Turkije sluit zich aan bij EU-concurrentieprogramma (en)

Turkey is the third candidate country, after Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to join the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) under which the European Commission promotes innovation, entrepreneurship and growth in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Today, European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen and Mr. Volkan Bozkir, Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding formalising the Republic's entry to the Entrepreneurship and Innovation pillar of CIP.

Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry policy said: "I welcome the decision of Turkey to join the CIP. Businesses and in particular SMEs will strongly benefit from this participation. In this context, I am particularly pleased that Turkey has joined the new Enterprise Europe Network.

This will provide both EU and Turkish enterprises with new great opportunities for cooperation. I hope that this decision will also a political effect of bringing Turkey and the EU closer together."

The possibility of participating in a host of joint projects and in Enterprise Europe Network with the 27 EU Member States is a substantial advantage for Turkey. It will allow the country to take full benefit of best practices on entrepreneurship, SME policy, competitiveness and innovation in the EU.

The EU and Turkey enjoy a deep trade relationship. Indeed, the EU ranks by far as number one in both Turkey's imports and exports while Turkey ranks 7th in the EU's top import and 5th in export markets. Nearly 45% of the whole trade volume of Turkey is with the EU and amounts to EUR 78 billion in 2006.

The backbone of Turkish economy is formed by the large and expanding sector of small companies. The groundwork on developing a favourable regulatory framework for SME's has been completed. Turkey is now ready to focus on promoting innovation and boosting competitiveness of SMEs on national and regional markets as well as in the large EU internal market. Joining the Entrepreneurship and Innovation pillar of CIP will help Turkey to rise to this policy challenge.

Turkey participated already actively in innovation related activities under the "Research and innovation" programme of the sixth Framework Programme. These have been extended and further developed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).

Background information:

The CIP programme, which runs from 2007 to 2013 with a budget of € 3.6 billion, contains the following 3 pillars:

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  Entrepreneurship and Innovation Framework Programme (EIP): EIP fosters the competitiveness of enterprises for example by providing co-guarantees and co-investments for local banks and risk capital funds so that they can improve access for SMEs to loan and venture capital finance. EIP also supports providers of business and innovation services in all EU regions or helps to link innovation actors and clusters in European networks.
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  Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICTPSP): ICTPSP accelerates the development of a sustainable, competitive, innovative and inclusive Information Society stimulating a wider adoption and more efficient take up and better use of ICT.
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  Intelligent Energy-Europe Programme (IEE): IEE promotes energy efficiency and new and renewable energy sources in all sectors including transport.

A long-term view demands that the Commission works very closely with all candidate and potential candidate countries. Negotiations for participation in the CIP have been opened with several potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans region which are also interested to join.

More information on the CIP