On December, 8 2016, an official delegation of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) conducted a working meeting which took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The three members of the EESC discussed with representatives of Comac Medical Ltd., the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association the main challenges related to the Bulgarian participation in Horizon 2020 programme and its SME Instrument, in particular.
As a beneficiary of the Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument, Comac Medical and its representative – Monika Panayotova was invited to take active part in the discussion together with the EESC’s representatives Ulrich Samm – a member of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee, Panagiotis Gkofas – Vice-President of the ECO Section on Economic and Monetary Union and Christophe Lefevre – European Economic & Social Committee member.
The occasion of EESC visit was the evaluation of Horizon 2020 with a focus on the participation of the civil society organizations in activities related to the European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. A special attention was paid on the approach “Responsible Research and Innovation” and the programme “Science with and for Society”.
After the visit in Bulgaria, the delegation of EESC will continue with its arranged working meetings in Finland, Germany and Portugal. The evaluation results will be included in the EESC exploratory opinion that will be taken into consideration in the Mid-term evaluation of Horizon 2020, conducted in parallel by the European Commission.