The annual SME Assembly, the most significant event for small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, is a key part of European SME Week and helps shape the governance of the Small Business Act. This year, it was held in Budapest, Hungary, from 18–20 November 2024, hosted by the European Commission and the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The conference culminated in the "Policy Conclusions of the SME Assembly 2024" session, where key speakers shared strategies to enhance the long-term competitiveness of European SMEs. Discussions focused on fostering innovation, collaboration, and resilience across European ecosystems. As key drivers of the twin transitions, clusters play a pivotal role in transforming policy conclusions into actionable strategies. By addressing global challenges such as the climate crisis and rising costs due to geopolitical conflicts, clusters can empower SMEs to leverage their strengths, collaborate effectively, and achieve greater resilience and sustainability.

Andreas Hauptmann, Denmark's SME Envoy, stressed, "We must ensure our ambitious goals are not just goals – it's time to bring our ideas to the table" to close the innovation and investment gap and create a competitive European Single Market.

Discussions included Valencia’s catastrophic flooding, highlighting the urgency of action to deliver environmentally friendly and green solutions given the severity of the climate crisis. The importance of the green transition was echoed throughout the Assembly. Frederico Mauritty, crowned the of the Youth Start-up Competition 2024, emphasised the need for supportive legislation to advance circular resources, and underscored the vitality of sustainable innovation for Europe's next generation of entrepreneurs during the policy conclusions session. 

The Assembly opened with the highly anticipated Schumpeter 'Innovation in Enterprise' lecture, delivered by renowned professor of entrepreneurship Professor Johan Wiklund, who outline that Europe's enterpreneurial ecosystems should be tailored to the diversity of the continent's cities and cultures, rather than copying the model of Silicon Valley. Reflecting on the speech Outi Slotboom, Director of Strategy and Economic Analysis at DG GROW (European Commission), underscored this sentiment, asserting that "simply copying approaches is not the right model". Outi underscored Europe's strengths, highlighting sustainability as a key opportunity to both tackle the climate crisis and to drive its competitiveness; clusters can lead the way by developing tailored solutions suited to regional and industrial specificities.

Dialogue and partnerships between clusters, policymakers, and stakeholders are essential for driving meaningful change toward a resilient, innovative, and sustainable European economy. Clusters play a pivotal role in aligning research, industry, and government, creating critical opportunities to foster collaboration and turn policy goals into impactful outcomes

Watch the full policy conclusions session here, and find out how Europe and its clusters can empower its SMEs to thrive and maintain competitiveness at the global scale. 

Whether you want to relive your week in Budapest or catch-up on what you missed, you can catch the highlights from the SME Assembly 2024 here.