The development of European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is an important issue for the European Commission. Therefore, in December 2007 the Commission adopted the Defence Package which consists of a Communication and two legislative proposals. The main objective of the Defence Package is to strengthen the European defence industry and to promote a more European approach to business cooperation in the currently segmented national defence markets. Furthermore, it contains numerous proposals for the support of SMEs. In follow-up to the Defence Package, it was agreed to explore concrete ways to support SMEs through an ongoing study and a series of seven conferences.
The Directorate General Enterprise is the organiser of the conferences that are taking
place in different Member States between October 2009 and March 2010.
The main purpose of the conferences is to make SMEs aware of new opportunities in defence procurement and to further develop and discuss the problems that they face. Conferences have already taken place in Berlin (October 2009), Stockholm, Madrid, Budapest, Athens, and will take place in Warsaw and Brussels with participation from representative of SMEs, from Ministries of Defence, Ministries of Economics, European and national industrial associations and from EDA.
The final conference in Brussels that will take place between 30-31 March will summarise the results and conclusions on the measures to be undertaken.
Agenda on conferences “Strengthening European small and medium sized enterprises in the defence sector”
Source: European Commission, Enterprise and Industry, Defence industries
One of the conferences was organized in Athens during 3 and 4 March. Several prominent people from the Greek Aerospace and Defence Industry was there presenting a thorough overview of the Greek Defence SMEs. Epicos was one of the participants presenting its international experience gained by working with SMEs.