A bit of pre-text

At the end of the 90th the European Union began to form a cluster approach to regional industrial development. Initially, the clusters of various countries represented the groups of companies and enterprises which were located close to each other and considered this advantage to be a good way to minimize the cost of the logistics and production in order to reduce the cost of the goods. Later on it was realised that it is strategically beneficial to make cooperate the institutions that work on research and development and are located close to each other. As a result, close cooperation of the production companies and scientific environment were created. Later on the state institution and authorities joined this cooperation. Such an approach resulted in the principle of triple Helix which represents the base of the modern clusters development.

Interstate cooperation in Europe

the internationalization of business processes has led to the cooperation between the clusters of various European countries. The European Committee creates different programs which support this initiative. Such programs are financed mostly from the national budgets. Nowadays, the main initiative which targets trans border European clusters development is the TACTICS (Transnational Alliance of Clusters Towards Improved Cooperation Support) program. Tt combines seven leading European cluster agencies which are responsible for the activities aimed at the development of the clusters. These agencies have to elaborate motivation policies and tools for the support and development of the clusters.

6 priority directions of TACTICS activities

1. Stimulation of the international cluster cooperation.
2. Assessment of the efficiency of the clusters development.
3. Support of the marketing and branding of the clusters.
4. Best practice implementation into the development of new clusters and branches, including the innovation services.
5. Financing of the innovations of industrial clusters.
6. Involvement of the owners of the enterprises-participants of the clusters into the improvement of their development.

All in all, the cooperation between the European clusters comes down to best practice , knowledge and experience sharing, search of the trusted partners and the ways to enter new markets.

Some examples

Vivid examples of the success of global cooperation are seen in the biotechnological sector of the European Union. Bio Valley Basel is a joint program of Switzerland, Germany and France aimed at the development of the trans border biotechnological cluster. The main target of this program is to combine strong biotechnological companies of the North-West of Switzerland, Southern Baden (Germany)  and Alsace (France). The program embraces more than 300 companies including the leaders of the pharm business and agro-business. It also includes 40 scientific organisations, 4 universities and more than 280 research groups.