The outgoing Spanish Presidency of the EU published a political declaration on eco-innovation, further to the cancellation of a European Forum on the topic scheduled to take place in Bilbao in April.
The "Bilbao Declaration" tackles the main problems SMEs face in the area of eco-innovation and sets out several action points that can greatly contribute to the uptake of eco-innovation by SMEs. These include policies to accelerate demand, support for SMEs in entering markets, public funding and private-sector investment, training, green partnerships, international trade and co-operation as well as political support. The Bilbao Declaration is supposed to feed into the European Commission's Eco-Innovation Action Plan due for next autumn.