EU-Mediterranean conference calls for new impetus for innovation and support for SMEs
A new impetus will be given to innovation, and an environment created which is conducive to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), EU and Mediterranean Industry Ministers decided at a meeting in Malaga on 9 and 10 April. Participants reaffirmed that the creation of an area of shared Euro-Mediterranean prosperity remains one of the key objectives of the Barcelona Declaration of 1995, which first saw the proposal of a free trade area stretch in from Morocco to Turkey. Ministers agreed in Malaga that, although industrial cooperation initiatives have already created the right conditions for the future development of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area, to be established by 2010, priority should now be awarded to specific areas, including innovation and SMEs. 'The ability to develop and incorporate innovations and new technologies as well as intellectual capital is a key factor in an enterprise's ability to face the constantly changing challenges of competition,' state the conference conclusions. 'The European Union and its Member States have useful experience in this area, which should be made available to the Mediterranean partners.'. Ministers agreed that the EURO-MED ITQ programme, the Euro-Mediterranean programme on innovation, technology and quality of enterprises, could be built upon, with new moves to improve the framework conditions for innovation and the use of new technologies in Mediterranean countries. New support for activities aimed at creating a more favourable, legal, institutional and economic environment and for facilitating the development of innovation should also be considered, ministers agreed. The introduction of technologies to Mediterranean businesses should also be encouraged, the conference concluded. The EUMIN network of innovation and technological centres should greatly facilitate the implementation of these activities. Ministers also called for new synergies to be developed with EU-financed cooperation activities in the areas of research and technological development, as well as with EUREKA. Delegates requested that the Commission carry out a study in order to assess the scope for using MEDA funding, the Commission's programme for technical and financial cooperation with the Mediterranean partner countries, to develop such synergies. 'Further work on the SMEs' development is necessary to help the creation and growth of SMEs. The development of SMEs is a constant concern of the Mediterranean partners because of the structure of the industrial fabric in these countries and their impact on job creation and on economic and social stability,' according to the conference conclusions. Ministers therefore encouraged the Commission and the working group on Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation to continue their activities aimed at improving the business environment, and to draw on the experience from the EU's policy instruments used to promote entrepreneurship and competitiveness.
Kraje
Spain