The Director for Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission participated in a working lunch in Barcelona on the 18th of March.

Joanna Drake, Director for Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission, has been the guest speaker of the III FBP Business Forum, held in Barcelona, Spain, on the 18th of March. This event was co-organized by FBP, the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, the European Commission Representation in Barcelona headed by Ferran Tarradellas and the Plus Europe Association, with the institutional support from LaCaixa, Numintec, Spanish Association of Executives and Institut d’Estudis Financiers.

The 3rd #PlusEurope #BusinessForum with Joanna Drake has been a success! Soon, all the pics at http://t.co/CkML1Lvh5z pic.twitter.com/Ib47SWpl20

— Plus Europe (@PlusEuropeOrg) marzo 18, 2015

Ms. Drake has occupied her current position since the 16th of January 2010. Since October 2005, she was Head of the European Commission Representation in Malta. During the preceding five years Joanna had been Company Secretary and Head of the Legal & Regulatory Department of Vodafone Malta Limited. Before venturing into the telecommunications sector, Ms. Drake’s professional career centered entirely around European Union matters, with an accent on law, which she taught and researched full-time for five years at the University of Malta.

Al dinar de @PlusEuropeOrg amb Joanna Drake parlant del futur de les PIMES pic.twitter.com/STG1U0AyLf — Ferran Tarradellas (@TarradellasEU) March 18, 2015

After obtaining her post-graduate qualifications in law from the College of Europe in Bruges, where she specialised in EU competition and internal market law, Joanna spent five years as Senior Legal Officer at the EU Directorate of the Foreign Office in Malta and a further year as Legal Research Officer at the Maltese Embassy in Brussels. As a core group member of MEUSAC (Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee) she was closely involved in the pre-accession negotiations between Malta and the European Union.

Third edition

This is the third edition of the III FBP Business Forum, a programme that aims to contribute to European integration from a business and professional perspective. It is a meeting point for entrepreneurs and professionals who want to share their vision of the European integration process and to want to learn what is being done in the European institutions by its European policy-makers and experts.

At @PlusEuropeOrg business lunch with Joanna Drake, @EuroCommission #SME director @IEF_org @pimec pic.twitter.com/7Tv8jMMBJ6 — Josep Soler, IEF (@josepsoler_ief) March 18, 2015

The second edition of the FBP Business Forum took place on the 2nd of February 2015 in the Círculo Ecuestre of Barcelona, Spain. In this occasion, the working lunch counted with Jaume Duch, Director for the Media and European Parliament Spokesman, as guest speaker. He gave a speech titled Presentation, challenges and opportunities of the new European Parliament 2014-2019. He also participated in an interview with Plus Europe.

III @PlusEuropeOrg business Forum – Working Luch – with Ms. Joanna Drake. A Barcelona’s civic participation in euro… pic.twitter.com/e794vKfrIi — Roser Salvat Jofresa (@RoserSalvat) March 18, 2015

The first edition of this forum took place in Barcelona too, at the Gallery Hotel, on the 10th of February 2014. Named The European elections: why this time they are different, the session counted back then with Ferran Tarradellas, Director of the European Commission Representation Office in Barcelona, as guest speaker.

With institutional support from: