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On the 26th of February 2021, INSME organised a high-level meeting on “How to Save Good SMEs from the Crisis”, involving some of INSME members and experts in Italy, to process and analyse the current socio-economic situation referring to SMEs’ unique position in the crisis based on the report published by the Group of Thirty “Reviving and Restructuring the Corporate Sector Post-Covid”.

The discussion was based on two assumptions: first, the remarkable similarity or unified approach of EU governments against the impact of Covid-19 and the fact that SMEs represent between the 60% and 90% of businesses in EU and that they have been the most affected by this economic downturn.

The fact that EU economies rely on SMEs’ business makes their survival and competitiveness necessary for the recovery. In this scenario, SMEs have been severely impacted during the crisis but given their key role in the economy, they were also the ones that received most funds by the governments.  The States tried to balance the losses by intervening with liquidity, by allowing grants and loans, therefore freezing the situation.

The panellists commented on the management of the crisis and offered their experience and expertise to propose multiple approaches to limit the damages, like suggesting investing in training quality human capital and entrepreneurs and ESG integration; or even to benefit from this crisis by rebuilding and modernize the entire structure on which SMEs are based, like changing laws and practices that do not enable SMEs growth.

(INSME)