Events to look out for
Growth in Transition – 'Europe’s Transformation: Where People Matter' – 14-15 November, Vienna (AT). This conference will address the transformation towards a sustainable society in a participatory format. Topics will range from social and distributional aspects of a fair society to the role of the financial sector enabling a sustainability transformation.
Funds available
Further EUR285 million for small businesses in Poland. The European Investment Fund (EIF) and Polish financial intermediary Bank Pekaohave signed an agreement to provide EUR285 million (PLN 1.2 billion)to small and medium-sized (SMEs) Polish companies. The agreement will allow Bank Pekao to provide SMEs with loans with lower down-payment requirements, supporting businesses with limited access to lending. Around 1,500 Polish companies are expected to benefit from this agreement.
EU policies for better business
Strengthened EU rules to prevent money laundering and fight terrorism financing enter into force. Last week, a new anti-money laundering directive has entered into force. This new directive is the fifth of its kind and updates previous rules. The new rules bring more transparency on the real owners of companies and tackle risks of terrorist financing.
European Commission promotes greater participation of businesses in regional innovation strategies. The Commission will continue to support actions aiming to improve regional innovation systems in low-growth and low-income regions in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Croatia. This renewed initiative helps regions tackle challenges to innovation (e.g. lack of interaction between local business spheres and academia). It will particularly focus on promoting a greater involvement of business partners and entrepreneurs in the design and implementation of regional innovation strategies
Get involved
The online Single Market Scoreboard: how well the Member States are doing in making the Single Market a reality? The Scoreboard published last week gives an overview of how well the EU Single Market rules are implemented in the European Economic Area (EEA). It also identifies shortcomings where the countries should step up their efforts. In general, top of the class were Finland, followed by Denmark and Slovakia.
Delivering cross-border – experiences and expectations of e-retailers. Participate in this survey and inform the European Commission about the delivery services you use and offer to your customers, the problems you face, and the improvements you would like to see when shipping goods cross-border.
What can we do better to fight counterfeiting? Answer this public consultation on infringements of intellectual property rights by 2 October 2018.