9.Podium event organised by VERE e.V.

Increasing compliance requirements in times of protectionism and stagnating growth. Will this turn out well for European SMEs?

In this year's panel discussion, we will combine our traditional topics of extended manufacturer and product responsibility with the current political and economic situation and examine the associated challenges for companies from various perspectives.

On the one hand, the EU Commission is passing complex legislation that places unprecedented demands on the safety and sustainability of products and requires economic actors to behave with integrity in many respects. On the other hand, it has set itself the task of reducing the administrative burden on SMEs by 35% by 2029, thus following a ‘compass for competitiveness’. All this is happening at a time when marketplaces from third countries are pushing massively into the European market and ignoring almost all requirements for safe and sustainable products. 

At the event, we want to address the following questions with highly qualified speakers such as Dr Bettina Sunderdiek (Central Agency Packaging Register), Alexander Goldberg (ear Foundation), Andreas Siegmund (Hamburg Authority for Justice and Consumer Protection), Olaf Dechow (Otto Group), etc., we will address the following questions:

• What new compliance challenges will economic operators selling non-food products in Europe face?
• What role do enforcement authorities and consumers play? 
• How can companies in Germany position themselves for the future in order to meet the challenges ahead?

We look forward to an interesting event that will provide SMEs in particular with ideas on how to maintain their position in an increasingly complex political and economic environment.

 ! We reserve the right to make changes to the programme.!