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Ex-ante assessments are mandatory for managing authorities setting up or continuing a financial instrument in the 2014-2020 programming period. It is particularly useful for SME-related financial instruments. Assessments highlight markets failures and financial gaps, they also estimate the potential added value and provide a solid base for a proposed investment strategy with clear targets and expected results.

On 2nd of December 2015, the Various Interest Group will hold a conference on macro-regional cooperation, called Intermediary Europe at the Heart of the EU2020 Strategy: Bringing Europe closer to citizens. The conference is organized in partnership with the European Parliament and will be held in the former EP Hemicycle Robert Schuman. Chaired by President of Group III Luca Jahier, the conference calls for an active involvement of civil society organizations in the Europe 2020 reform process.

The Interreg MED Programme is pleased to inform you that the first call for Horizontal projects of the 2014-2020 programming period is now open to programme priority axes 1, 2 and 3 and their specific objectives. For a detailed description of contents of programme specific objectives and the horizontal projects modalities, including information on possible actions, beneficiaries and target groups, please refer to section 2 of the Interreg MED Cooperation Programme adopted by the European Commission on 2nd June 2015 and to the relevant Terms of Reference. Under this call a project proposal must focus on only one programme specific objective (or only one sub-thematic in the case of the priority axis 1).

On 27 November Professor Dominique Foray from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne will deliver a lecture with the following title: A Simple Policy Idea with Great Impact: Smart Specialization Strategies in the EU. The presentation by Prof. Foray will be followed by a response by an invited discussant, Prof. Frank van Oort, and by questions from the audience. The lecture will take place at the premises of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy on 27 November 2015 from 16:00 to 18:00. Academics, staff from DG REGIO and other Commission services, other EU institutions as well as from the Member States' representations and regional offices are welcome to participate!

KEPA's European Projects Department executives visited Nicosia, Cyprus on November the 3rd and the 4th, and participated in events and workshops promoting Design, in the frame of "Design for Europe" project.

The Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy has finalised the topics of the first call under the Urban Innovative Actions initiative.

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.