4th Competitiveness Clusters Forum & Ministerial Conference on Clusters

STRONGER SUPPORT FROM EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR CLUSTERS

The 4th annual Competitive Clusters Forum allowed to discuss the best European cluster and innovation policies in the presence of very numerous leaders of “pôles de compétitivité” and clusters to Sophia Antipolis on November 13th, 2008.

A rich Forum of which the conclusions will be presented by Pierre Laffitte, president of the Fondation Sophia Antipolis to the European Ministers in charge of the innovation and competitiveness policies gathered tomorrow in Paris on Christine Lagarde's initiative, French Minister for Economy, Industry and Employment. Then, on December 1st, the European Commission will propose to the Competitiveness Council of the European Union a real European frame for the support of clusters for validation

At the Forum, the European Commission was represented by Günter Verheugen, Vice-president in charge of enterprise and industry. In Sophia Antipolis, he first of all reminded us that “in the last 18 months we have discussed a lot about clusters and the way forward. Now it’s time to act. The key in all cases is to focus on excellence."

Günter Verheugen notably declared: "the Commission has no ambition to dictate to the Member States where to invest and on what to specialise. Our task is more to show the way for “better cluster policies” and to support Member States’ efforts by using the Community instruments in a more consistent manner in support of clusters . "

The European Commission in its communication of October 17th, 2008 entitled " Towards world class-clusters in the European Union: Implementing the broad-based innovation strategy “moreover underlined that " in order to maximise their impact, the relevant Community instruments need to be implemented in line with regional and national efforts in support of clusters".

The French clusters policy is based on the “pôles de compétitivité”.

During the Forum, Luc Rousseau, Managing Director, General Directorate for Enterprise, Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Employment presented the phase 2 of this initiative. The accent is going to be put on the following three axes:
• strengthen the support for "start-up" to renew the industrial field;
• support the structuring projects such as “innovation platforms” (mutual technical equipment and infrastructure); and finally
• mobilise specialised private financing;

Clusters (defined as regional groupings of industries, research and services situated in the same place) today occupy an important place in the economy of Europe. However, of 2 000 significant listed clusters, only 10 % of them have a real impact on the development of their region because of their size and of their expertise.

To progress, the Commission is going to further build on the work performed by the European Cluster Alliance but also to establish a group of independent experts, the European Cluster Policy Group who aims to suggest the means to be implemented, at the Community level, to support clusters. The Commission is also going to help the bodies which manage clusters to be more effective in their support for companies, notably SME’s to allow them to innovate faster and better.

If clusters always need to develop on the international level, the Commission insists so that the relations between clusters result in real partnerships of enterprises. Clusters must have a clear vision of their future and make a strong commitment on the implementation of a well defined strategy.

In spite of the current financial crisis, the means to support the companies of clusters exist, recalled Günter Verheugen in Sophia-Antipolis. Europe has Structural Funds, the «Competitiveness and Innovation” programme, and the European Investment Bank which has set aside 30 billion euros for lending to small business.

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The Competitive Clusters Forum gathers each year since 2005 in Sophia Antipolis the main actors for innovation in France and Europe.
The 4th Competitive Clusters Forum was organised by the Fondation Sophia Antipolis in cooperation with the European Commission, Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry, The Ministry for Higher Education and Research, the General Direction for Enterprise of the Ministry for Economy, Industry and Employment, The Inter-ministerial Delegation for arrangement and competitiveness of territories and CDC Enterprises.
With the support from the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes, the Agglomerate Community of Sophia Antipolis, and Regional Council for Provence-Alpes- Côte d’Azur.

For further information, please contact: MC&B
Marie-Claude Bessis: +33 6 80 64 18 81
Jean-Christophe Valdelièvre: +33 6 72 91 81 39
media@sophia-antipolis.org

A European policy for world class clusters (press released - 20 october 2008)

From french “Pôles de Compétitivité” to European Clusters (press released - 7 november 2008)