Commission staff working document

In the BSR the conditions for growth need to be strengthened. There should be greater and more effective support for entrepreneurship and SMEs development, as well as stronger cooperation between enterprises, knowledge institutions and public authorities at national and regional levels in the region. Such initiatives are important in terms of achieving the political objectives of the EUSBSR, in particular Objective 3 – increase prosperity of the BSR, and especially the sub-objectives ‘EUSBSR contributing to the implementation of Europe 2020 Strategy’, ‘Improved global competitiveness of the Baltic Sea Region’ and ‘Climate Change Adaption’.

Actions and flagship projects under priority area ‘SME’ shall target entrepreneurs and SMEs and the specific challenges that they face with regard to cross-border collaboration, access to markets and access to finance, human resources and knowledge. Specific activities may include analytical work, the establishment of macro-regional public-private partnerships, joint initiatives in the field of business, trade and investment promotion, and the establishment and marketing of joint test and demonstration facilities.

Actions and flagships projects under priority area ‘SME’ shall be focused on grand societal challenges such as climate change, sustainable growth, resource efficiency, and on specific business sectors that hold a significant potential for growth in the BSR, in particular eco-industries, biotechnology, medical equipment, creative industries, the food manufacturing industry and the maritime industries, as well as sustainable and innovative use of marine resources by business and entrepreneurs.

All activities under priority area ‘SME’ will be closely coordinated with activities under other priority areas in the above-mentioned sub-objectives, and especially priority area ‘Innovation’. Activities under priority area ‘SME’ will also explore synergies with activities at EU level, such as the Small Business Act, the European innovation partnerships, and the Blue Growth Agenda, and will make use of funding opportunities provided by Cohesion funds and EU programmes such as LIFE, FP7 and CIP (Horizon 2020 and COSME after 2013) where appropriate.
Added value is provided by actions that help address the problems that stakeholders in the BSR face, in particular with regard to establishing new contacts and strategic partnerships with other players in the BSR.

An example of how the EUSBSR has provided added value to stakeholders is the financial support for the establishment of a Baltic Sea Region Network for offshore renewable energy.

• 
  Collaboration between players in the BSR. There is a need to facilitate collaboration between key players in the BSR within business areas with a high potential for growth and innovation.
  
• 
  Entrepreneurship and innovation in the BSR needs to be supported, in particular high-growth entrepreneurship and eco-innovation in all sectors, including for marine and maritime sectors.
  
• 
  There is a need for joint initiatives aimed at increasing awareness at global level of the many opportunities offered by the BSR.
  
• 
  Access to finance continues to be a major challenge for entrepreneurs and SMEs. This is, however, a cross-cutting issue and should be addressed as such under the EUSBSR.
  

A comprehensive system for the design, the monitoring and the follow-up of indicators and targets will be set up in 2013, under the responsibility of the priority area coordinator. A limited number of indicators that translate what the main objectives of the priorities are about will be defined. They will be accompanied with relevant targets and deadlines, baseline and statistics/information sources.

1) Geographical coverage measured as a target of participants from at least four different countries in each of the flagship projects (average).

2) Value added for stakeholders measured in a yearly survey targeting that at least 75% of the participating entities consider their participation in the flagship project to provide added value.

3) Timely start-up and completion, measured with a target of completing at least eight flagship projects by 31 December 2014.

Actions and flagship projects

Action: Building platforms for growth

• 
  Regional platform for strategic collaboration in the green offshore industry. The ambition of this project is to establish a regional platform in the green offshore industry to support and increase the level of cross-border collaboration between key players in the BSR. Lead: LORC, Denmark. Deadline: December 2013.
  
• 
  Make the Baltic Sea region a leader in design. The ambition of this project proposal is to establish a regional platform in the field of design to support and increase the level of cross-border collaboration between key players in the BSR. Lead: Danish Business Authority. Deadline for finalisation: December 2013.
  
• 
  Baltic Business Arena (BBA) is a project that develops platforms for SMEs to support cooperation in terms of innovation, trade, exports with joint delivery across borders etc. It may include other activities aimed at simplifying rules and procedures and reducing barriers within the internal market. Among BBA activities is a matchmaking forum for SMEs in the Baltic Sea region, facilitating direct meetings, discussions and knowledge exchange between SMEs entering the export market, investigating possible partners under outsourcing plans or looking for partners to increase access to R&D expertise. The Swedish Agency for Economic & Regional Growth has initiated BBA and will be a future cooperation partner together with the Swedish Institute. Lead: Baltic Development Forum. Deadline: to be determined.
  

The ambition of this action is to provide evidence and new impetus to designing effective support measures for entrepreneurship and innovation in the BSR, including the establishment and development of strong eco-systems for entrepreneurs and of joint test and demonstration facilities. The target group includes policy makers, entrepreneurs, SMEs and cluster managers in the BSR.

• 
  Entrepreneurship training as part of the school curriculum. The ambition of this project is to formulate a strategy for closer collaboration in the BSR to promote entrepreneurship education. It will promote the exchange of good practices between interested countries or regions, taking into consideration existing EU initiatives in this field, in particular those related to the Small Business Act. Lead: National Education Agency, Denmark. Deadline: December 2013.
  

This action will support eco-innovation and resource efficiency in the BSR, in particular collaborative projects involving SMEs and knowledge institutions in the BSR.

• 
  Develop deeper cooperation on environmental technology to create new business opportunities. To strengthen SMEs in the environmental technology sector more critical mass in knowledge and technology needs to be created, involving both RTD (research) and enterprises. Joint actions should include increased cooperation in export promotion. Lead: Poland. Deadline for progress review: to be determined.
  
• 
  Implement the project ‘Sustainable Production through Innovation in Small and Medium sized Enterprise’. The aim is to increase the innovation potential in SMEs to enhance their sustainable production processes, thereby increasing company profits whilst reducing economic and environmental costs. (Project financed by the Baltic Sea Region Programme under the ‘Territorial Cooperation’ objective of the ERDF; total budget € 3 million over 3 ½ years). Lead: Germany. Deadline for progress review: December 2013.
  
• 
  Make the Baltic Sea an eco-efficient region e.g. by establishing a network on green public procurement for the exchange of good practice and experience. Focal points should be established in all BSR Member States to increase knowledge and disseminate information. Lead: Germany and Sweden. Deadline for progress review: December 2013.
  

This action will promote more internationalisation of SMEs in the BSR and cross-border cooperation between business organisations, local, regional, national authorities and trade and investment promotion bodies in the BSR.

• 
  Baltic Supply. The project sets up supporting structures for SMEs in order to facilitate access to inter-regional supply markets in north-eastern Europe. It establishes a service network of Regional Development Agencies, Business Development Organisations, government agencies and knowledge institutions that will help small and medium-sized businesses to identify new business opportunities and to join forces across regional boundaries for sustained success on interregional supply markets. For this purpose the project has established the ‘European Business Support Network’ (www.eubizz.net) as a virtual and personalised service infrastructure offering innovation, market development and training services by network partners. Market focus is on the three industries: maritime industry, food, energy. Lead: Germany. Deadline for progress review: December 2013.
  
• 
  Internationalisation of SMEs through value chains. The project will collect and analyse data on the impact of policy measures and projects that have promoted the internationalisation of SMEs through integration in macro-regional and global value chains. It will take into consideration the existing initiatives in this field at local and national level, EU level and relevant activities of the OECD, as well as propose and implement joint initiatives in the BSR. Lead: Danish Business Authority, Denmark. Deadline: December 2013.