Board of Directors Meeting

AECM Board members only
registration and documents via member area of AECM’s website

Interpretation: EN, FR, DE

Meeting of the General Assembly

AECM members only
documents via member area of AECM’s website

Interpretation: EN, FR, DE

"Building a more competetive and sustainable Europe"

Public Session of the General Assembly 
Master of Ceremony: Kama Kępczyńska 

Interpretation: EN, FR, DE

Welcome & Opening

Guy Selbherr
President of AECM

Keynote

Jörg Dittrich
President of the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) (TBC)

Breakout Sessions  2 to 3 introductory statements followed by a discussion (EN)
 

TOPIC 1 "EU funding opportunities: supporting the growth of SMEs"

Astrid Bartels
Head of Unit, Access to Finance, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry,
Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission (TBC)
Jonathan Denness
Head of Unit, Financial Instruments and International Financial Institutions Relations,
Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), European Commission (TBC)
Andrea Bomhoff
Head of Unit, State aid: case support and policy – Policy and Strategy (COMP.A.3),
Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission

TOPIC 2 "How to enable affordable and sustainable housing"

NN
British Business Bank (BBB), UK  (TBD)
Christa Karis
Deputy Director, Corporate Relations, European Investment Fund (EIF) (TBC)

TOPIC 3 "Providing solutions to address natural disasters"

Pietro Calice
Senior Financial Economist, The World Bank 
Zenón Vázquez Irizar
CESGAR / Sociedades de Garantía Recíproca, Spain

TOPIC 4 "BEst ways to support agriculture and to foster rural developement"

Gijs Schilthuis 
Director, Sustainability, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), European Commission
Kirsten Müller
Group Manager of standard financing, Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, Germany (TBC)
László Tóth
Chairman of the AECM working group agriculture and Deputy CEO, Rural Credit Guarantee Foundation (AVHGA), Hungary

Keynote

NN (TBD following elections in Germany on 23/02/2025)

"Innovative financial instruments with a social dimension"

Ismini Papakirillou
Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Development Bank (HDB),Greece

Highlights from the Breakout Sessions Networking Break 

Fireside Chat 

Marjut Falkstedt
Chief Executive, European Investment Fund (EIF)
Giorgio Chiarion Casoni
Director, InvestEU and financial institutions, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

Concluding Remarks 

Tomáš Nidetzký
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Národní rozvojové banky (NRB), Czechia, Vice President of AECM

End of public session 

Annual seminar on “Future readiness of SMEs: what needs to be done”

Interpretation: EN, FR, DE

Presented by the Master of Ceremony, Kama Kępczyńska

Welcome & Opening:

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM

Keynote speeches:

• Claus Ruhe-Madsen, Minister for Economics, Transport, Labour, Technology and Tourism, State government, Schleswig-Holstein
• Debora Revoltella, Director of the Economics Department and Chief Economist, European Investment Bank (EIB)

Topic: “How to unlock a more social economy”

• Keynote Speech: Andriana Sukova, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion (DG EMPL), European Commission

Panel 1

• Moderator: Member of AECM
• Milena Angelova, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and SME Envoy of Bulgaria
• NN, France Active
• Harald Schmitz, CEO, SozialBank
• NN, Entrepreneur (TBD)

• István Attila Szabó, CEO & Chairman of the Board of Directors, Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt., Hungary
  “Latest developments at Garantiqa: implementation of the InvestEU product”

Topic: “Addressing the challenges of demographic change”

• Keynote Speech: Mauri Kotamäki, Finnvera, Chief Economist (TBC)

Panel 2

• Moderator: Lucia Cusmano, Acting Head SMEs and Entrepreneurship Division, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD

• Corinna Pape, CEO / Owner ETTLI Kaffee GmbH
• Koen Dierckx, Head of Unit, Budgetary guarantees and risk analysis, Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG), European Commission
• Ralf Peter Kronberger, Head of the Department Fiscal Policies and Taxation, Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (WKÖ) – the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economy, and Member of the Supervisory Board of aws, Austria
• Gerhard Huemer, Director Economic and Fiscal Policy, SMEunited

keynote speech:

• Sabine Hepperle, Head of the SME Policy department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and SME Envoy (TBC)

Breakout Session: 2 introductory statements followed by a discussion (EN)

Topic 1: “The importance of advisory services”

• Nagla Bahr, Executive Board Member of the Credit Guarantee Company of Egypt, Lead Representative of the EMGN, and African Continental Coordinator of the GNGI
• NN, Wallonie Entreprendre, Belgium (TBD)

Topic 2: “Capabilities to strengthen the defence sector”

• NN, Bpifrance (TBD)
• Inga Beiliūnienė, Member of the Board in charge of ILTE

Panel 3: “Guarantee programmes for development finance”

• Fernando Messineo Libano, International Labour Organisation (ILO) (TBC)
• NN, (TBD)

Panel 4: “Facilitate SMEs’ use of intellectual property rights”

• Inge Buffolo, Director of the Business Development Department, The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
• NN, Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC / KIBO), Korea (TBD)

Keynote Speech:

• NN, Japan Finance Corporation, Japan (TBC)

Highlights from the Breakout Session

Keynote Speeches:

• NN (TBD following elections in Germany on 23/02/2025)
• NN (TBD following elections in Germany on 23/02/2025)

Concluding remarks:

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM