Hungary hosts European SME Assembly in Budapest

Budapest is hosting the European SME Assembly, a high-level political and professional forum for discussing current challenges and trends, and one of the tools for implementing the European Union’s SME Strategy, in the framework of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU.

SME Assembly in Budapest

Addressing the assembly on Tuesday, National Economy Minister Márton Nagy pointed to the need to temporarily ease the EU’s fiscal regulations and channel more resources to the digital and green transitions. He pointed to the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal adopted at an EU summit in Budapest earlier in November, and said that the Draghi and Letta reports had warned the EU would fall behind China and the US in the global competition if fiscal rules weren’t loosened and more money wasn’t ploughed into the digital and green transitions.

Nagy said the current Maastricht criteria “significantly restricted” member states’ room for fiscal manoeuvre. He added that fiscal deficits relative to GDP had averaged 9pc in the US and 7.6pc in China in recent years, while the gap was 4.5pc in the EU.

He blamed the EU’s “prudent” fiscal policy for the widening innovation gap between the EU and the US and China.

Nagy said the EU’s competitiveness problems were also evident on the electric vehicle market, with the share of EV sales among new vehicle registrations reaching 15pc in Germany and 20pc in France, well under the 30pc rate in China.

He added that Hungary’s government was tapping significant resources to support the green transition.

Hubert Gambs, the European Commission‘s deputy head for the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said proposals made at the meeting in Budapest could contribute to the drafting of the EC’s new single market strategy set to be unveiled in the summer of 2025.

At a press conference at the event, state secretary for SMEs Richard Szabados said nine companies, earlier winners of funding, had been showcased at the assembly, while the activities of local business development agencies were presented.

He added that sustainable operation of SMEs, developing the defence industry, boosting management skills, digital coalitions, business development clusters, and artificial intelligence in R+D+I were topics discussed at the assembly.

Szabados said the 500-600 participants got a chance to see local examples of businesses run by women and fintech companies on Monday.

He highlighted the need for economic policy to encourage corporate investments and for SMEs to have access to financing.

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