The President of the Senate, Sen. Pietro Grasso, and the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ms Laura Boldrini, will open the Meeting of Chairpersons of Committees on Agriculture, Industrial Development and SMEs of EU Parliaments on Monday, 27 October 2014.
The meeting, to be held in the Senate plenary hall at Palazzo Madama, will start at 9:00 and will be attended by representatives from the national parliaments of EU member states and the European Parliament as well as candidate countries. The proceedings, consisting of three sessions, will be introduced by the chairpersons of the committees on agriculture and the committees on industry and productive activities of the Senate of the Republic and the Chamber of Deputies, Senators Roberto Formigoni and Massimo Mucchetti and Deputies Luca Sani and Guglielmo Epifani.
This is the fourth meeting taking place in Rome, and the second in the Senate, in the framework of the parliamentary dimension of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The first session, entitled "The European way to quality food: land protection, eco-friendly organic farming and protection of traditional products", will feature keynote presentations by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, Maurizio Martina; the Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament, Czesław Adam Siekierski; the Vice Chairperson of Confindustria and Chairperson of the Technical Committee for the Protection of "Made in Italy" Goods, Lisa Ferrarini, and the Chairperson of the Working Group on Organic farming of COPA COGECA (European Farmers e European Agri-Cooperatives), Edouard Rousseau.
The second session, starting at 11:45, will focus on the internationalization of SMEs. It will feature keynote presentations by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Carlo Calenda; a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament, Paolo De Castro, and the Chairperson of the Entrepreneurship and SMEs Committee of BusinessEurope, Marta Marti Carrera .
The third session, starting at 15:00, will focus on "Industrial Renaissance and SMEs: How can the objective of 20% of GDP by 2020 be attained?". It will be introduced by the Vice President of the European Parliament and former European Commissioner for Industry, Antonio Tajani, who promoted the Communication "For a European industrial Renaissance", adopted by the European Commission on 22 January 2014. Keynote presentations will be delivered by the Vice Minister of Economic Development, Claudio De Vincenti, and the Director Emeritus of Mediobanca Research Office, Fulvio Coltorti.
Proceedings will be broadcast live on the Senate satellite channel and web TV as well as the Senate's YouTube channel. A detailed programme and additional information are available on ue2014.parlamento.it

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