Intellectual property (IP) improves the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and provide a potential source of revenue. SMEs have specific needs, such as understanding the importance of IP for their businesses, tailored advice in assessing their intangibles, financial support to protect and enforce their IP and better access to finance provided by investors and banks to help them scale up. This session will provide a practical guide for SMEs on the different EU initiatives available to European SMEs in the area of intellectual property and present the benefits of the upcoming Unitary Patent System.

The aim of this workshop is to look at how industrial ecosystems can contribute towards boosting Europe's resilience and what kind of strategic autonomy the EU should target. We will also discuss how these ecosystems can preserve and sustain the well-being of Europeans. These topics are the subject of an EESC exploratory opinion requested by the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The panel session will be a first exchange of views with representatives from the automotive, waterborne and rail supply industries as well as social partners and Member States on the main challenges linked to the transition of the ecosystem and their expectations for the upcoming co-creation exercise launched in the preparation of the transition pathway.

Speakers from leading European ICT companies will present cases, where the use of ICT already had a measurable impact on the environment and the carbon footprint. Additionally they will discuss their vision of the role of ICT for sustainability. As to date there is a lack of agreed methodologies to measure net environmental impact of digital solutions, the necessity and work of the European Green Digital Coalition will be outlined as well.

Addressing the EU’s strategic dependencies is one of the key pillars of the updated Industrial Strategy (May 2021). A first comprehensive analysis of the EU’s strategic dependencies and capacities accompanied the updated Strategy, which highlighted that “the Commission will engage with Member States, industry and social partners, including with the support from the Industrial Forum… to deepen this analysis and further address the identified strategic dependencies.”

In order to further deepen the preliminary findings of the analytical work identifying EU strategic dependencies, the involvement of relevant European stakeholders is of critical importance. In that context, a dedicated Task Force on Strategic Dependencies (TF3) has been established by the Industrial Forum in June 2021 to collect input from relevant stakeholders and feed into the work of the European Commission in this area. The work of the Task Force covers both (1) identifying and better understanding EU strategic dependencies across different industrial ecosystems as well as (2) reflecting on relevant policy tools to address them.

The TF3 panel session will bring together experts from the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, Member States, key stakeholders and the Commission. It will a) report on the work conducted so far by the Task Force; b) provide a snapshot of relevant policy and other work in relation to strategic dependencies; and c) share views of invited experts on strategic dependencies (e.g. in relation to supply chain shortages, the twin transition) as well as possible approaches to address them.

Introduction by Nicolas Schmit, European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights

The panel discussion will unpick how companies are dealing with current supply chains shortages and risks linked to the geographic concentration of some inputs. Particular attention will be paid to the role of public authorities, notably at the European level, and how they can support supply chain resilience and sustainable growth. The speakers will discuss the main challenges to supply chain resilience in their sectors of expertise and will be expected to offer insight on such questions as: - Could you tell us what are the main challenges your business faces when trying to diversify their supply chains. - How can partnerships create new business opportunities and supply chain resilience?- What can governments (especially EU) do to ensure security of supply of critical goods? - If you had one policy recommendation/priority to pitch to the EU, what would you say?

The ‘transition pathways’ will guide the industrial ecosystems along the green and digital transition through an actionable plan, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the resilience of our European industrial fabric. They are being co-created by a wide array of stakeholders, including EU institutions, industrial representations, Member States authorities, NGOs, research institutes and social partners. In this context, the Industrial Forum - set up by the Industrial Strategy – plays a very important role. One of the objectives of the Forum is to deepen the systematic analyses of industrial ecosystems and support the development of these transition pathways. In this session, the European Commission will present the results of this intense co-creation process and a high-level panel will discuss the practical implementation of such pathways.