Thanks to the support of its Italian Member Confapi, a delegation representing European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME has met with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at Palazzo Chigi, the official government seat in Italy, before the executive board meeting scheduled in the Confapi’s offices. The delegation was led by President Mario Ohoven, also president of BVMW, our German member,and the first European vice-president Maurizio Casasco, also president of Confapi. Further members of our delegation were our Secretary General Walter G. Grupp, our Vice-president Patrick Meinhardt and CONFAPI Director for Public Affairs Mrs. Annalisa Guidotti.
They discussed with President Conte the absolute importance of ensuring that the funds of the recently approved EU Recovery Fund go are used to support SMEs in Europe, which are the backbone of the European economy and in dire need of funding programs that can help them restart after the COVID19 crisis. Both President Ohoven and Vice-President Casasco flagged how the the Solvency Fund, which was aimed at SMEs, had already been scrapped and the REACT-EU program had been cut of about 10%. They specifically demanded that the cuts to EU programs aimed at small and medium-sized comparison should stop here and asked Conte to champion this cause.
“We Europeans must be united in order not to be squeezed between the United States and China. Italy and Germany must be the engine of this union.” said President Mario Ohoven at the end of the meeting with the Prime Minister.
“President Conte has always taken the requests of small and medium-sized companies at heart. Synergies at European level will be crucial to allow SMEs to overcome the crisis caused by the emergency and to relaunch common actions at all levels“, said Vice-President Maurizio Casasco when leaving Palazzo Chigi.
This meeting was an opportunity to dialogue with President Conte about the common paths that allow for the growth and development of European and Italian SMEs. This entails encouraging investment and innovation at all levels, with particular attention to the close collaboration between the world of academia and industry. The need to intensify the synergies between Italy and Germany, champions of manufacturing in Europe, was also reiterated, as was the need to strengthen collaborations with strategic markets, like Africa.
