COMMISSION WORKING DOCUMENT - The new Euro-Mediterranean regional industrial cooperation strategy

COMMISSION WORKING DOCUMENT The new Euro-Mediterranean regional industrial cooperation strategy

1. Introduction

The Barcelona Process, which was launched in November 1995, establishes a general partnership in three main areas: political and security partnership, economic and financial partnership and partnership in cultural, social and human affairs. Its economic and financial chapter emphasises the fundamental role of industrial cooperation in creating a Euro-Mediterranean area of shared prosperity based on introducing free trade, bringing about economic transition and boosting investment. Since then, significant steps have been taken:

The first Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers was held in Brussels in May 1996. The Industry Ministers of the 27 partners approved the declaration on Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation, which defines a series of priority measures for regional industrial cooperation. These include, in particular, creating an appropriate legal and administrative framework for developing this cooperation, the development of industrial zones, the setting up of, and aid for, specialist service centres, the promotion of SMEs and developing regional networks of economic operators.

Working groups on industrial cooperation. The Brussels declaration also led the European Commission to set up two working groups in 1997. These are composed of national experts nominated by their industry ministers and representatives of international organisations or of industry, depending on the topics for the meetings. The departments of the European Commission responsible for coordination are the Enterprise Directorate-General in matters of industrial cooperation and the External Relations Directorate-General for Mediterranean questions concerned with the Barcelona Process.

The second Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers was held in Klagenfurt (Austria) in October 1998. In their conclusions, the ministers stressed in particular the key role of the two working groups, the progress made in cooperation by Euro-Mediterranean economic operators, the importance of investment infrastructures and the role of private investment as one of the main driving forces for the economic and social development of the region.

Two industrial summits were also organised by the national industrial federations of the 27 Mediterranean Partners, one in Marrakech in 1996 and the other in Athens in 1997. The industry ministers took the conclusions formulated at these meetings into account at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference in Klagenfurt.

2. Objective of this working document

The objective of this working document is to present the action programmes which are under way on themes of interest for Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation, the latest developments in Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation and the priorities for action in coming years to the ministers of the partner countries who are to meet in Limassol (Cyprus), on 22 June 2000, for the Third Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers.

2.1. Programmes under way on themes of interest for Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation

For the purposes of developing Euro-Mediterranean networks of economic operators, programmes have been set up to consolidate and network chambers of commerce and industry, trade fairs, craft and SME associations and bodies promoting external trade. This type of programme has recently been extended to industrial federations and employers' organisations. Furthermore, the programme of cooperation between national statistical institutes (MEDSTAT), which aims to harmonise the statistics of the European Union and its Mediterranean Partners at both national and regional levels, will from now on be an essential tool accompanying the policy of modernising industry.

A programme for reinforcing the Mediterranean Partners' industrial zones has also been put into effect. This programme aims to improve the operation of existing zones and the methodology for designing new zones in order to offer better services to local enterprises.

Measures aimed at bringing together SMEs on both sides of the Mediterranean have been taken under instruments such as Europartenariat, Med-Partenariat and Med-Interprise. Thus, for example, Mediterranean enterprises were well represented at the Europartenariats organised in Valencia in November 1998, in Vienna in May 1999 and in Potsdam in October 1999.

2.2. Recent developments in Euro-Mediterranean regional cooperation

On the basis of the recommendations of the meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers in Stuttgart in April 1999, the Commission drew up a methodological note for regional activities within the Barcelona Process and disseminated it to the 27 Partners. This note defines a new strategy permitting far-ranging regional programmes to be implemented, centred on certain priorities, thus offering better visibility and achieving real value added at regional level. As far as industrial cooperation is concerned, meeting in plenary session in Athens on 14 and 15 October 1999 the members of the working groups agreed to adapt the strategy to the new recommendations and thus to define priorities for action and to amend the structure and operation of the working groups.

2.3. Priorities for Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation

Within the new regional cooperation strategy, it has been agreed to concentrate industrial cooperation efforts around four priorities:

- promoting investment

- innovation and quality

- Euro-Mediterranean market instruments and mechanisms

- developing SMEs.

2.3.1. Promoting investment

Investment remains a major concern for the Mediterranean region, which is losing more and more ground to other regions of the world in attracting direct foreign investment. The Commission, in close cooperation with the Working Group, has thus prepared a regional programme for setting up a Euro-Mediterranean network of agencies to promote investment. A decision was taken in December 1999 to fund a programme for an overall sum of some EUR 4 million. This programme will be implemented over three years, beginning in 2000, and will cover action in three areas:

- reinforcing Mediterranean agencies' capacity to promote investment by means of training activities and staff exchanges;

- establishing a working network of European and Mediterranean agencies to promote investment by means of inter-institutional communication measures;

- promoting investment at regional level by means of common information and communication campaigns and Euro-Mediterranean agencies' participation in promotional events.

