In view of this quest, the European Cluster Policy Group (ECPG) of 20 independent experts was formed by a Commission Decision on the October 22, 2008 with the task of making recommendations on how to better design cluster efforts in the Community. Over its 18-month mandate, which ended last September, the ECPG has discussed a number of themes with particular relevance to clusters. The resulting set of recommendations for the next stage of cluster efforts highlights three principles as a general orientation for policy makers at the EU level, but also in EU Member States, and eight action proposals.

The ECPG recommends that the next stage of European cluster efforts will need to be (1) better integrated in a broader competitiveness agenda, (2) reoriented towards more ambitious goals, and (3) implemented with stronger coordination between EU and Member State levels. The eight action proposals translate these general principles into more concrete suggestions for specific new policy actions. The ECPG argues for stronger alignment of EU budget priorities with the goal of competitiveness, for a review of current recipients of cluster funding, for a new way of spreading best practice on cluster programmes in EU MS, for the alignment of operating procedures across programmes, a reduction in their overall number, and structural changes in EU efforts to create a cluster knowledge infrastructure and collaboration platforms. This will require coordination, political will, and – more importantly – the engagement of relevant parts of government to translate the recommendations into specific action plans.