Closed roundtable discussion organized by the Association for International Affairs. The event focuses on the Visegrad Group perspective on the Society 4.0 and on the Industry 4.0’s spill-overs to the European Union’s Internal Market. Liberte! will have a pleasure to be represented at the event by Marcin Frenkel, one of our contributors.

The Industry 4.0 introduction to the Internal Market will be influenced by uneven distribution of relevant skills in the EU. This will possible result in an increasing tendency to develop clusters not only in industry, but also in trade and services. The automotive industry with its fast rate of adoption of new technologies has a potential to become a source of crucial data for development of the 4.0 solutions also in other sectors.

The event thus will try to find answers to following questions:

• What are specific interests of the Czech Republic and other countries in the V4 region related to the introduction of the Industry 4.0 solutions?

• How will the advent of the Society 4.0 reshape business models, conditions for operation of SMEs and trade patterns in the V4 region? Is the V4’s large industrial base an advantage or disadvantage in this process?

• Are the V4 states able to develop and export 4.0 solutions or only to buy them from abroad? Do we have clearly stated preferences for negotiations of standards for 4.0 solutions at various forums, including the EU?

• Is the EU’s Internal Market sufficiently developed to sustain the spread of the Society 4.0? Should state and EU institutions support adoption of Industry 4.0? If so, in what way? Are the relevant operational programmes (e.g. Czech Republic’s Enterprise and innovation for competitiveness 2014-2020) structured optimally for the introduction of the Industry 4.0?

When: April 12, 2018

Where: Prague Startup Centre, Palace Adria, Jungmannova 36/31

Working languages: English and Czech

Programme:

13:00-13:20 Introductory remarks

Dita Charanazova, MEP, ALDE, Czech Republic

13:20-14:20 Society 4.0 in the Visegrad Group (in English)

Presenation of the Visegrad Grup country reports followed by the Q&A

Marcin Frenkel, Liberte!, University of Lodz, Poland

Mate Hajba, Free Market Foundation, Hungary

Martin Reguli, F.A. Hayek Foundation, Slovakia

Krystof Krulis, AMO, Consumers Forum, Czech Republic

14:20-14:45 Coffee break

14:45-16:00 Roundtable discussion on the Society 4.0 in the Czech Republic (in Czech)

Opening remarks by

Ondrej Maly, Ministry of Industry and Trade

Michal Kadera, SKODA AUTO

Petr Benes, 6D Academy

Evzen Reitschlager, Association of Small & Medium Enterprises & Crafts

Jaromir Novak, Czech Telecommunications Office

Roundtable discussion of relevant stakeholders wrapped up by concluding remarks by Dita Charanzova, MEP.

The event is organized by AMO.

Partners: The event will be organized with the support of the European Parliament, the International Visegrad Fund, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in cooperation with the EurActiv.cz.