Cross-sectoral Cooperation vs. Cluster Development at European Level

One of the most actual instrument used by the European Institutions for encouraging and supporting in the same time the entrepreneurs is the promotion of industrial entities to organize themselves in different consortia named clusters and to apply further under this form to European calls for obtaining the necessary funds for industrial development of their SMSs and regions where they are located. The mentioned funds are dedicated more often to those clusters which were in advance evaluated by an accredited institution. Is there only an unique institution in charge with this or it is allowed that the clusters evaluation is made by different organizations?For the moment the evaluation technique consist mainly in clusters evaluation done by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA), with the means of a set of indicators, on the basis of which the quality of cluster management is eventually certified, after obtaining the “gold label”. The use, at an European level, of cluster benchmarking has become more and more necessary, in the context of internationalization and of the tough competition that clusters have to face.The paper will highlight also the need for cluster policies and smart specialization strategies (SS3) in order to promote economic growth and regional competitiveness.