Exploring the European Project Management: a tool to strengthen Europe. A focus on problems and solutions to be more competitive

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to develop the subject of European Project Management, that means all the complex activities required for the purposes of the production, drafting and submission of European projects. These projects are proposals for funding addressed to the European Union, in response to the calls for proposals that the European Commission publishes on an almost daily basis. EU Project Management can involve both public entities (state and local, including institutes of economics and research) and private organisations (companies, associations, foundations, etc.), and is often referred to as one of the most promising "sources of employment". The paper firstly presents an overview of the European Institutions, and the legal and economical basis of the European Project Management, explaining the financial resources of EU. In fact, the projects can be realized only after having received the respective community contribution. The thesis then develops the tools for applying to these founds: from the funding modalities used by the EU Commission to finance Member States, to how to draft a call for proposal. The technical description of all the steps to follow in order to win a project is due to the increasing competition for EU funding that brings professionals in EU Project Management to constantly update their skills and systematically cultivate the international and institutional relations required to build partnerships. Then, it is analysed the influence that the European Projects have on Member States, comparing the number of times each country has applied to a program and who actually has been more effective. So, looking at the data available for 2015, it is presented how in practice the EU finances the economy of Italy and if our country is able to exploit the possibilities offered by the EU. A particular attention is given to the effectiveness of Italian small and medium enterprises, presenting the possible problems that bring them to, in some cases, fail the application. The latest part is dedicated to a case study about Tecnica Group, an Italian company that in partnership with other entities, has answered to a call for proposal issued under the Horizon 2020 program, but hasn’t obtained the financing. The case study will develop the problems and issues that the Company has faced during the application and will try to explain which have been the possible mistakes that have caused the failure. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how much hard is for businesses, in times of economic crisis and difficulty in accessing credit or risk capital, to get financing from European Union, but in the meanwhile, how the European contribution can offer a chance for development not to be missed.