Government Units on promoting OSS knowledge and presenting the benefits of OSS implementation in the municipality / city were realized. Experts from the Mazovia Development Agency Plc shared the knowledge gained through the inter-regional exchange of experiences. During the webinars, the following topics were presented: the START EASY project, the background and challenges of the Regional Action Plan, the activities in the Regional Action Plan, as well as what an OSS is, how stakeholder mapping takes place, what are the different types of OSS. Good practices and how they can be used and how OSS standards can be assessed were also presented. The benefits of participation in the further activities of the II phase of the project, particularly with regard to business needs, were also presented to local government units.

The first webinar was attended by 36 participants and the second one was attended by 54 participants. The meetings were held in online formula.