On 15 January, a conference was held at the BSP office in Brussels entitled ”Competitiveness and... Financing the competitive transition” organized by Business & Science Poland in cooperation with the Lewiatan Confederation, the Electric Vehicle Promotion Foundation, the Institute of Green Economy and Bank Gospodarstwo Krajowego.
The event was inaugurated by the President of the Management Board of Business & Science Poland Bartek Czyczerski, who stressed that the current conference is the first discussion on EU policy-making under the auspices of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The event was also opened with inaugural speeches delivered by Deputy Minister of State Assets Robert Kropiwnicki and Borys Budka, President of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy of the European Parliament. Subsequent speeches focused on the report “Re-charging Europe”prepared by the Institute of Green Economy and Cambridge Econometrics, which was presented by its authors Marcin Korolec and Edo Omica.
The next point of the event was the panelists' debate, which revolved around two issues on the future of financing innovation and maintaining the competitiveness of European economies, also in the context of the recommendations of the “Re-charging Europe” report.
In addition to Marcin Korolec, the following took part in the discussion panel:
- Caroline Vandierendonck, Head of Unit at the One Stop Shop Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), European Commission;
- Piotr Jabłoński, Managing Director, International Relations Division at Bank Gospodarstwo Krajowego;
- Paweł Widel, President of the Association of Employers of Automotive and Industrial Products, Polish Confederation Lewiatan;
- Reinhilde Weugelers, Senior Fellow, Breugel.
The panelists agreed that the EU faces an epoch-making challenge of staying competitive, particularly against US and Chinese industries. In the course of the discussion, it was necessary to focus on a broader way of EU policy making, focusing not only on the amount of funding that would be required to maintain the competitiveness of EU industry, but also on creating the right conditions for entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as removing existing obstacles, including high energy, labour prices and streamlining and simplifying administrative burdens.
We encourage you to watch this event. Link to the retransmission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06weO8g1RpI
We also invite you to participate in our next events, webinars and debates!