In addition, in response to the conclusions of the second Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers in Klagenfurt, an in-depth study of sectoral flows in direct foreign investment in the Mediterranean countries was launched in January 2000. The conclusions of this study, which will be accompanied by recommendations and proposals for action, will be presented at the third Ministerial Conference to be held in Cyprus in June 2000.

2.3.2. Innovation and quality

Questions of innovation and quality are central to the concerns of managers of competitive businesses, and are a major challenge for Mediterranean SMEs which will have to operate in the context of a global economy.

The final touches are currently being put to a regional innovation and quality programme, and the financing proposal will be presented to the MED Committee in the latter half of 2000. The programme will have two components:

- one component, "Industrial innovation at the service of SMEs", includes measures to promote the development of sectoral technical centres and centres of innovation in the Mediterranean countries, the setting-up of a Euro-Mediterranean network of technical and innovation centres, awareness-raising activities for businesses involving the transfer of good practice and measures to make it possible for technical and innovation centres to develop cooperation with laboratories, research centres and technology poles in the European Union or the Mediterranean countries;

- the "Quality" component aims to launch a number of information and training measures in the fields of standardisation, certification, quality and metrology at regional level. Particular emphasis will be placed on networking the administrative units responsible for promoting quality in the various Mediterranean countries and their links with the Euro-Mediterranean network of technical and innovation centres.

2.3.3. Euro-Mediterranean market instruments and mechanisms

This area is of particular importance to the gradual achievement of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area. The gradual rapprochement of the economies of the European Union Member States and those of the Mediterranean Partners will demand an in-depth knowledge of the concept of the Internal Market and the experience acquired in Europe. The Commission Communication on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and the single market [1], approved by the 27 partners at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers in Klagenfurt in October 1998, defines a series of priority areas for improving the conditions for trade and investment between European Union Member States and Mediterranean Partners. These are the free movement of goods, customs and taxation, public procurement, financial services, intellectual property rights, data protection, accounting and auditing, and competition rules.

[1] COM (1998) 538

A regional programme for implementing the Communication is being prepared. The financing proposal will be presented to the MED Committee in the latter half of 2000. This programme will be in two parts:

- a reciprocal information component consisting of workshops for experts from the Mediterranean partners and the European Union in the field covered by the Commission Communication;

- a training component comprising study visits and training initiatives planned in response to requests from the Mediterranean partners; this component will also offer the possibility of defining targeted technical-assistance operations intended to encourage and facilitate exchanges of experts and the setting-up of twinning projects between administrative structures.

2.3.4. Developing SMEs

A regional programme is to be worked out for improving the development of SMEs. A financing proposal for this area will be submitted in 2001. This programme will identify obstacles to the development of SMEs in the Mediterranean Partners, and its aims will include measures for to simplify the administrative procedures for setting up businesses, improve SMEs' access to funding, etc.

2.4. Structure, operation and role of the working groups

In order to ensure effective implementation of the new industrial cooperation strategy based on the four priority areas defined above, at the joint meeting of the working groups in Athens the Commission proposed new guidelines for these groups' activities. These guidelines have been approved, and provide for the two working groups to be merged into a single "industrial cooperation" group and committees of experts to be set up for each priority area.

The Industrial Cooperation Working Group will have a strategic role in identifying priorities, monitoring measures under way and defining future policy. It will submit activity reports to the Commission and to the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers.

The role of the committees of experts will depend on the progress of the work in each priority area: where technical-assistance programmes are under way, the role of the committees of experts will be to monitor their implementation, and where such programmes remain to be defined it will be to assist the Commission in drawing up a strategy document covering the identification and definition of objectives and a proposal for activities to be undertaken to achieve these objectives.

3. Conclusion

The new Euro-Mediterranean industrial cooperation strategy therefore now matches the recommendations of the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Foreign Affairs Ministers on regional cooperation. Both in the definition of priorities for action and in their implementation, it represents a significant advance on the Brussels Declaration on industrial cooperation adopted by the Industry Ministers in Brussels in May 1996. Lastly, it is a response to the conclusions adopted by the participants at the second Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers held in Klagenfurt in October 1998. This new industrial cooperation strategy should therefore be submitted to the third Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Industry Ministers to be held in Limassol (Cyprus) on 22 June 2000.