Pannon EGTC

The Interreg Europe project INTER VENTURES of the Pannon European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (Pannon EGTC) – “Policies to promote the internationalisation of SMEs for more competitive regional ecosystems in border areas of the EU” is coming to an end.

The main goal of the project is to promote the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the border regions of the European Union, thus improving their competitiveness. The project was led by the Pannon EGTC with the cooperation of 8 European partners (from Germany, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Poland). The project, implemented between 2019 and 2023, provided an opportunity for the partners to exchange their experiences in this field. The final document of the project is an Action Plan from all the five regions in the partnership, regarding the process of facilitating the internationalisation of businesses by policy instruments. The Pannon EGTC’s Action Plan focuses on developing a programme to support the internationalisation of less equipped SMEs. This programme aims to have a direct impact on the Hungarian-Croatian Border Cooperation Programme (HU-HR CBC), implementing between 2021 and 2027, and to promote calls for proposals (such as the B-light programme) to support the internationalisation of businesses.

The closing event of the project took place at Kodály Centre in Pécs on 3 November 2022. As it was a hybrid event, the participants could also join online. During the closing event, a conference on “Promoting international cooperation for SMEs” was held in the morning, while the final international partner meeting took place in the afternoon.

First, dr. Balázs Loppert from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and dr. László Őri, President of the Pannon EGTC and Baranya County, welcomed the participants.

Then, dr. Péter Merza, Director, and Tamás Lunk, expert, gave a presentation about the Inter Ventures project and its results. David Laurentiu from the Interreg Europe Secretariat, evaluated the Interreg Europe 2014-2020 programme, and presented the objectives of the Interreg Europe 2021-27 programme and the upcoming new call for proposals. As well as, he talked about how the internationalisation of SMEs is reflected in the projects supported by Interreg Europe.

Afterwards, György Márton, consultant of Logframe Ltd., presented the plans to include the process of supporting SMEs and promoting their internationalisation in the B-light project of the Hungarian-Croatian Border Cooperation Programme (HU-HR CBC 2021-27).

Next, Dr. Ferenc Fedor, Managing Director of GEOCHEM Ltd. – beneficiary of the previous B-light project under the HU-HR CBC 2014-2020 programme – gave a presentation on his experiences and the successful cooperation.

Martijn Spaargaren (Euregio rijn-maas-noord), the creator of the B-light support system, presented the possibilities for supporting SMEs under the German-Dutch Cross- Border Cooperation Programme and the impact of the new EU legislation.

Finally, the Spanish partner of the Inter Ventures project, Beatriz García Val (Society for the Development of the Province of Burgos – SODEBUR) presented the details of their two-level support system for the internationalisation of SMEs, which was used as an example during the development of the Pannon EGTC Action Plan.

The conference is available here.

Source of the article: Pannon EGTC