During normal business times, digital platforms and their services act as a bridge to fill the gaps that SMEs may have. In competitive situations, smarter deployment of digital services can multiply efforts and make SMEs more agile, more efficient, more able to compete for talent, customers and sales. At the same time, the pandemic forced SMEs to change their businesses: overall, 80% of SMEs increased use of digital services, demonstrating their broad application and value.

In this transition, decision-makers should cultivate a regulatory environment that nurtures SME access to world-class digital services and a global customer base, while abstaining from policies that indirectly increase the cost of digital services. To prevent such barriers, we strongly advocate for regulators and the tech industry to form structured partnerships and joint taskforces, which already exist in other industries.

Posted by Ivan Štefanec MEP