The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached on 13 November between the European Parliament and the Council on the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The Act sets out a series of comprehensive actions to ensure the EU’s access to a secure, diversified, affordable and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The new rules help to increase domestic capacities for critical raw materials along the supply chain, complementing initiatives to diversify their supply through international partnerships supported by the Global Gateway facility. To strengthen the EU domestic capacities, the Commission will, with Member States, identify Strategic Projects along the value chain that will benefit from more streamlined, faster and more efficient permitting procedures as well as facilitated access to finance.

At the Global Gateway Forum 2023, 30 new strategic partnerships were forged amongst others on raw materials and on green hydrogen. The EU committed around €3 billion for new partnerships to foster sustainable growth, bolster the industry's resilience and grow clean value chains.

On 21 November, during the 2023 Hydrogen Week, GROW Director-General, Kerstin Jorna participated in a panel about the business case for electrolyser manufacturing in Europe. Read the full post on LinkedIn!

As announced by President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, the Commission has presented a European Wind Power Action Plan to ensure that the clean energy transition goes hand-in-hand with industrial competitiveness and that wind power continues to be a European success story.

The challenge of skills shortages has grown over the years and now encompasses all EU Member States and all sectors of the economy. The Eurobarometer survey's findings will feed into the Commission's policy making. Among other things, they will inform the implementation of the SME relief package that was adopted in September 2023 and stipulates various actions to improve the skills situation for SMEs in the EU.

The Commission proposed a series of new initiatives in a Skills and Talent Mobility package to make the EU more attractive to talent from outside the EU, and to facilitate mobility within. The measures include a new EU Talent Pool to match employers in the EU with jobseekers in third countries as well as a recommendation to promote the recognition of qualifications and learners’ mobility.  They come as key deliverables of the European Year of Skills.

This new regulation will increase transparency in the sector, with clear rules for hosts and platforms on data collection and sharing. It will provide key information to authorities that wish to address the impact of short-term rentals on local communities. Data sharing obligations for platforms will be adapted to the smallest players. After its entry into force, Member States will have a 24-month period to establish the mechanisms for data exchanges, which are already being prepared with the support of the Commission.

On 30-31 October, GROW co-organised with the Spanish Presidency the annual European Tourism Forum (ETF) in Palma de Mallorca, followed by an informal Council of Tourism ministers. Social sustainability of tourism was at the centre of discussions of both events, allowing exchanges on indicators, data sharing, skills and employment. The ministerial meeting was an opportunity for the EU tourism ministers to express their interest in sharing further best practices, as well as their support for the work undertaken by the Commission to progress towards the transition of the tourism ecosystem. The Palma declaration unanimously endorsed by the Member States renews their commitment to make tourism greener, more digital, inclusive and resilient.

The European Semester is a yearly exercise that helps identify economic and social challenges in the EU, and policy responses to allow Member States to fulfil their potential – for the benefit of us all. This year, the EU is facing a number of important challenges, such as high inflation and high energy prices, that we need to tackle to improve the EU’s competitiveness.

The Late Payment Directive obliges public authorities to pay their invoices within 30 days (or 60 days for public hospitals). Late payments have negative effects on businesses, by reducing liquidity, preventing growth, hampering resilience and potentially impeding their efforts to become greener and more digital. In the current economic context, businesses, and in particular SMEs, rely on regular payments to operate and keep employment.

The Craft and Industrial Geographical Indication (CIGI) Regulation entered into force on 16 November, a significant milestone in the protection of the names of European craft and industrial products that rely on the originality and authenticity of traditional skills from their regions. The Regulation will harmonise the protection of valuable European craft and industrial products, such as Limoges porcelain, Solingen knives, Carrara marble, or Madeira embroidery. Member States, the EUIPO, the Commission and stakeholders will have two years to prepare for the full application of the new system which is foreseen for December 2025.

SOLVIT is a free public service for citizens and businesses with the aim of helping solve problems related to the misapplication of EU law by the public administration of an EU Member State (including EEA). The areas of intervention of the SOLVIT network are very diverse. Complaints submitted by citizens and businesses are mainly in the following key areas regarding the EU Single Market (Recognition of professional qualifications,  Cross-border trade in goods, Driving licenses,  VAT refunds ...). The 55th SOLVIT Workshop took place in Brussels on 18-20 October 2023 with more than fifty SOLVITeers attending. The SOLVIT centre staff exchanged best practices and received training from the Commission’s experts.

This year’s European SME Week featured for the first time the SME Assembly back-to-back with the Enterprise Europe Network Annual Conference.

The 11th edition of the European Social Innovation Competition celebrated its final event within the framework of the Social Economy Conference organised by the Spanish Presidency of the EU. This year, the competition put forward new ideas to fight the pressing societal issue of energy poverty. The competition supports innovators to develop their ideas into working solutions and facilitates a network of radical innovators shaping our society. This prize acknowledges the social innovation as a potent approach for responding to societal challenges. Discover the winners (ECODES, the city of Eeklo and EmpowerMed)   here.

