BUSINESSMED joined on December 10, 2020, the closing meeting of the Policy Forum on Development (PFD) on the EU Programming Consultation, an opportunity for PFD members to formally submit key messages and relevant recommendations, stemming from a series of consultations that began in April 2020.

Between October and November 2020 PFD organized a series of three thematic webinars: “An Economy for the people”, “the Green Deal” and “Digitalisation”. These meetings were part of a broader consultation process among PFD members, to provide input into EU programming and complement the results of the PFD regional meetings organised between July and September 2020. In each webinar, thematic experts of the European Commission were present to give a short overview of the respective topic and to answer PFD members’ questions.

The closing event of the Virtual PFD 2020 was chaired by the Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, and received first-hand feedback from the membership of the PFD on the key recommendations for EU programming that have emerged from the different regional and thematic meetings between July and October 2020. The Commissioner reacted to these recommendations, including how can the EU better broker and support the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships, such as the PFD itself.