best city in Europe to live and open a shop

does anyone know which is the best city in all of the EU for living and open a small business

considering all the red tape and cost of living , climate, friendliness, etc etc .....

Difficult. My guess would be in one of the newer EU member states, where property is less expensive, and competition is less fierce. It strongly depends on your industry, though. Keep in mind that language may be an important barrier as well.

All things considered, Romania comes to my mind. Maybe a nice city like Cluj, or former EU cultural capital Sibiu?

Absolutely with bentivogli on that one.
Bulgaria (like Romania, joined the EU in 2007) is a lot cheaper than Romania for most things - from buying a place, to setting up a business. Fares to Bulgaria are coming down all the time and it has a much bigger tourist industry than Romania. If you're up for a little bar or restaurant, then either Golden Sands, Sunny Day, Sunny Beach, or Albena would be good. Very much just for 6 months of the year (summer only), but if your service and prices are what the punters are looking for, then you should crack it.
There are many agents in BG that will give you 1st class advice. I would recommend that if you're interested - you use a local agent within the country and not a foreign one. They all charge so much more to get things up and running for you - and most of them won't do as good a job as the locals.
Good luck.

Those are nice places, l might include them in my next trip in August
where could l find more info on their standard of living
Can you live there with only English and Italian?
but l was thinking more in a place you can work all year round
since its a clothing store a boutique actually
it was fairly easy for us in the States and in Canada they practically open it for you in a couple of days
what is the problem really with starting a busines in the EU countries burocracy or corruption?

I already kind of suspected you wouldn't speak any other languages than English and Italian (and presumably, some Spanish?): that's why I suggested Romania, which has a language that shouldn't be too difficult for you.

Don't count too much on people being able to help you out in English, let alone Italian. Even in a foreigner-minded country like the Netherlands, the bureaucracy is largely (if not entirely) Dutch-only! Speaking of which, bureaucracy will be much more of an issue for you than corruption. There will be a fair share of the latter, but the former is more time-consuming and more impenetrable. I don't want to discourage you, but being an entrepreneur isn't quite as easy here as it is in the Americas...

Do as Paddy suggested: get yourself a local contact. They can tell you all about the other things you want to know.

thank you for your advice

guess l was hoping to hear how easy it was nowadays, how efficient it has become
than red tape was almost nothing and bla bla bla and decide right away where to go and get settled
but anyway l m doing this one way or the other so l take your advice and find some local contacts
lm going this August and maybe swing by the Bulgarian coast while lm there
the pictures look great l had no idea
papa likes!!!!

I would have a look at Slovenia. It is a beautiful country and is located between Austria and Croatia. So considering that many and many Germans are going to spent their holiday in Croatia, they all pass through the country, which would make it good for business.
Also, It hasn t been attacked by mass tourism yet so the price are still relatively low. English is well spoken.

Hope it helps.

Stephane

I am a bit puzzled by this thread, as surely the best place to open a shop depends on what you are selling and whom you regard as your prospective customer base. Let's say that I wanted to open a vegan wholefood shop, then a town in which the entire population is omnivorous is hardly likely to be the best place, but then of course that would be part of the challenge ...

you are right
this is an underwear and swimwear shop but mostly underwear