We promote industrial cooperation, small businesses, entrepreneurship and inclusive sustainable development with Mediterranean and Eastern neighbour countries as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy. We also work with the Latin American region on initiatives that primarily target small businesses and with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Asia-Europe Meeting on issues including entrepreneurship, space policy and tourism.
EU-Mediterranean
Industrial cooperation through the Euro-Mediterranean partnership aims to create an area of shared prosperity between the EU and Mediterranean partner countries.
The Eastern Partnership
The Eastern Partnership aims to deepen political exchange and economic integration between the EU and Eastern European partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). This directorate-general co-chairs Platform 2 of the Partnership which deals with economic development and market opportunities, and leads on issues related to technical regulations, standardisation and small and medium-sized enterprises.
EU-Latin America
We have contributed to cooperation between the EU and Latin America through initiatives that primarily target small businesses. These include an intellectual property rights (IPR) helpdesk and the European Cluster Collaboration Platform.
EU-Asia
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) offer the EU the possibility to work with Asian countries in larger frameworks than the traditional bilateral approach with individual countries. We work with these bodies on issues related to our portfolio, such as entrepreneurship, space and tourism. We also provide support to businesses via a dedicated IPR SME helpdesk, the Enterprise Europe Network (present in Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam) and the European Cluster Collaboration Platform.
EU and ASEAN trade on the website of the Directorate-General for Trade
The EU and ASEM on the website of the European External Action Service