Bringing this year’s SME Assembly in Budapest to a close, the third day offered a chance to reflect on all of the thought-provoking policy workshops sessions and workshops held across the 3 days, as well as the highly anticipated finale of this year’s Youth Start-Up Competition, and a ceremonial handover to the Danish Presidency.  

The final day also featured a variety of engaging panel sessions and policy workshops, providing valuable insights into emerging opportunities and challenges for SMEs. Key discussions explored pivotal topics, including the adoption of artificial intelligence by SMEs and opportunities within the space sector. 

“What we see in this year’s SME performance review is that the economic context for SMEs does remain challenging, with inflation still remaining above the ECB’s 2% target, weighing on SMEs,” pointed out Markus Hell, Policy Officer at the European Commission during the ‘SME Competitiveness Performance & Performance Review’ session, a key participatory policy workshop diving into the data to extract valuable lessons for the year ahead. The session featured high-level speakers from the European Commission, OECD, Eurochambres, and Federation of Finnish Enterprises to shed light on the urgent measures needed to support the survival of SMEs, and to drive the green and digital transitions.  

With the excitement still in the air from the previous night, when the European Enterprise Promotion Awards ceremony took place, the finale of the Youth Start-Up Competition (YSC) finale took place, where the three shortlisted young innovators pitched their transformative start-up idea to the audience and the jury. Frederico Mauritty from Portugal, founder of HidroQapa, was awarded the winner of this year’s contest following a vote from the audience. 

Developed with co-creator Madalena de Castro Filipe, HidroQapa utilizes shrimp shells—waste from the seafood industry—to extract chitosan, which is used to create biodegradable bioplastic. Expressing his gratitude, Frederico said: “Thank you to the jury members for believing in my project. I am dedicated to making the world a more sustainable place.”  

A standout moment of the day was the Policy Conclusions session, where the outcomes of this year’s Assembly were reviewed. This culminated in the official handover to the Danish Presidency, host of the SME Assembly 2025. Andreas Hauptmann, Denmark’s SME Envoy, reaffirmed the commitment to fostering resilience and sustainability, passionately stating, “Now is the time for concrete solutions!”