The last EFESME General Assembly and Board of Directors took place on the 17th of October at the Messe Augsburg premises, in Augsburg, Germany, during the Interlift Fair.

During the meeting, the representatives of the several National Organizations that are member of EFESME had the opportunity to be updated in more detail on the latest technical, normative and policy activities carried out by the EFESME experts in the second half of 2019, with the support of various members depending on the various projects. The members also discussed the way forward for 2020 and beyond, including new working groups and projects to increasingly involve the members and the national realities in EFESME’s work, through events and seminars.

Once again, a particular special place in the discussions was left to Digitalisation, the topic that has been studied by EFESME over the last year. Both members and experts agreed on the ever-growing importance of this phenomenon. For this reason, they decided to continue to study it in depth to understand the needs of SMEs in this sector and with regard to cybersecurity, so as to provide SMEs with the tools, the skills, and the knowledge needed to work at their best and remain very competitive in the market. Several national realities have been cited as examples of how SMEs are reacting and riding this phenomenon.

Regarding what EFESME is doing on digitalisation and cybersecurity, the members have expressed their appreciation for the steps taken so far and for the activities planned for the future, including the organization of forums and seminars, the writing of articles and position papers, and the attendance to meetings related to these two important phenomena.

The appreciation of EFESME members for the activities carried out in recent months is further confirmation that the path outlined in December 2018 by the President, to analyse these phenomena, has proved to be not only a successful choice, but a decision with important positive repercussions on the daily working life of SMEs.

The members also remarked on the importance of the collaboration between EFESME and the European Commission, which enables EFESME’s experts to be the successful voice of lift SMEs at European level, with very favourable and long-lasting results.

Likewise, the members express their full belief in and support to the collaboration between EFESME and SBS, a collaboration that, in the past four years, has allowed the Federation to be able to count on further valuable support in its work to defend SMEs, their interests, and their originality on the market. EFESME and its members hope that this excellent collaboration can continue in the future, in order to achieve ever better and more ambitious results.