IQ-Net partners, together with Pascal Boijmans from the European Commission, met at the 34th IQ-Net conference in Laško, Slovenia, on 12-14 June 2013. The conference was hosted by the Slovenian Ministry for Economic Development and Technology and chaired by John Bachtler of EPRC.
Introduced by Franci Kluzer, Head of the Division for Development Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the main focus of the conference was on IQ-Net partners' approaches to strategic programming, the content of the new programmes as well as performance management issues.
Discussions were supported by a research paper prepared by Carlos Mendez, Stefan Kah and John Bachtler of EPRC. Discussions also covered the implementation of current programmes, supported by presentations by Rona Michie of EPRC and by Pascal Boijmans of DG REGIO. Pascal Boijmans also presented the new Competence Centre on Administrative Capacity, which was set up by DG REGIO to help Member States and regions to overcome implementation bottlenecks linked to administrative capacity. Finally, Stefan Kah, IQ-Net Network Manager, provided an overview of future network developments.
During the conference, partners also viewed three projects which have benefited from European funding: a glass products manufacturing company, a scheme to support young entrepreneurs and a tourism project.