The need to promote a shift towards a low-carbon economy represents many business opportunities. The Small Business Act highlighted that the EU and Member States should enable SMEs to exploit these opportunities.

There are many good practice examples that build capacity of green and blue companies, but unfortunately many of these examples are not replicated in other regions and remain unexploited.

 The GRESS project under the Interreg Europe programme will focus on an intensive process of  interregional exchange of good practices in the field green economy  in order to support policy improvements with the lessons learnt from the partner regions. The improvements are envisaged to raise awareness on the opportunities for SMEs in the green & blue economy, improve the quality of trainings programmes from green start-ups, attract more SMEs to participate and succeed in public procurement procedures for green products and services, improve access of SMEs to risk capital outside the local region and introduce improved schemes for green start-ups.