EU Commission report on European competitiveness

30 September 2009 in Clusters, Crisis, Economy, Employment, European Union, Technology

The European Commission issued its Annual Report on Competition Policy for 2008. The report provides a summary of the most important developments with regards to EU competition policy and focuses on major enforcement actions. Furthermore, the ways in which tools of competition policy have been applied to combat the financial crisis are outlined and the [...]

AL-INVEST IV: A bridge between EU and Latin American SMEs

30 September 2009 in Banking, Clusters, Economy, Entrepreneurship, European Union, Networks, Trade
Tags: Latin America

The fourth phase of AL-INVEST, financed by the European Commission, aims at supporting the internationalisation of Latin American SMEs in collaboration with their European partners in order to contribute to reinforce social cohesion in the region. Unlike the previous phases, the fourth phase of the AL-INVEST (2009-2012) is implemented through three groups of business organisations [...]

Standardisation should focus more on innovation

1 April 2008 in Clusters, Standardisation, Technology, Value Chains

EU standardisation policy should focus more on product innovation and competitiveness, the European commission argued on Tuesday in a new policy paper. Standards and technical harmonisation can help speed-up the uptake of environmental technologies and liberalise trade in rapidly-growing markets, it said.
The commission’s policy paper outlines actions for a more market-led standardisation policy. Current standardisation [...]

EC Vice President Verheugen launches Enterprise Europe Network

11 February 2008 in Clusters, Development, Directories, Entrepreneurship, European Union, Networks

European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen launched Enterprise Europe Network, a new and powerful European support network for enterprises. All major players of the business support community in Europe have united to offer a one-stop service to assist especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop their full potential and innovative capacity. With more [...]

Cluster Management: A Practical Guide, by GTZ

11 February 2008 in Clusters, Development, Publications, Research, Rural Economies

This GTZ-manual provides an encompassing and concise overview of methods and instruments of cluster management. It was developed in Croatia commissioned by the GTZ and financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is, however, not only applicable to Croatia and to other transformation countries, but by all means suitable for [...]