BRUSSELS, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday released the first results of an initiative launched last year to support regions undergoing industrial transition.
A total of 10 European Union (EU) regions and two member states have applied for support through the program, including Cantabria (Spain), Center-Val de Loire (France), Greater Est (France), Greater Manchester (United Kingdom), Hauts-de-France (France), East-North Finland (Finland), North-Middle Sweden (Sweden), Piedmont (Italy), Saxony (Germany), Wallonia (Belgium), as well as Lithuania and Slovenia.
The first results of this initiative offer support and expertise on 12 pilot schemes to help them overcome specific obstacles to industrial transition.
Under the initiative, all recipients will have their individual pilot schemes, which will each receive a grant of 300,000 euros (335,573 U.S. dollars).
"Based on the first results of this initiative, I invite all regions to replicate the experience in the future. They should identify weaknesses to address and assets to build on to haul themselves up the value chain in our globalized economy," said Corina Cretu, Commissioner for Regional Policy.
According to the commissioner, EU will earmark more than 90 billion euros of cohesion funding for research, innovation and small and medium businesses in the next long-term EU budget.
