​On 21 and 22 June 2018, members of the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) met in Bucharest, Romania.

The members discussed and adopted an opinion on the Council directive on value added tax rates and held exchanges of views on financing sustainable growth and on taxation of the digital economy. On the second day of the meeting, ECON commission organised a conference on how to boost the competitiveness of SMES through digitalisation at the local and regional level, which saw participation by Romanian ministers for European Affairs and for Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, as well as representatives of local authorities, trade associations, think-tanks and EU institutions.  The EA Group actively participated in the meeting led by the ECON cooprinator Mr Tadeusz Truskolaski, Mayor of Białystok, Poland.

Next meeting of the ECON commission will take place on 23 October in Brussels.