Brussels, 03/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - At the Smart Regions Conference on Thursday 2 June, the European Commission announced that it had set up a new smart specialisation platform to modernise regional industries.
The Commission's initiative seeks to provide practical aid to the regions, helping them enhance interregional cooperation based on priorities defined in the smart specialisation strategies for the 2014-20 period (see EUROPE 11340), and to create “a reserve of investment projects… providing tailor-made advice to the regions and helping them establish links with business and research communities”. The platform's action will focus on the combination of different EU investment instruments, such as the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), the European COSME programme for SME competitiveness, the Horizon 2020 research and innovation framework programme, and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).
“It is not just an online service, but the platform also provides specialised experts that can be consulted by the regions”, a source told EUROPE. This thematic platform will be integrated into a more general smart specialisation platform based in Seville. On the same day, another specialisation platform on food-processing was launched. The very first initiative of this kind was introduced in May 2015 and focused on energy.
At the same time as launching this new thematic platform, the Commission presented a Smart Guide to Cluster Policy. The document is aimed at the regional authorities and different local and regional stakeholders who might be interested in using clusters, with the aim of bringing a multitude of innovative small companies together in the same single zone. In this connection, the guide also contains a range of good and bad examples.
The Commission is currently emphasising potential synergies between the different funds and financial instruments. The institutions have therefore recently presented a guide on how to combine the ESIF and EFSI as part of regional policy (see EUROPE 11496). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)