Small business - Photo by Alena Darmel on Pexels

“If the EU is serious about sovereignty, security, and prosperity, ‘Think Small First’ must guide every political choice”, stressed Davide Galli, SMEunited President, ahead of the informal EU leaders’ retreat on competitiveness on 12 February.

At today’s Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee vote in the European Parliament on the omnibus regulation on EU corporate sustainability laws, both the content of the final agreement, and the political manoeuvring that led to it, point to a deeply concerning process that casts aside the best interest of EU’s nature, climate, and human rights.

“The Apply AI Strategy rightfully highlights that only 12.6% of SMEs use AI technologies. The Strategy’s ambition to boost AI uptake among SMEs is a step in the right direction, that will need to be supported by concrete measures to ensure that Europe’s SMEs can access, trust, and benefit from AI” reacted SMEunited President Petri Salminen.

Today, National Ministers discussed how to end the use of unjustified territorial supply constraints during the Competitiveness Council. Territorial supply constraints increase prices and limit product choice, meaning some consumers are paying more than others across the EU.

EuroCommerce is deeply concerned by the weakening of the Single Market after today’s European Parliament’s plenary vote that accepted opening negotiations based on the Agriculture Committee’s report on cross-border enforcement of rules on unfair trading practices (UTPs).