Lombardy SMEs on a mission to Brussels: focus on simplification and new multiannual budget

Brussels – Regulatory simplification agenda, the functioning of European funds, opportunities offered by the new multiannual budget. These are the main topics of the two-day meeting of the Small Industry Committee of Confindustria Lombardia in Brussels. The delegation of entrepreneurs, led by President Giorgio Luitprandi, discussed the most relevant issues under consideration by the EU institutions with MEPs and representatives of the European Commission. 

These meetings are more necessary than ever, now that Brussels has put the word “competitiveness” back at the top of its agenda. This is an epoch-making change, bringing both opportunities and challenges, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. This tension can be resolved through dialogue, as Luitprandi’s words clearly summarise: having arrived in Brussels to denounce the reaction and change times of European institutions as “unacceptable and totally incompatible with the needs of the economy and the pace of global competition,” he returns to Italy “confident that from now on we will be able to run alongside Europe, which will enable us to achieve our goals.” 

Yesterday (27 January), during the first day of the mission, the delegation from Confindustria Lombardia’s Small Industry Association met with Italian MEPs Carlo Fidanza (FdI), Giorgio Gori (PD), Massimiliano Salini (FI), Benedetta Scuderi (AVS) and Isabella Tovaglieri (Lega) for a discussion on the main legislative files at the centre of the European Parliament’s activities. First and foremost, the “Omnibus” simplification packages, which the Strasbourg chamber is proceeding with urgently, and the next Multiannual Financial Framework, whose negotiation has just begun and whose main new feature is the €451 billion European Competitiveness Fund.  But also the new definition of small mid-caps, artificial intelligence as a driver of industrial innovation, climate and sustainability targets.

The mission was introduced at Confindustria’s headquarters in Brussels by Confindustria’s Director of European Affairs, Matteo Borsani. At Casa Lombardia, the representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises in Lombardy were welcomed by the Lombardy Regional Councillor for Economic Development, Guido Guidesi, with whom they discussed the main challenges facing the Lombardy system in Europe. According to Borsani, it is precisely through these discussions between legislators and industry that “synergies are created that are positive for both sides,” while Guidesi emphasised the continuity of the mission with the work “also set up as the Lombardy Region, where we want to continue to be direct interlocutors of the European Commission on issues concerning manufacturing.” 

The following members of the Confindustria Lombardia Regional Small Industry (PI) Committee participated in the mission: Giorgio Luitprandi, President of PI Confindustria Lombardia, Walter Pozzi, President of PI Confindustria Como, Paolo Aramini, President of PI Associazione Industriali Cremona, Paola Guffanti, President of PI Confindustria Alto Milanese, Mattia Macellari, President of PI Assolombarda, Andrea Bonfanti, President of PI Confindustria Varese, Gian Luca Bonazzi, president of PI Confindustria Lecco and Sondrio, Barbara Ulcelli, president of PI Confindustria Brescia.
 Several representatives of the European Commission attended the meetings with the Lombardy delegation, including: Antonina Cipollone, DG Secretariat-General, Gaetano D’Adamo, DG BUDG – European Commission, Livio Rubino, DG CONNECT – European Commission, and Lucia Palmegiani, DG GROW – European Commission. In parallel with the mission, as part of the Enterprise Europe Network’s activities, a B2B meeting was organised between the Belgian company Valens SA/NV and the Italian company Edilmatic.