EU cluster capacities to manage shocks

This Discussion Paper was submitted to the European Expert Group on Clusters as an input for their discussions. The European Expert Group on Clusters provides the Commission, EU countries and regions with recommendations, advice, and expertise, specifically on how to better use clusters as a strategic tool of industrial policy, interregional collaboration and to integrate SMEs into EU and global value chains. The members of the group are the EU countries and individual experts appointed in a personal capacity (selected via a call for applications). This paper sets out the risks of the COVID crisis on the supply chains of EU companies and develops a typology of the different types of reaction available to those companies to strengthen their resilience to shocks. The paper also argues that companies need support to take some or many of the actions needed and discussed in detail how far and in which way cluster organisations could provide that needed support.

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