In 1996 Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain took the initiative to organize a seminar in Brussels on the European Union MEDA programme. Up to 400 companies registered for this event structured in two parts: a first one devoted to presentations from the European Commission officials in charge of the implementation of the programme and a second one where one to one company meetings took place in order for them to get to know their competitors better and identify potential partners to participate together in EU tenders.

Due to the success of this "pilot" seminar, the four countries decided to invite the rest of the EU Member States to join this initiative in order to organize smaller events two to three times a year focused on one specific sector at a time. The first sector seminar in the present format was held in 1998 and at that time Austria, Finland, France, Sweden and United Kingdom had already joined the project.

At present, Permanent Representations and Trade Promotion Organizations from 24 Member States are involved in the organization of the sector seminars and more than 4.000 companies have already participated in the 43 events held so far. One or two Member States (in a rotating order) are responsible for the logistics of each seminar while the other countries are responsible for inviting and registering companies of their own nationality.

Focus Sectors