Brussels, June 13th 2017
The European SMEs Academy Avignon in partnership with the Economic and Social Committee, promote a Workshop/Round Table with representative of European and National SMEs organizations from Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece, Civil Society Organizations and EU Social Partners, Foundations and National and Regional Authorities.
The meeting will be opened by the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr. Georges Dassis followed by an opening speech of the President of SMEs Academy Avignon Mr. Panagiotis Gkofas and CNA V. President Mr. Giuseppe Oliviero (Italian National Confederation SMEs and Craft).
The objective of the workshop – round Table with EU and International Institutions, is to increase and raise awareness on how to strengthen collaborations among Social Partners, Civil Society, Academic and research networks. Through the interactive dialogue among the participants, several issues and practices will be discussed: partnerships/platforms and SMEs practices, pilot programs, sector specific studies and reports in view of more comprehensive EU observatory reporting on entrepreneurship, migration and interconnected refugee policy responses.
An overview of available business and social data/ trends will be reported from CNA- IDOS Report 2016 (Joint Research Report on migration and SMEs): emerging obstacles and possible solutions specific to migrant entrepreneurship, sector skills and competences .
SME Academy Avignon was established by UEAPME and some of its member organisations (CNA, GSEVEE) to act as a think tank and scientific body to help Craft and SME associations in their policy work as well as create a network of researchers, Foundations and public/private actors working on strategic challenges(trade & standards, consumption models and global value chains, digitization and innovation, demographic changes, sustainability, smart regulation and social dumping and others) relevant for SMEs bridging with EU Civil Society Organizations and Social Partners.