The proposed actions aim to complement national and regional business innovation policies and programmes, to foster cooperation between SMEs, including transnational cooperation, clusters and other innovation-relevant actors in Europe, to bridge the gap between RD and successful market uptake, to provide a more business innovation friendly environment, including demand-side measures and measures geared to boosting the transfer of knowledge, and to support taking into account the changing nature of innovation processes, new technologies, markets and business models.

measures to improve the design, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting the competitiveness and sustainability of enterprises, including through the sharing of good practices on framework conditions and on the management of world-class clusters and business networks; and through promoting transnational collaboration among clusters and business networks, the development of sustainable products, services, technologies and processes, as well as resource- and energy-efficiency and corporate social responsibility ;

34. Considers that the participation of SMEs in clusters must be promoted in order to boost innovation and increase the competitiveness of the EU economy; calls therefore on the Commission to support the improvement of cluster management, notably through the exchange of best practices and training programmes, to design and disseminate tools to assess the performance of clusters, to promote inter-cluster cooperation, and to further simplify administrative procedures for the participation of clusters in EU programmes;

34. Considers that the participation of SMEs in clusters must be promoted in order to boost innovation and increase the competitiveness of the EU economy; calls therefore on the Commission to support the improvement of cluster management, notably through the exchange of best practices and training programmes, to design and disseminate tools to assess the performance of clusters, to promote inter-cluster cooperation, and to further simplify administrative procedures for the participation of clusters in EU programmes;

63. Favours the creation of more maritime clusters which take advantage of the positive experience gained and good practices already being carried out in this domain, and believes that these examples should be followed and promoted; calls on the Member States to take measures to enhance the economic competitiveness of coastal regions by encouraging research, the creation of centres of maritime excellence and technological development and innovation as well as inter-business cooperation (networks, clusters, public partners) and the provision of improved support services aimed at reducing the dependence of those regions on a very limited ...[+++]number of (traditional) economic activities;

62. Favours the creation of more maritime clusterswhich take advantage of the positive experience gained and good practices already being carried out in this domain and believes that these examples should be followed and promoted; calls on the Member States to take measures to enhance the economic competitiveness of coastal regions by encouraging research, the creation of centres of maritime excellence and technological development and innovation as well as inter-business cooperation (networks, clusters, public partners) and the provision of improved support services aimed at reducing the dependence of those regions on a very limited nu ...[+++]mber of (traditional) economic activities;