On 3 March, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Brussels hosted a presentation by Laia Pinos Mataro, a member of the cabinet of the Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné’s, who highlighted some of the key areas for strengthening European industry, such as the single market, common policy and diversity. Pinos Mataro replaced the speaker scheduled for that day, Bertrand L’Huillier, who was unable to attend the meeting for internal departmental reasons.

The luncheon-debate was opened by the Chamber’s president, Pablo López-Álvarez, who welcomed the attendees and the speaker, before giving the floor to the director general of APPLiA, Paolo Falcioni, the event’s sponsor. He devoted his speech to highlighting, through a personal anecdote, the importance of a framework to strengthen the industrial ecosystem for European prosperity.

He then turn it over to the cabinet member of the Vice-President’s cabinet for prosperity and industrial strategy for her presentation. Pinos Mataró highlighted several strategic points for strengthening European industry, including the importance of ‘trusting in European strength’, with the single market as the main core, and with a view to diversification. She also mentioned the importance of a common European policy to strengthen strategic sectors and establish common rules on investment, among other issues.

Finally, after also highlighting the importance of simplifying policies and mentioning the need to seek solutions in the energy sector that can have an immediate impact, she spoke about future projects and the recent Industrial Accelerator Act. Attendees then had the opportunity to share their thoughts and ask the speaker questions, focusing on European reindustrialization, common policies, simplification and the exclusion of certain industries from the recent proposal for Act mentioned above.