Industrial clusters can be a promising way to build strategic alliances for the provision of sector-specific support services and access to global value chains.

12. Reaffirms that the relaunch of the EU-Mediterranean partnership is a political necessity in order to build a strategic alliance and stresses that it would be opportune to observe the principles of participation, equal partnership and concerted action in dealing with achievements in all fields of cooperation;

The EESC attaches importance to, and agrees with, the strategic priorities put forward by the Commission in its Communication on internationalising European higher education, including the mobility of students, teachers and researchers, ‘internal’ internationalisation by building subjects of relevance to the world scene into study programmes, and on the importance of strengthening international partnerships and alliances between higher educ ...[+++]ation institutions, at a time when the large-scale introduction of free online courses is transforming access to knowledge.

In doing so, this framework should focus on the general principles adopted at international level in the field of development cooperation and their operational translation for LA activities, such as: country specificity, which implies a tailored support according to the specific country context; ownership and partnership, taking account of country processes and national decentralisation frameworks; flexibility and pragmatism, adapting to the dynamics of reform processes and responding to new challenges and priorities; alignment and harmonisation, including donor complementarity; building of strategic alliances to reduce transaction c ...[+++]osts and burdens on partners' administrations; and that this will be a long-term and gradual process, requiring comprehensive and incremental support.