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"This inititative was really needed”. These are the words said by participants of our Monday workshop on “JEREMIE- Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises – local and national experiences in preparatory phase for implementation”. The experts from almost all countries and regions sharing interest for the JEREMIE initiative, EC’s officials and representatives of the European Investment Fund came to Brussels on the 2nd of June for the workshop organised by the Information Office of Wielkopolska.
All participants were provided with the latest position of the European Commission, which was delivered by Dorota Zaliwska, Head of Unit for Financial Engineering in DG Regional Policy in her presentation “Progress overview of the JEREMIE implementation and perspectives for SMEs, including diverse SME’s surroundings in different countries and regions in the EU”. Bruno Robino, representative of the European Investment Fund, gave a broad outline of the JEREMIE implementation process from the EIF’s persepctive having regard to the recent developements. Manfred Beschel acting Director of Unit Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latwia, Lithuania, Sweden and Poland in Directoriate General for Regional Policy positively responded to the question posed in the presentation: “Is JEREMIE able to support the economic development based on innovations in the Member States?”. This topic, tackled from the regional point of view was presented by Leszek Wojtasiak, Deputy Marshal of the Wielkopolska region. Steven McGregor with the representation of Wales to the EU discussed the state of arts in implementation of JEREMIE in Wales. Progress overview in Italian Lombardy was delivered by Anna Barone with Finlomarda, institution that helped promote JEREMIE in the region and has been delegated the implementation. The last speaker was László Kállay, Head of Department in the Ministry for National Development and Economy of Hungary presenting the JEREMIE progrmme in Hungary. Grzegorz Bykowski, deputy Director of Economy Department in Wielkopolska Marshal Office moderated all panel discussions.
The workshop was organised as a round table where all heads of units and experts comming from across the Europe, representing ministries of finance, economy and regional developement, as well as implementing authorities form Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia and Portugal and regions: Galicia, Catalonia, Lombardy, Wales, Pomerania and Lodzkie, experts from regional policy departments in Permanent Representations to the UE of: Czech, Romania, Poland, Malta and Slovenia, and at last representatives of Brussels offices of Marche, West Pomerania, Lower Silesia, Hessen, Valencia and Aquitaine. The last three region mentioned have not yet decided wheather they wish to start the implementation of JEREMIE but they were also invited to contribute as having in mind their intense co-operation with the Wielkopolska office in Brussels.
Seminar turned out to be very useful, because until now countries and regions planning the implementation of JEREMIE instrument have had no chance to exchange oppinions and experiences in such wide international forum. It is worth reminding that JEREMIE is an innovating iniciative of the European Commission, partially redirecting the suport for SME’s in form of nonrefundable grants towards rolling funds such as:loans, guarantees and other instruments of financial engineering. The support should help develop and implement new technologies. Regions and countries must prepare well to this initiative however it may substantially reinforce the to-date support since all funds will be subject to financial recycling
hence more SME’s will benefit.
All participants, among them EC officials, and European Investment Fund will soon obtain a summary from the workshop. Wielkopolska will present the outputs of our June session on the conference held by the European Commission in autumn this year.
Autor: Information Office of the Wielkopolska Region in Brussels
