The 2015 Report on Single Market Integration and Competitiveness provides in-depth analysis of the recent economic performance in the EU and its Member States. The report, issued today, analyses the state of integration and competitiveness and their main drivers in the EU. It underpins the European Commission's Single Market Strategy and provides evidence for the coordination of economic policies in the EU. The EU has seen clear signs of economic recovery in 2015.

Today the Commission is publishing guidelines to help public officials across the EU identify and avoid the most frequent errors in public procurement of projects co-financed by the European Structural and Investment Funds. In line with the initiative for an "EU budget focused on results", the Commission is acting to ensure that tax payers' money is spent efficiently and transparently.

The economic and financial crisis of 2008-2013 triggered fundamental changes in European economic governance: coordination of economic policy (European Semester), strengthened fiscal discipline and surveillance, a new procedure addressing macroeconomic imbalances and reinforced EU-level supervision of the financial sector. This paper will argue that these changes had a profound effect on the reform of Cohesion Policy.

The 10 finalists for the European Social Innovation Competition have been selected. The finalists have been named from a short-list of 30 and a total of over 1,400 applicants from 40 countries. They will compete for the three €50,000 prizes to be awarded on 25 November in Brussels. This year’s competition looked specifically for ideas that would promote ‘New Ways to Grow’ across European society. 

On 20 October, Lowri Evans, Director-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, spoke at the Science/Business Network conference on “The future of manufacturing: Industry 4.0”, outlining the Commission’s latest thinking on the benefits and collaboration possibilities within the Industry 4.0 framework.

KEPA's delegation, headed by the President Mr. Nikolaos Efthymiadis, participated in "OPEN DAYS 2015", held in Brussels during 12-14 October 2015. KEPA's delegation was consisted of Mr. Nikolaos Efthymiadis - President,  Mr. Spyros Skotidas - General Director , Mrs. Angeliki Barakli - Head of European Projects Department and Mr. Neoklis Stamkos - Chief Accountant and Head of KEPA's Microcredit Unit. During their stay in Brussels they held meetings with KEPA's  partners and European Union's executives.

The curtain has come down on the OPEN DAYS 2015. Final registration statistics confirm the attendance of about 6000 (5924) participants, 16% of whom registered on-site. This represents an increase of about 5% comparing to 2014. About two out of three participants came from local, regional, national or EU administrations and three out of four travelled to Brussels specifically for the event. This confirms the same trends as last year.

20,000 micro-enterprises will get access to loans worth 237 million euro under the European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI). Today, the European Investment Fund (EIF), which manages the EaSI Guarantee on behalf of the European Commission, and six microfinance institutions are signing guarantee agreements that will open up access finance for micro-enterprises. The European Commission will contribute with 17 million euro to the guarantees signed today, which is expected to result in microloans worth 237 million euro.