/ Interview with Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou, Head of Unit Tourism, Emerging and Creative Industries, European Commission DG Grow
Monday, 16 April 2018
industry-interviews
interview
In October 2017, Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou took on her new position as Head of Unit – Tourism, Emerging and Creative. Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou has been working for the European Union since 2002 in various culture-related and humanitarian services. Previous to her new role, Mrs. Athanasopoulou was Deputy Head of Unit – Creative Europe where she was in charge of coordinating the Creative Europe program that supports cultural and creative sectors. HOTREC asked Mrs. Anna Athanasopoulou the following questions: 1) As the new DG GROW Head of Unit for Tourism, Emerging and Creative Industries, could you please kindly introduce to us your roadmap for the remaining period of the mandate of the Commission? I joined the Unit Tourism, Emerging and Creative Industries almost half way through the mandate of the current European Commission. My aspiration is to build on what exists and continue pushing the policy agenda for tourism within the framework of the ten political priorities of the Commission and the support instruments available under the current Multi-annual Financial Framework 2014-2020. Our shared priority with my colleagues is to deliver on commitments by streamlining our action, where necessary, and strengthening the dialogue with tourism stakeholders, the industry and Member States. The challenges the EU tourism is facing are evolving and our obligation is to monitor them and help the European tourism industry turn these challenges into opportunities. Our scope of competence in the EU is limited, and we are active in supporting the cooperation among Member States and strengthening the competitiveness of European tourism. We will continue working along the set priority areas of action:
- enhancing the tourism business environment;
- boosting digitalization and innovation in tourism;
- helping tourism businesses to find the professionals they need and to retain talents; and
- complementing the efforts of the Member States and Regions in promoting Europe as a destination.
At the same time, we will continue to work closely with other Commission departments on policy areas relevant to tourism such as visa policy, the digital single market, consumer protection and circular economy. Last, new social and market trends such as the collaborative economy, artificial intelligence and automation, as well as rising sustainability concerns, are impacting the tourism industry and we will continue to monitor them as they evolve. 2) With regard to the budget of the next Multi-Annual Financial Period, could you please let us know how do you envisage the budget of tourism and what should it cover according to you? As you may know, the Commission is currently preparing its proposals for the Multi-Annual Financial Framework of 2021-2027. As previous reflections have already indicated, the next financial period will aim to improve the sustainable impact of EU financing. Therefore future EU financial support will feature more opportunities for blending EU funds and financial instruments, using public-private partnerships and investment, as well as introducing a larger weight of own contribution of project partners. This will enhance the viability and sustainability of the financed projects once the EU financing period is over. In terms of what future EU financial support should cover, we will only know this once the proposals are adopted, as the Commission's initial proposal, which will be presented in the course of May, will undergo many changes proposed by the Parliament and the Council during the interinstitutional decision-making process. Nevertheless, the current trend of focusing on large horizontal objectives, such as innovation, circular economy, competitiveness, etc., will mostly remain. In addition, the specific objectives of the future EU funds, programmes and financial instruments are still to be defined. We are closely involved in the preparation of these proposals and are doing our best to make sure that the interests of the EU tourism industry are not disregarded. 3) As per Eurostat, the European hospitality industry still represents 80% of the total EU tourism workforce. How could the European Commission help sustain the 1.8 million enterprises of the sector? European tourism is a labour-intensive sector its global competitiveness is closely linked with the quality of the human capital it employs. This is why tourism is one of the sectors selected for the Blueprint for sectorial cooperation in skills – a new initiative seeking to tackle the skills mismatch and career development in tourism and set out a strategic and structured approach which can be rolled out onto the regional and national level. When it comes to support to entrepreneurship and businesses, several horizontal initiatives of the Commission benefit also the tourism sector. Just to mention a few examples, the Capital Markets Union is designed to make it easier for businesses to get finance through the markets. The Start-Up-Scale-up Initiative supports market access and growth of new businesses, including those in the tourism sector. The SME window of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) provides loans, guarantees and equity payment for risky projects, including in the area of tourism. The recently launched Pan-European Venture Capital Funds-of-Funds programme (VentureEU) seeks to boost investment in innovative start-up and scale-up companies across Europe. In addition, we develop actions tailor-made to tourism businesses seeking to boost their competitiveness and access to key markets in third countries. The support for B2B matchmaking of tourism businesses with Chinese partners in the context of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year and the support available under Europe Enterprise Network are two concrete examples. Allow me also to mention our projects supporting cross-border and cross-sectorial cooperation or promoting the EU as a global destination which, ultimately, benefit the tourism industry and its businesses. However, it is important to underline that the Commission can only create the right framework for businesses to flourish. EU sectorial associations and federations, such as HOTREC have a key role to play in this. They have the power to act as a liaison between the industry and the EU, to communicate on the needs of the sector and at the same time to inform them about the opportunities at EU level and mobilise the sector. It is up to them to seize the opportunities offered. It is up to the tourism industry to take the lead and I am confident that they can succeed.