THE POWER OF PEOPLE, PLACES & FIRMS
Reading Time: 5 minutesAt just 16 years old, while working in a bakery in Paraguay, Vanessa realised she had found her calling. While others continued their studies, she chose a different path, staying close to the work that inspired her most: serving customers with care, leading a team and delivering quality products while supporting local producers. While young entrepreneurs remain largely underrepresented across Europe, how was Vanessa able to turn her vision into a reality?
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen people talk about “the cloud”, it sounds weightless, something almost magical floating in the sky. Except that it isn’t. It lives on the ground, in data centres filled with servers that store, process and move staggering amounts of information every second. These data centres consume energy, occupy land, use metals and minerals from global supply chains – and they need vast amounts of water for cooling.
Reading Time: 11 minutesWith hundreds of sustainability and impact labels in circulation, how can consumers, policymakers and investors identify organisations that really do put people over profit? In this episode, Shayne MacLachlan is joined by Ruben Rebelo from the European Commission and Sofija Rakcejeva from the OECD to explore how labels can do more than just make social economy more visible and easier to support but also help people do better.
Reading Time: 4 minutesSince the global financial crisis, business investment has struggled to recover, with real investment still 23% below its pre-2008 trend. The world isn’t short of good ideas or businesses, nor of finance. Yet the actual investment needed to fuel growth, jobs and the twin transitions continues to fall short. Can smarter policies on SME financing reignite investment and lead our economies to their best selves?
Reading Time: 4 minutesReducing red tape and administrative burdens is not just a matter of convenience. It is a vital step towards encouraging business creation, innovation, and competition, for a more productive and prosperous future. Simplifying rules, digitising services and working across levels of government can unlock the potential of local businesses – whether they are launching tech startups or providing care services. How can we avoid suffocating our SMEs through red tape?
Reading Time: 10 minutesRecorded during the youth entrepreneurship policy academy (YEPA) Summit in Brussels, this session captures YEPA’s mission through an inspiring panel of three young entrepreneurs who share their journeys – including the highs, hurdles, and lessons learned. The discussion is moderated by Baptiste Mandouze, Social Economy Policy Officer at the European Commission, and features Adrian Davies, Elina Cohen-Periano, and Mateo de Bardeci. Let’s dive in and hear their stories.
Reading Time: 4 minutesPortugal shows that the green transition in textiles is both a climate imperative and a business opportunity to reshape production, secure jobs, and meet global demand for sustainable fashion. With SMEs at the core, progress must come from the bottom up, backed by coherent top-down policies. As the fashion cycle accelerates, so too does its environmental footprint – and the need to change our approach.
Reading Time: 5 minutesEach year, many Central American migrants return to the same challenges they left behind: scarce jobs, limited prospects and exclusion. But in parts of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, local actors are helping turn return into a fresh start.