Senior advisors to SME’s have participated in their first Member States’ SME Point of Contacts (PoCs) last week at the Agency premises in Brussels.
The latest meeting was devised to look at the implementation of the 2016 priorities of the EDA SME Action Plan and the results of the EDA exploratory study on SMEs. Participants also discussed the progress report on the implementation of the ‘Guidelines for facilitating SME’s access to the defence market’ and EDA future work to support SMEs accessing COSME opportunities.
Francisco González Mené and Dušan Švarc, are the latest advisors appointed to the position. Both advisors expressed satisfaction about the outcome of their first meeting, with Francisco emphasising the increasing role SME’s play in defence and the EDA’s contribution to development.
“I was impressed by the hands on approach taken by EDA to provide concrete and practical support to defence-related SMEs so that they can access EU funding”, said Dušan Švarc. In his view, “the key for EDA’s future work in this domain will be to simplify ways, means and procedures for SMEs to benefit from EU funding and other forms of support”.
The next meeting will be held next spring, where the two EDA SME Advisors would share ideas on how to support defence-related SMEs even better in the future.
The appointment of the two SME Senior Advisers was identified in the EDA SME Action Plan, approved by the March 2013 Steering Board, as one of many means to promote defence-related SMEs. Following a call for expression of interest and a selection process, Mr Francisco González Mené (Spanish) and Mr Dušan Švarc (Czech) were appointed in summer 2016.
Their main role is to provide strategic advice and support to the EDA top management on policies and actions regarding defence-related SMEs/clusters and to identify new potential ideas and concrete initiatives in support of the defence-related SMEs. Their mandate also included the assessment of ongoing EDA initiatives.
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