The final Conference of the Project MiniEurope took place in Valencia on the 7th of April of 2011. The event attracted over 100 people to register for it among which the delegations from each of the participating regions and an important number of stakeholders in regional policy.
Mr. Andries Greiner, Deputy Queens Commissioner of Flevoland and Chairman of the Steering Committee of MiniEurope conducted an event that was introduced by the Regional Vice Minister of Relations with the State and with the European Union, Rafael Ripoll and Daniel Moragues, Director General of IMPIVA.
Ms. Flo Cucas, Deputy Leader of the Liverpool City Council, vey involved in the early stages of the project, wanted to join the initiative and participated through a video speech, due to her impossibility to attend.
The European Commission collaborated with the event with the presence of Jeam Marc Venineaux (DG Regio), who stressed the importance of territorial cooperation. Marie Lèbre, financial officer from INTERREG IVC also participated.
The good practices studied, shared and transferred during the project took then the floor through the presentations in which members of the partners and experts on each practice explained the experience of each one of them. The Good Practices of Summer Design Office, the iCreo Network, Financial Engineering, Cluster Development and Summer entrepreneur were presented before a very interested crowd.
Mr. Christian Saublens, Managing Director of the European Association of Regional Development Agencies, EURADA, gave the keynote speech “From subsiding to innovative finance of growth in European Regions”. A topic that is on the edge of interest in the European Commission, specially for the new period to come after 2013 and taking into account the needs shown by enterprises and entrepreneurs across Europe.
The Final Conference of MiniEurope represented a showcase of some the best practices of regional policies in SME development, promotion of entrepreneurship, Clusters and Financial tools, while the experience of the MiniEurope project, with its methodology and experience in transferring and adapting such practices from region to region supposed an important added valued, as agreed by all participants.
source: http://interreg-minieurope.com