At the start of January, our Secretary General Stefan Moritz was invited by the EESC as a speaker to a hearing reviewing the EU’s Strategic Foresight Report hosted at the EESC. The 2022 Strategic Foresight Report by the European Commission provided an analysis of the significant role digital technologies play and the influence of geopolitical, economic, social and regulatory factors in the future of the EU.
Mr Moritz focused his presentation on the critical role of SMEs, who are essential to achieve a green economy and safeguarding a wealthy future for EU citizens. That’s why we would need more support for SMEs in green innovation and circular economy. Supporting SMEs means supporting an ecosystem generating creative solutions.
He flagged vital issues impacting the SMEs, which means it impacts the whole economy, like:
– The demographic change
– The need for diversifying our international partnerships with new partners in supply chains and better access to not-yet well-known international markets, as well as
– more work-based professional training and a totally new approach to school education.
In addition to that, it is necessary to urgently facilitate legal and sustainable immigration into the EU, as this would mean to
– reduce the lack of (skilled) workers,
– guarantee the sustainability of our welfare systems, and
– develop more human connections and better economic and institutional relations with third countries outside of the EU.
This would then represent a real “People’s Globalisation” (and not only of markets), contributing to more peace and wealth for all.
