Networking at the ERB 2022

We all know that the sideprogram of conferences is designed to support networking, the cooperation between companies and the forming of friendships. This was even more important for the ERB community after two years of online events that decidedly lack the social dimension. The Swedish Taxpayers Association organized the conference and among the participants were representatives of Taxpayers of Germany, Finland and the UK.

The talks and panels of the first day ended with a reception and a dinner at the Stockholm Fisk with discussions carrying on.

The reception on the first evening was hosted by Americans for Taxreform and the Tholos Foundation.

After the panels and talks on the second day, the participants were invited to a reception at the Stockholm City Hall by Anna König-Jerlmyr, Mayor of Stockholm.

She spoke about how the current coalition running Stockholm has focused on cutting taxes, decreasing loaning, and planning for a city where people can work and live easily. After the talk of the mayor, the group was guided through the historical building of the City Hall, which is the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet every December.

The day ended with an elegant gala dinner at the Stockholm National Museum. Between the courses, Dan Mitchell gave a dinner speech on his favorite topic: the reduction of taxes.

After the dinner, the Dragons announced the two winners of the Dragons’ Den Competition, Adri Nurallari and Simon Sarevski. They both convinced the jury with their presentation and most promising projects, so they decided to split the prize money.

We also thank our sponsor, the Global Philanthropic Trust, for the generous prize money and for continuously supporting free-market projects presented at the Dragons’ Den Competition.

The participants were invited to the Gentlemen’s Club Säliskapet for lunch. In elegant surroundings, the topic evolved around Swedish entrepreneurship in the light of European challenges. Between the courses, a Swedish Entrepreneur, a national and EU-politician, and a representative from trade and industry organization spoke about their work.

The first speaker was Marco Scherbaum, chairman of the health commission (EES), supervisory board HEALTH FOR ALL® presenting his company’s concept. As an independent specialist, they offer company-specific collective solutions for the implementation of sustainable company health insurance.

Through HEALTH FOR ALL® concepts, employers enable all employees to receive medical care and treatment at the highest level. Regardless of pre-existing conditions, age, industry, and income, employees receive private patient status! Those who introduce HEALTH FOR ALL® company health insurance in their business strengthen their productivity and employer brand. At the same time, both the workforce and the employer benefit from improved health protection as a sustainable benefit.

The next speaker was Andrea Femrell, CEO of Swedish Industry and Commerce for Better Regulation (NNR). He concentrated on how better regulation can and does affect the investment and business climate in Sweden. It is relatively easy to set up and start a business in Sweden. Sweden is also digitalized in many ways with great availability to the public sector, civil servants as well as politicians. NNR supports the business community by advocating and promoting more effective and less costly rules and regulations reducing regulatory costs, the relevant disclosure of information and a reduced disclosure burden for companies. NNR also organizes and coordinates the business community’s better regulation efforts on the national, European, and international levels.

Christofer Fjellner, a former member of the European Parliament, where he served on the Committee on International Trade and its Committee on Budgetary Control. He is now the managing director of the think tank EPHI, which focused on the environment and health. He spoke about how Europe must focus on solutions for decreased carbon dioxide emissions that are effective globally – not on expensive solutions that decrease emissions only within the EU. Especially since EU emissions stand for such a small part of the total emissions today – and especially China will increase their emissions during the coming years. We need to focus on solutions that can inspire the whole world.