The European business community fully supports the measures taken so far and calls on the European Commission, the Council and the European Central Bank to do whatever it takes to make sure that as many businesses as possible survive this crisis and can help rebuild our economy and protect our European way of life once the health crisis caused by COVID-19 is overcome.

We support the measures necessary to contain the further spreading of COVID-19. Public health is the first priority. Our sympathies are with the families already affected. We express our gratitude to the workers and businesses who are showing exceptional courage and resilience, both to treat the sick and to maintain the vital goods and services we all depend upon.

This crisis is not only a major challenge for public health but will also have substantial negative impact on EU growth in 2020, with the likelihood of a large number of EU member states experiencing a significant or in some cases even massive downturn. Workers and companies, especially SMEs, are already suffering dramatically from the necessary restrictive measures which have been put in place.

Protecting our society will require extraordinary responsibility, action and solidarity from all parties, said Markus J. Beyrer, Director General of BusinessEurope:

• Responsibility as businesses, workers and citizens, to ensure everything we do helps address this crisis.
• Action, both to maintain the essential functioning of our economy in the immediate future and to ensure that once the spread of the virus is addressed, we have maintained the business eco-system vital to fully restoring our treasured European way of life.
• Solidarity between businesses of all sizes, between businesses and governments and between all EU member states.

IG@work, the new digital platform connecting highly skilled specialists with industry and technology companies is now open!

The aim is to attract talent, from Greece and abroad and to support Greek enterprises and startups in finding specialized cadres.

88 companies have already posted more than 400 job postings (here).

Attracting talent, finding highly specialized and experienced people, and connecting them with technology intensive, high-responsibility jobs is a key requirement for business growth.

IG@work is a user-friendly platform which collects quality jobs’ openings that are available in industry and tech startups, and connects them with people searching for repatriation opportunities, or simply for their next professional steps in Greece. Interested parties can search professional opportunities among the hundreds of postings on the platform which already counts more than 400 job postings from 88 companies.

The initiative aims to strengthen companies’ ability to access the people they need, while at the same time, it widens the employment opportunities for the high-level human capital, in Greece and abroad, to work for some of Greece’s largest industries and most dynamic startups.

IG@work is designed and run by SEV’s Innovation Committee in cooperation with Workable and is part of the Innovative Greeks initiative. Access to the service is exclusively for SEV members and the Elevate Greece startups.

Marco Veremis, Chair of SEV’s Innovation Committee notes that: In 2020, SEV’s Innovation Committee launched the Innovative Greeks in order to mobilise the network of Greeks abroad and bring together inventive and innovative Greeks from all over the world. Today, we further strengthen the endeavour with IG@WORK in an effort to contribute to bringing back those young, capable Greeks who left the country during the economic crisis in search of better employment prospects. These young people stemmed from Greek society’s most productive segment, and the vast majority hold university degrees. Greece’s business community fully supports the initiative, and we firmly believe that it will create much value for all, and especially for innovating Greeks.

You can visit the IG@work platform here.

We would also like to thank all those who support the initiative and especially our Mega Sponsors Coca-Cola HBC and Coca-Cola Hellas, our Sponsors Pharmathen and Athenian Brewery and our Supporters ABB S.A., ELVIAL S.A. Sunlight Group – Energy Storage Systems, Hellas Gold, TITAN Group and RAYCAP S.A.