An event organised by SME Europe with an introduction by the EEA President, Marcin Nowacki.

The European Commission’s Digital Compass is a chance to pave the road for solutions to achieve the vision of a digitally transformed and more resilient Europe. We must not miss a historic opportunity to devise what everyone agreed is needed: an informed regulation by policy-makers and new business models for big tech industries.

During normal business times, digital platforms and their services act as a bridge to fill the gaps that SMEs may have. In competitive situations, smarter deployment of digital services can multiply efforts and make SMEs more agile, more efficient, more able to compete for talent, customers and sales. At the same time, the pandemic forced SMEs to change their businesses: overall, 80% of SMEs increased use of digital services, demonstrating their broad application and value.

In this hasty transition, decision-makers should cultivate a regulatory environment that nurtures SME access to world-class digital services and a global customer base and abstain from policies that indirectly increase the cost of digital services for price-sensitive SME leaders. To prevent such barriers and blockers to materialise for European SMEs, we strongly advocate for regulators and the tech industry to form structured partnerships and joint taskforces, which already exist in other industries. Such practical action could make a real difference to millions of consumers and business users of platforms, maximising the total impact on the EU economy.

Programme is available here.

Recording of the event available here.

An event organised by the EEA Member, the European Business Association in Ukraine.

Ukraine has been struggling to retain foreign investors’ interest in its economy for two years already. During the EBA Expert Talk «Investing in Ukraine: How to win back and build up trust», we are going to discuss ways to reverse this negative tendency. Besides, there will be a presentation of the Investment Attractiveness Index – a study conducted by the European Business Association together with Vasil Kisil & Partners Law Firm.

An event organised by our Partner, SME Connect.

Any regulatory framework that sets out to oversee the digital ecosystem and its continuous transformation needs to be as future-proof and forward-looking as possible. The upcoming Digital Services Act is the opportunity for the European Union to create horizontal rules that ensure economic growth, consumer protection and innovation. Because of the diverse size and scope of this online landscape, a one-size-fits-all approach would be counterproductive and, instead of levelling the playing field between digital players, risks to overburden smaller actors. This would hinder competition and innovation on a systematic level. Conversely, with European values such as transparency and accountability as guiding principles, a tailor-made approach could contribute to making the current digital markets fairer for SMEs and entrepreneurs and more open to innovative business models and ideas.

This webinar sets out to gather an expert panel of institutional actors, policy-makers, industry stakeholders and SME representatives to discuss the latest status of the DSA and exchange opinions and perspectives to create a European blueprint of regulatory framework fit for the digital age.

You can watch the recording here.

An event co-hosted with the SME Connect and the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

Speakers:

Dennis Radtke, Member of the European Parliament, Employment Committee
Milena Angelova, Secretary-General of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association and Member of Employers group in the European Economic and Social Committee
Dr. Paul Rübig, President of SME Global and former Member of the European Parliament
Marcin Nowacki, VP at Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP), President of European Enterprise Alliance
Horst Heitz, Chair of the European Steering Board of SME Connect Michael Jäger, Secretary-General of Taxpayers of Europe

You can now watch a recording of this webinar here.

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers together with European Enterprise Alliance
and SME Connect kindly invites to join a webinar.

Agenda

Welcome and Introduction by Marcin Nowacki, Vice President Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, EESC
Key Speech by MEP Ivan Štefanec, President of SME Europe via video address

Discussion
Michał Drozdowicz, Counsellor, Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU DG EMPL, European Commission
Karolina Mickutė, Researcher, Lithuanian Free Market Institute
Domagoj Milosevic, President of SME Global
Horst Heitz, Chair of the European Steering Board of SME Connect Michael Jäger, Secretary-General of Taxpayers of Europe

Moderator: Glenn Cezanne, Secretary-General, European Enterprise Alliance