The Islands and Small States Institute has collaborated with the Government of Luxembourg in the organisation of a conference on 'Competitiveness in the EU Small States' being held in Luxembourg between 19 and 20 April 2018.
The objective of the conference is to discuss competitiveness strategies appropriate for the small states of the EU, in view of their special constraints. For the purpose of the conference, the EU small states are those with a population up to 3 million, namely Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia. Competitiveness issues pertaining to three candidate small states (namely Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia) and Iceland will also be addressed.
Competitiveness is a national-level issue as much as an enterprise concern. The need for small states to be competitive is conditioned by their small domestic market, which compels them to be highly dependent on international trade and extraordinarily open to international competition. Competitiveness strategies therefore need to be given major importance in the small states of the EU.