Since 2022, the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, on behalf of the European Commission, has organised more than  12 Clusters Meet Regions events across the EU and offered local stakeholders the chance to engage in matchmaking and to attend dedicated sessions with business experts, regional authority representatives, and EU policymakers on key industrial priorities. The call for applications to host the events in 2024 is addressed to local and regional authorities, innovation agencies, cluster organisations, business network organisations, and other SME intermediaries, who can seize this opportunity to strengthen synergies between clusters and regional policymakers and put their region under the spotlight.

The Commission published the 2^nd Call for Expression of Interest for the InvestEU Fund and the InvestEU Advisory Hub to become an implementing partner or an advisory partner. The EU guarantee amount available under this call for the InvestEU Fund is €1.37 billion. The maximum amount of EU contribution available under the 2^nd call for the InvestEU Advisory Hub is €33.1 million with a maximum allocation of €5 million per advisory partner.

Ensuring better access to finance for women entrepreneurs and improving gender diversity in the financial sector are one the Commission and GROW’s priorities. The European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) has published a tender to create a network of women and gender-conscious investors, thanks to the support from the European Parliament. The goal of the network is to create space to learn and exchange experience. It will provide networking and matchmaking opportunities, engage with a broad scope of stakeholders on good practice and EU-level actions, and raise awareness of the gender investment gap.

The European Investment Fund has launched the call for the renewed European Scale-up Action for Risk capital (ESCALAR) programme under the InvestEU programme. ESCALAR will provide equity investments to, or alongside, funds in the areas of venture capital and private equity whose strategy focus on European scale-ups. The EIF selects financial intermediaries based on applications received in response to this call for expression of interest.

Are you an SME (or do you represent a group of SMEs) doing business in another EU country or across the border? Or do you ever think about expanding abroad? Then this survey is for you! It takes less than 10 minutes and it’s available in all EU languages. Let us know what you think and expect of Your Europe. Your Europe is the EU’s “single digital gateway”, a one-stop shop for all SMEs and citizens with reliable information about rules and procedures in the EU single market, several assistance services, a tool to report obstacles and, last but not least, it will soon support the Once-Only Technical System. This system will make cross-border paperwork a lot easier when you are doing business in the EU. Do you also want to meet the policy makers and make your voice heard by actually testing our Once-Only Technical System? Then also come to our SME Forums. Keep an eye on the page, registrations will open soon!

The 3^rd call for proposals of the WORTH Partnership Project II is open until 12 December 2023 17:00 CET. Around 67 innovative projects will be selected and will benefit from WORTH mentoring programme, transnational business collaboration and visibility. Whether you have a ground-breaking tech innovation, a circular game changer solution, a social impact, or a creative business idea in the lifestyle industries (fashion and textile, footwear, fur and leather, furniture/home decoration, interior design/architecture, accessories and jewellery) we want to hear from you. This is your opportunity to make a difference and contribute to meaningful change.

The full report of the EU’s flagship event, the EU Industry Days 2023, which took place on 4-6 October in Málaga, is now available. The report features summaries of all 17 keynote speeches, fireside chats, and plenary sessions and all 25 parallel sessions. In addition, the report provides an overview of the 16 projects showcased at the event’s exhibition and all the initiatives represented at its Meet the Experts Corner. Industrial stakeholders and policymakers who were not able to attend the event can now access – and be inspired by – all the insights and best practices shared during the event, and they can also visit DG GROW’s Youtube channel to watch the recordings of all the sessions.

The Monitor for Circular Fashion disseminates best practices of circular fashion, promoting technical, managerial and scientific skills, contributing to the transition towards circular business models. The community brings together leading companies in the fashion industry and players in its supply chain. In the context of the Textiles Transition Pathway, the 26 companies of the Monitor for Circular Fashion have established 8 commitments, amongst others, to enhance circularity and sustainability in the value chains, implement circular business processes and to promote and implement corporate social responsibility.

The Commission is joining  the 28th edition of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP28. On 4 and 6 December, GROW will host two online side-events and co-host one hybrid side-event as part of COP28. The three side-events will expound on InvestEU funding options in support of net-zero industry, local green deals, and decarbonising the built environment.

This full-day conference will mark the conclusion of the GROW fellowship 2023. It will bring together GROW's 10 economic advisors to discuss industrial policy and single market economic issues. The programme includes panel discussions on i) visions and perspectives on future single market and Industrial policy; ii) resilience of the single market and relevant metrics. Participants will be able to meet the economic advisors and exchange views on the results of their work.

The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) is organising its first-ever stakeholder forum. ’What next for the European bio-based sector?’ will be the main theme of the event. There will also be an exhibition on bio-based solutions developed by CBE JU-funded projects.

The specific aim of the event is to foster wider uptake and development of aerospace technologies in regions, smart city concepts, life sciences clusters and increased use of funding opportunities in Poland.

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