An international conference, “Financing growth and cohesion in the enlarged Europe”, was held in Brussels on 24 November in the presence of over 500 delegates representing member states, candidate states, regions, industrialists’ and trade associations, NGOs and financial institutions. During the meeting the EU Commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hubner, officially presented two new measures to help the national and regional administrations to prepare major infrastructural projects and improve access to credit for micro, small and medium businesses. Jeremie and Jaspers as the new instruments are called ought to encourage the use of Structural Funds at the disposal of the Regions with two main objectives: on the one hand, projects of infrastructural type (major works in public/private partnership) and, on the other, those of entrepreneurial type with recourse to such financial instruments as micro-credit, loans and risk capital. The main aim of the two measures is “more growth and employment through cohesion programmes”, with particular attention to ways of involving the private, banking and financial sectors, European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund. For further information, consult the website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/events/ifi/index.cfm
