The Single Market Forum gathered members of the EU Parliament (EP), member-state governments, entrepreneurs and NGO leaders to discuss how the Single Market actually works in EU practice, with regard to issues such as the digital single market, cross-border services and regulated professions.
Also speaking at the opening of the Forum were Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and Vicky Ford, Chair of the European Parliament Committee for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
The Riga Forum concluded and summarized a series of 20 previous discussions held since last year in sixteen European cities to discuss internal market strategy. It was organized by the EC together with Latvia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU and the EP.
Earlier in the day an Informal Meeting on competitiveness brought together ministers of the European Economic Area in charge of internal market and industry, representatives from the European Commission, General Secretariat of the Council and the European Parliament.
Discussions were held over three sessions covering the role of EU Single Market in the digital economy, digitalisation of industry and digital entrepreneurship issues before the guests visited the Riga IT Demo Center to try out some of the innovative technology products under development there.
