eurostars-eurekaThe Council is expected to adopt conclusions on the interim evaluation of the Eurostars Joint Programme (see IP/07/1313 below). The Commission's own response was adopted on 8 April 2011.

Eurostars provides financial support to market-oriented research projects initiated and driven by R&D performing SMEs.

Eurostars is a joint research and development programme undertaken within the context of the EUREKA initiative by 27 EU Member States and 6 countries associated to FP7.In its first years, Eurostars has shown good potential attracting a high level of interest among the type of SMEs targeted. The Commissioner will express her overall satisfaction that Eurostars is a good example of a joint initiative between the EU and the Member States.

The Commissioner stressed the need for greater political and financial commitments to help SMEs meet the challenges of the Europe 2020 strategy and contribute to and benefit from the Innovation Union (see IP/10/1288 below). She confirmed the continued support of the Commission for the current programme until 2013.

She will also highlight and support possible improvements to the programme that were identified by the expert-evaluators.