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On Wednesday, 9 September, AmCham EU joined 19 other associations to mark Brussels’ return from the summer break at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. The event drew over 800 guests and included a keynote speech by Jessika Roswall, European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy. The evening provided a platform for stakeholders from industry, politics, civil society and media to connect. This year’s conversations focused on Europe’s place in a changing world and the policies needed to boost growth and the EU’s competitiveness.

The European Commission’s new Public Procurement Act (PPA) proposal is a positive step for procurement in the EU. It would support Europe’s competitiveness by allowing governments and public authorities to access best-in-class products. Similarly, it would simplify procurement through consistent auction design and digitalisation, leading to greater transparency and document reuse. Together, these reforms would help governments invest public revenues in innovative solutions, while tearing down the barriers that keep companies of all sizes from accessing public procurement markets in Europe. 

International companies bring significant value to the EU’s public procurement markets. The PPA would allow them to continue contributing to the EU through a clear framework for Made in Europe built around the EU’s public procurement agreements. Undermining these commitments or creating excessive compliance costs would decrease the EU’s access to best-in-class solutions and take limited resources away from the PPA’s other improvements. The current proposal would further the EU's economic security agenda without closing off procurement markets to trusted partners. The PPA can succeed if it creates a simple and quality-driven system that supports the EU’s competitiveness agenda.

On Wednesday, 9 September, AmCham EU hosted a roundtable on transatlantic consumer cooperation as a part of the European Union’s International Product Safety Week and the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization’s International Symposium. The discussion explored how closer EU-US cooperation could improve consumer outcomes in practice, from product safety and recalls to fair commercial practices, as the European Commission prepares to revise the Consumer Protection Cooperation framework.

The exchange began with reflections on the state of play of transatlantic consumer cooperation from Sarah Wilson, Partner and Chair of the Product Safety Practice Group, Covington; Pierre Minoves, Acting Policy Assistant, Cabinet of Commissioner McGrath, European Commission; and Léa Auffret, Director, Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue. This was followed by a discussion with leading EU and US experts, officials and AmCham EU member representatives about how improving EU-US cooperation in consumer protection can deliver benefits for businesses, consumers and regulators. Thank you to Covington for sponsoring and to Razvan Antemir (Amazon), Chair, Consumer Affairs Committee, AmCham EU for moderating.