Through the Trade and Technology Dialogue (TTD), Executive Vice-President (EVP) for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, and EVP for An Economy that Works for People, Valdis Dombrovskis, hosted a Question and Answer (Q&A) session on 21 December 2022 with EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC) stakeholders ahead of the third TTC ministerial meeting.

This Q&A session elevated the voices of TTC stakeholders by bringing together TTC Co-Chairs EVP Vestager and EVP Dombrovskis and a representative cross-section of TTC stakeholders from industry, academia and civil society to exchange directly on key priority areas for EU-U.S. trade and technology policy.

Through a hybrid format, the event brought together the EVPs, over 80 stakeholders, European Commission officials and the TTD team to the Charlemagne Building in Brussels, and over 250 participants connected online. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to submit questions to EVP Vestager and EVP Dombrovskis via the TTD event registration process. Submitted questions were put to a social media poll. The 11 selected questions accounted for a balance between trade- and technology-related topics and variety between Working Groups, as well as online and in-person participants and gender balance.

Key topics of discussion included, among other things, the ongoing work on secure semiconductor supply chains, the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on security and competitiveness of ICT, and potential cooperation on new common standards for the green and digital transitions. By answering stakeholders’ questions on these priority issues, EVP Vestager and EVP Dombrovskis underlined the importance of further EU-U.S. collaboration through the TTC as well as the essential role of stakeholders in the process with a view to presenting concrete outcomes during the TTC Ministerial Meeting on 4-5 December 2022 in Maryland, United States.

The event report summarises the main points of the discussion from the Q&A stakeholder session and provides additional information on attendance as well as stakeholder priorities, ideas and concerns.

To view a recording of the EVP Q&A please click on the following link - Q&A recording