Economy Minister Karen Chshmarityan and European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska signed Thursday, December 10 an agreement on Armenia's participation in COSME (Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Programme), to come in force in January 2016.

As Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center reports, Armenia is the second Eastern Partnership country (after Moldova) to join COSME, reaffirming its continued efforts aimed at developing economic cooperation with the European Union.

Armenia joined the Enterprise Europe Network, a key component of COSME that helps SMEs develop and facilitate their internationalization, providing access to the EU market and the innovative technologies.

COSME will support projects on clustering, female entrepreneurship, reducing administrative burden for companies and intellectual property rights protection for firms operating in non-EU countries.

COSME is an EU Program aimed at strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs, set to run from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of €2.3bn.

Armenia is the seventh country outside the EU to join and contribute to the Program, after Montenegro, Macedonia, Moldova, Turkey, Albania and Serbia.