Brussels, 18/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - In the context of the EU Belgian Presidency, Mr Serge Kubla, President of the European Council of Ministers of Industry, has taken the initiative to organise for 24 and 25 October in Louvain-la-Neuve a conference on the theme: "Financing SMEs: the European approach". The conference aims to stress the importance of this issue and especially to analyse the problems of financing innovation and micro-credits. Participants will include European Commissioners Erkki Liikanen (Industry/Information Society), Philippe Busquin (Research) and Mario Monti (Competition), as well as representatives from the banking world (public and private) including Rolf Breuer (Deutsche Bank), Luc Vandewalle (BBL/ING) and Hans Reich (Kfw). During the work, participants will cast an electronic vote on a series of policy options that will be debated by a panel composed of the European Ministers of Industry. The conference will thus lay the basis for a policy document on access to finance that will be presented to the formal Industry Council of 5 December 2001 under Belgian Presidency. (For further information: Internet site: http://www.kubla2001.EU ).