Business, Innovation and Skills written question – answered at on 24 February 2014.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent steps his Department has taken to assist small and medium-sized enterprises gain access to EU funding.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not provide specific services to help SMEs to access EU funding. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) currently fulfils this role. However the Department supports SMEs through EU funds via our business support programmes, such as GrowthAccelerator, Manufacturing Advisory Service and UKTI trade services.
BIS's British Business Bank officials assist with a number of regional JEREMIE funds which incorporate European money across northern England (North-East, North-West and Yorkshire and the Humber). The JEREMIE funds administer over £150 million of ERDF funding from the 2007-13 Structural Funds Programme which with matched private sector contributions gives total fund size of over £350 million.
For 2014-20 EU Structural and Investment Funds programme, the Government has asked local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) to work with local partners to determine the priorities for their areas. This locally driven approach will ensure that funds are better targeted to support SMEs. The devolved Administrations are responsible for the design and delivery of these funds in their own nations.
There is also a new programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME) 2014-20 which will target SMEs specifically and has 60% of its budget of £1.9 billion devoted to financial instruments thus enabling access to finance and encouraging investment into the SME sector. This programme will be launched in March both at the national and regional levels in the UK.
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