Tajani helps jumpstart Italian SME recovery

Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice-President responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, has travelled to Naples to take part in bilateral meetings with SMEs to help businesses emerge from the Italian economic downturn.

A central focus of this visit, hosted by the region of Campania, will be the business-to-business and cluster-to-cluster networking event. The event aims to promote business partnerships between companies and clusters in the Italian region and other EU countries and with companies and clusters from other non-European countries in sectors considered key contributors to achieving economic growth.

Tajani and Stefano Caldoro, President of the Campania Region, will also open the Europe 2020 ‘Strategy for growth’ conference, where topics for discussion will include EU financing for business, as well as SME internationalisation and access to markets. The Vice-President will use this opportunity to introduce COSME, a new €2.3bn programme for SMEs, which aims to improve the business environment and increase support for entrepreneurs. The programme will also help EU enterprises gain better access to bank financing and venture capital.

Tajani will also allude to funding opportunities for SMEs under Horizon 2020, as well as the new SME Instrument, which will support innovative businesses during the entire innovation cycle.