CASTLE was born to answer regional needs to improve SMEs logistics policies. It relies on a solid past cooperation among ten partners in Italy, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Spain, Germany, Hungary & Austria, especially developed in Interreg initiatives.The Acronym CASTLE stands for “Cooperation Among SMEs Toward Logistic Excellence”. The CASTLE objectives and ratio are rooted in past research & study activities on the regional logistics EU status and perspectives, which elected SMEs logistics networking as a priority intervention area for public policies. In fact EU regions strongly base their future economic competitiveness on SMEs and on their ability to face new globalised production and market imperatives, which impose to manage scattered supply flows, to face the requirements of flexibility and capillarity, to integrate the value chain. Logistics is the oil and a strategic tool in SMEs' economic machine and in regions' sustainable development, as its efficiency impacts on SMEs market presence and on the environment.

 

An ongoing best practices capitalisation, dialogue and transfer among the partners and with other EU regions is established also thanks to a specific enlarged transfer programme which targets 40 EU regions. CASTLE mixes training, ICT, industrial & economic, transport public actions to create a new SMEs logistics policy cross-sectorial approach to set up and improve SMEs logistics clustering and networking and increase regional competitiveness and sustainable development.