While the governments all over Europe are preparing for new measures amid a rise of covid cases, the business world is concerned over the economic recovery.
Euronews went to the yearly European Business Summit which is happening in Brussels for more than 20 years and spoke to some of the key players of the business scene.
Food and beverages sector was one of the worst hit sectors of the pandemic and concerns are still there.
Paul Skehan- Senior Director Public Policy of Pepsico Europe
“One of the biggest fears would be the unpredictability of what comes. So, business thrives in relatively stable conditions and if you look back at the last two years it’s been a bit of a roller coaster of highs and lows and in fact parts of the sector have really come back quite strongly” Paul Skehan, Senior Director Public Policy of Pepsico Europe told euronews and he added that “if you look at Pepsico’s own figures for the second half of last year into early part of this year even while the second and third waves were happening we still have very good figures but it’s not the same as knowing what we can expect and how we can plan for the future”.
However, the digital economy sectors won from this crisis which accelerated the developments and brought changes that are here to stay.
Marc Reinhardt, Executive Vice President of Capgemini in Germany stressed that during the pandemic “the openness for digital solutions has exploded”.
He explained that “before it was always ‘a nice to have’ for some of the innovators, they always said it’s the next wave but the general population at least in Germany for example was somehow sceptical to it. But now, basically digital kept us alive and in business for most cases during the pandemic. So, a lot of companies, also a lot of government institutions have accepted that that’s the way to act also post-pandemic. So, for us it’s a big shift and it creates a lot of work for people involved in digitialization”.
The year ahead will be a pivotal one for Europe and its recovery which implies difficulties and challenges to the business sector, but also new perspectives for transformation.
