Bosnia and Herzegovina joins COSME, the EU programme for small and medium-sized enterprises

SMEs and entrepreneurs from Bosnia and Herzegovina will now be able to participate in COSME, the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Programme, under the same conditions as their counterparts from EU Member States and other associated countries.

The agreement associating Bosnia and Herzegovina to COSME was signed yesterday on behalf of the European Commission by Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Mirko Šarović, Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Commissioner Bieńkowska said: “We are very satisfied to see Bosnia and Herzegovina joining COSME today: our SMEs are definitely stronger together. COSME will provide new opportunities for SMEs to build stronger networks throughout Europe, to access international markets and get better access to finance.”

Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations added: “The participation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the COSME programme brings the country closer to the EU. It will support national efforts to improve economic governance and build a better business environment for SMEs, and will directly help SMEs to develop in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and internationally.”

COSME will support projects on a wide range of topics that include clusters, SME internationalisation, building entrepreneurship skills, tourism, reducing the administrative burden for companies and protection of intellectual property rights for companies operating in non-EU countries. It will help SMEs identify funding sources.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is the tenth country outside the EU to join and contribute to the programme, after Iceland, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Armenia and Ukraine.

COSME is the EU programme aimed at strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of €2.3bn.