The Communication entitled 'Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020' COM(2010)553, a joint initiative of Commissioners Hahn, Geoghegan-Quinn, Tajani and Vassiliou, calls on Member States and regions to attain smart growth objectives of Europe 2020 through regional policy and its funding.

The Communication provides policy guidance from all relevant community policies to advance investments and actions for:

• Clusters for regional growth
• Innovation-friendly business environments for SMEs
• Stronger focus on financial engineering
• Lifelong Learning in research and innovation
• Research infrastructure/centres of competence
• Creativity and cultural industries
• Digital agenda
• Public Procurement for market pull
• European Innovation Partnerships

Actions for the Member States and regions:

Facilitate the formulation and implementation of smart specialisation strategies by national and regional governments through:

• Reinforcing ERDF support for education, research and innovation and drawing on complementary support from the EU’s Research Framework Programme (FP7) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP);
• Making use of the flexibility in the EU Regional Policy programmes to redirect funding to this end.
• Making more extensive use of financial engineering instruments, i.e. loans, guarantees and venture capital, including from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
• Increasing the use of the ERDF on inter-regional cooperation in research and innovation to enhance access to international research and innovation networks;
• Making better use of public-procurement to increase the innovation content of products, processes and services with the public sector taking on the role of lead customer to stimulate research and innovation;
• Using peer review by independent experts to enhance the effectiveness of R&I support;
• Using ERDF to fund high quality FP7 and CIP projects that were not financed due to the high number of quality project applications and the shortage of funds;
• Making better use of the possibilities of policy learning offered by platforms and networks funded through FP7, CIP and INTERREG IVC, including the ‘Regions of Economic Change’ initiative.

Further actions to be undertaken by the Commission:

Facilitate the formulation and implementation of smart specialisation strategies by national and regional governments through:

• developing a ‘Smart Specialisation Platform’ before 2012, bringing together expertise from universities, research centres, regional authorities, businesses and Commission services so as to help identify needs, strengths and opportunities;
• data, policy analysis and information on research and innovation performance and specialisation from an EU-wide perspective (in particular the European Cluster Observatory, the Regional Innovation Scoreboard and Monitor and the Sectoral Innovation Watch);
• platforms for mutual learning on the design and implementation of such strategies (including the CIP-funded “European Cluster Cooperation Forum” and the European Cluster Alliance and the FP7-funded ‘Regions of Knowledge’ and Research Potential projects).

Assist Member States and regions to implement education, research and innovation projects through knowledge transfer and diffusion of good practice, with the help of the 'Regions for Economic Change' initiative (including 'RegioStars') and by providing technical support to innovation-based Fast Track regional networks as well as to inter-regional collaboration supported e.g. under INTERREG IVC, Regions of Knowledge and CIP-funded cluster activities.

Work closely with financial institutions to leverage funding and maximise the use of existing financial instruments, as appropriate, including by possibly establishing a RSFF window/facility dedicated to Convergence Regions, more intensive use of JEREMIE, to provide risk finance and guarantees to stimulate innovation in SMEs and technology-based start ups; as well as by examining ways of extending the scope of existing financial engineering instruments to new research and innovation activities.

Facilitate business opportunities for SMEs through consolidating and reinforcing the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), the partners of which should, in turn, help organisations to make better use of ERDF financing for innovation. 

Improve the coherence and complementarity of EU policies for education, research and innovation, with the aim of: identifying and promoting the take-up of examples of good practice for policy-makers and innovation support providers; expanding and upgrading the 'Practical Guide on EU funding opportunities' in this area and establishing a single web-based portal on Commission support for research and innovation, linked to, or included in, the FP7 Participant Portal to facilitate access of innovating bodies to EU funding.