Partenariat meetings on the increase
The European Commission's Partenariat scheme for SMEs is picking up momentum with four events already announced for next year. Partenariat events bring together heads of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from all parts of Europe in face to face meetings with their counterparts from different areas all over the world. The aim is to promote commercial, technological and financial cooperation. The events are organised by a host country in the EU. The event organisers will select suitable businesses from the host country according to the quality of their cooperation proposal. A catalogue of participants will be circulated throughout EU Member States to interested parties. Community networks such as Euro-Info-Centres and Innovation Relay Centres assist in the distribution to potential cooperation partners in order to arrange meetings. The idea of bringing together potential partners in face to face meetings to encourage business cooperation was extended about four years ago to countries outside the Union. Partenariat events now take place on a regular basis with Mediterranean countries, Central and Eastern European countries (CEE), Latin America, Asia and - the most recent addition - North America. Two programmes support the scheme. EUROPARTENARIAT is a programme specifically designed to promote the partenariat idea. It was launched in 1987 and aims at the less developed or declining industrial regions of the Union. It is jointly managed by DG XVI (Regional policy) and DG XXIII (Enterprise policy). EUROPARTENARIAT events are subsidized with two thirds of the event budget being provided in equal parts by DG XVI and DG XXIII. The host country provides the remaining third. EUROPARTENARIAT events are organised twice a year. INTERPRISE, launched in 1990, aims at bringing together managers from SMEs in regional or local groupings. INTERPRISE is managed by DG XXIII and the programme is financed from the budget allocated to the action programme in favour of SMEs. The Commission can contribute up to 50% of the overall costs, providing they do not exceed 50,000 euro. Financing for partenariat events with non-EU firms is available through different cooperation programmes: MEDA for cooperation with Mediterranean partner countries, Asia-Invest for European-Asian cooperation, Al-Invest for cooperation with Latin America, or PHARE and TACIS, the programmes for cooperation with CEE countries and the New Independent States (NIS) in the of the former Soviet Union. For 1999 four partenariat events have already been announced: a Latin American event in Mexico in February, an Indian cooperation meeting in New Delhi in March, a meeting for SMEs in the high tech sector in the United States in April and a EUROPARTENARIAT event in Austria in May. The second EUROPARTENARIAT meeting for 1999 is being planned to take place in the autumn in Brandenburg, Germany. Both EUROPARTENARIAT events in 1999 will include EU-PHARE Partenariat events, enabling countries qualifying for support under the PHARE programme to participate in the event. The Austrian event will include potential partners from the surrounding countries, such as Hungary or from the Czech Republic. The Brandenburg event in the autumn will include SMEs from Poland and the Baltic States.