Participation of Mr. Peter Satev – Chairman of ICT Cluster at 4th Annual Competitive Clusters’ Forum and Ministerial Conference on Clusters
11/13/2008On 13-14 November 2008, two very important events, concerning the development of Future European Clusters’ policy took place, in Sophia Antipolice, France - Competitive Clusters' Forum and Ministerial Conference on Clusters.
The 4th Annual Competitive Clusters Forum allowed to discuss the best European cluster and innovation policies in the presence of very numerous leaders.
As a result of the Forum, on December 1st, it is expected, European Commission to 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 that in the last 18 months EU had discussed a lot about clusters and the way forward. And it’s time to act. The key in all cases is to focus on excellence.
Günter Verheugen notably declared that the Commission has no ambition to dictate to the Member States where to invest and on what to specialise. The 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.