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05/12/2019

Wrapping up four years of interregional cooperation on Organic Action Plans

2 December 2019 – Brussels, Belgium

The final event of the SME Organics project gathered regional partners from all over Europe in Brussels. They discussed the outcomes of the project, the Regional Organic Action Plans stemming from it and the impact on the growth of organic Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the region.
Eduardo Cuoco, IFOAM EU Director , and INTIA’s General Manager Juanma Intxaurrandieta kicked off the event with a welcome address. Then Nicolas Lampkin, Organic Policy consultant from Thünen Institute, delivered a keynote speech in which he provided an overview of the organic sector in the European Union. Anne-Cecile Renard of the Interreg Europe Programme continued with a presentation on how the Interreg Europe Programme supports SME competitiveness strategies. Later, Natalia Bellostas from IntiaSA and Project Coordinator at the Interreg Europe Programme and SME Organics shared the lessons learnt during the SME Organics project.

After a coffee break the event closed with two discussion panels. The first focused on the experiences of the project partners regarding interregional cooperation and was moderated by Eric Gall, IFOAM EU Policy Manager. The last panel of the day was moderated by Roberta Mancia. In this panel the participating partners shared their experiences on the impact of the Multi-Fund Regional Action Plans to support the growth of the organic sector in their region.

The SME Organics project was funded within the framework of the Interreg Europe. The project partner regions are Navarre (ES), Puglia (IT), Lombardy (IT), New Aquitaine (FR), Aargau (CH), North-West (RO), Lodzkie Region (PL), Seinäjoki (FI). The expert supporting partner is IFOAM EU (BE)

Eduardo Cuoco welcomes participants and opens the final SME Organics event in Brussels. © Katarina Seme

Nicolas Lampkin, Organic Policy consultant from Thünen Institute, talks about organic sector in the European Union. © Katarina Seme

Eric Gall moderates a panel on experiences of the project partners regarding interregional cooperation. © Katarina Seme

SME ORGANICS seeks to improve policies and programmes under the Investment for Growth and Jobs goal in order to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the SMEs in the organic sector of the participating regions. The project aims both at enhancing entrepreneurship but also at supporting the existing SMEs in improving their performance in order to enforce the growth capacity of the entire organic regional sector in regional, national and international markets.