VIC TESTING AND CERTIFICATION LTD--Kosovo joins COSME, an EU funding programme for SMEs

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

Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs said: "Today's agreement is a milestone for SMEs and entrepreneurs in Kosovo. It opens doors for cooperation with businesses across the EU and will help create a better business environment."

COSME, the first EU programme that Kosovo has joined, will bring new possibilities to Kosovo entrepreneurs for increasing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. It 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. It will also help SMEs identify funding sources.

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