Last Monday 29th April, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held a new lunch-debate in the framework of its “Business Circle” forum, in which Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Green Deal, Institutional Relations and Foresight, spoke on “Making the business case for the green transition: fostering industrial competitiveness in the fight for climate neutrality”.

The president of the Chamber, Pablo López-Álvarez, gave a brief introduction and gave way to Juan Llobel, Director of Communication and Institutional Relations of Cepsa, sponsor of the event. During his speech, Llobell defended the Green Deal as “the best tool to recover competitiveness” and said that the next European cycle will be “key when it comes to implementing” climate neutrality measures.

This was followed by the Spanish Secretary of State for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, who thanked Maroš Šefčovič for his close cooperation during the six months of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. He also defended that “there is a real economic incentive behind the fight against climate change”.

A Europe leading the green transition

To begin his presentation, Šefčovič stated that the transition that Europe is currently undergoing is threefold: green, digital, and social. In this sense, the speaker underlined the importance of the Green Deal as a tool for growth and prosperity for the EU.

“In the last decades we have made significant progress“, the Vice-President recalled, adding that Europe has already proven to be able to combine the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with economic growth. On that point, Šefčovič highlighted Spain’s potential to be a clean energy superpower, thanks to its photovoltaic and wind power industry.

After the crises of recent years, such as the covid pandemic or the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the speaker said that Europe has learned its lesson: “Outsourcing is not possible, the Green Deal has to be done in Europe”. The Commission’s current goal is to make the European continent the first to neutralise its carbon emissions, mixing ambition with a pragmatic approach.

The presentation was followed by a Q&A session in which topics such as international relations in the field of climate transition or research on new materials and green fuels were discussed. The Chamber would like to thank all the participants for making the event another success, as well as the Aalto Winery for sponsoring the wine.