Meeting of the internal ordinary General Assembly
registration and documents via member area of AECM’s website

Public session of the General Assembly

Welcome & Opening

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM
• Athina Chatzipetrou, CEO of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Greece

Keynote speech on the EIF’s support for SMEs: state of play and challenges

• Marjut Falkstedt, Chief Executive, European Investment Fund (EIF)

Panel 1: State aid, recovery plans, and ESI Funds: how to strengthen the link and improve the absorption capacity?

• Moderator and introductory speaker: Zane Paula, Senior Project Manager, Program Development Department, ALTUM, Latvia – tbc.
• Jonathan Denness, Head of Unit, Financial Instruments and International Financial Institutions Relations, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), European Commission
• Chris Allen, Senior Expert, Resident Representative in Athens, Unit Greece, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission
• Andreas Bergmann, Policy Officer – State Aid, Unit State aid: case support and policy, Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission

Is the implementation of the InvestEU Programme on track?

Introductory speaker: Giorgio Chiarion Casoni, Director, InvestEU and financial institutions, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

Panel 2 moderated by Kurt Leutgeb, Head of Guarantees and Equity, Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft mbH (aws), Austria

• Astrid Bartels, Head of Unit, Access to Finance, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission
• Andrea Bomhoff, Head of Unit, State aid — Financial institutions III, Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission
• Ana Vizcaino Ochoa, Managing Director, Compañía Española de Reafianzamiento (CERSA), Spain
• Mateusz Olszak, Director Guarantees and Sureties Department, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK)

Concluding remarks & end of the public session

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM

Annual seminar on “The regulatory framework of SMEs: how close are we to the red line of red tape?”

Welcome & Opening

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM
• Athina Chatzipetrou, CEO of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Greece

Keynote addresses: how to improve the regulatory and policy environment for SMEs

• Céline Kauffmann, Head of the Division on Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Tourism, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD – tbc.
• Panagoula Pasxali, Director-General, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness and SME Envoy of Greece – tbc.

Panel 1: The regulatory environment to finance sustainability for SMEs

• Moderator and introductory speaker: Gerhard Huemer, Director Economic Policy, SMEunited

• NN, British Business Bank (BBB) UK – tbd.

• Burçak İnel, Director of Financing Sustainable Growth, European Banking Federation (EBF)

• Giovanni Zazzerini, Secretary General, INSME – The International Network for SMEs
• Lina Konstantinopoulou, Policy Director, Eurochambres – the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry

Panel 2: Regulatory framework: striking the right balance

• Moderator and introductory speaker: Giuseppe Gramigna, Senior Advisor i.a. of the World Bank Group and of AECM

• NN, Bank of Greece – tbd.

• NN, Deutsche Bundesbank / German Central Bank – tbd.

• László Tóth, Deputy CEO, Rural Credit Guarantee Foundation (AVHGA), Hungary

• Gernot Rößler, Deputy Managing Director, Verband Deutscher Bürgschaftsbanken (VDB), Germany

Panel 3: The regulatory framework of SMEs from an international perspective

Introductory speaker: NN, Ibero-American network of guarantees association, REGAR – tbc.

Moderator: José Fernando Figueiredo, Special Honorary President of AECM with the special mandate for international relations and founding Co-Cordinator of the Global Network of Guarantee Institutions (GNGI)

• Nagla Bahr, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN) and Managing Director, Credit Guarantee Company, Egypt – tbc.
• NN, Korea Federation of Credit Guarantee Foundations (KOREG), Korea – tbd.
• NN, tbd.
• NN, tbd.

Concluding remarks & presentation of the AECM annual event 2024

• Guy Selbherr, President of AECM
• Athina Chatzipetrou, CEO of the Hellenic Development Bank (HDB), Greece
• Mateusz Olszak, Director Guarantees and Sureties Department, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), Poland, host of the AECM annual event in 2024

Annual meeting of the GNGI

– For members only –