WRITTEN QUESTION P-1158/01

by Amalia Sartori (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 April 2001)

Subject: The Commission's assessment of the IPI contract

- The Italian Ministry for Industry's Institute for Industrial Promotion (IPI) has published a Europe-wide invitation to tender, with a 24 April 2001 deadline and for a value of ITL 1 400 000 000 ( 723 040), to carry out a feasibility study on the establishment of an International Network of SMEs (INSME).

- The project was submitted to the OCSE in Bologna in June 2000.

- Many OCSE countries expressed serious doubts about the project, which is being funded by the Italian Government.

- One of the members of the INSME's Steering Group is the European Commission.

- The Commission already has a large number of SME networks, covering all the countries affected by the INSME. Under the 2001-2005 European Multiannual Programme, it intends to coordinate them with the support of the Euro Info Centre Network.

- The IPI hosted a Euro Info Centre for a number of years. However, having failed to pass a Commission quality control test, it lost its own Euro Info Centre and kept an associated second-category centre.

- The INSME, its activities and the feasibility study simply duplicate the Commission's programme policy, thereby causing public funds to be wasted.

How does the Commission intend to clarify this situation in order to avoid being involved in activities and feasibility studies which have been carried out before? How can it justify this waste of public resources, given that there already exists a network of Euro Info Centres which covers all the regions concerned by these services and surveys?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(4 May 2001)

The feasibility study launched by the IPI (Istituto per la promozione industriale) on the establishment of an International Network of SMEs (INSME), which is supported by the OECD and its member states, and in which the Commission does not play a direct role, is very different from the Commission's project, the purpose of which is to rationalise and streamline the existing Community business support networks, as described in the communication of 13 February 2001(1).

Indeed, the INSME initiative is very different in terms of its nature (virtual web network), its geographical coverage (all OECD countries) and its purpose (to create a new international network without necessarily integrating the national or regional networks).

The Commission would like to point out to the Honourable Member that it is not involved in the project financially or in terms of human resources, but it is naturally following this project very closely in order to ensure that it remains complementary to Community initiatives.

IPI has been a member of the Euro Info Centre network (EIC) since 1990. Following evaluations of its performance relative to its contractual obligations, carried out in 1996 and 1997 by an independent audit team, IPI was obliged to change its status. Since 1998, the organisation has changed from a standard EIC to an associate member, a profile which takes better account of its particular characteristics.

The Commission will continue to support the Euro Info Centre network. This is not a virtual network but an actual network, established at local level as close as possible to businesses in order to respond to their needs, offer them tailor-made assistance and communicate their concerns to the Commission so that it can adapt its legislation and programmes accordingly.

(1) Progress report and future lines of the initiative to rationalise and streamline the existing Community business support networks. Communication from Mr Liikanen, SEC(2001) 261.