11th EU-US Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Best Practices Workshop

The European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Directorate General for Trade organise the conference together with the Office of the US Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce. The EU-U.S. SME Workshop is an ongoing opportunity for small businesses to engage directly and discuss relevant topics with government officials from the U.S., the European Commission and EU countries, as well as SMEs and associations from both sides of the Atlantic. 

The location alternates each year between the EU and the U.S.. The U.S. hosted the SME workshop in Little Rock, Arkansas in September 2019. Postponed from 2020, this year, the EU is hosting the SME workshop with the support of the German Federal Government, State of Bavaria, City of Augsburg, and IHK Schwaben Economic Chamber in Germany. Participants include senior officials from the European Commission, EU countries, U.S. government, SMEs as well as their associations and other stakeholders.

Topics for discussion include 

• promoting SME growth through EU-U.S. trade opportunities
• empowering SMEs, startups and scale-ups 
• updates on the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council work on SME access to and use of digital tools
• SME access to finance
• economic development and workforce development strategies for post-pandemic SME success