Breakfast-Debate with Edita Hrdá, Managing Director for the Americas in European External Action Service

On June 5, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a luncheon-debate with Edita Hrdá, Executive Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, about  “The relations of the European Union with Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years: a political perspective and economic “. The conference was attended by executives of international companies, members of the Chamber and ambassadors and Latin American public representatives.

The conference was focused on the new strategy that is being carried out by the European institutions, especially from the European Commission, in Latin America and the Caribbean. This new European strategy has been reflected in a recent communication called “joining forces for a common future”, which was issued on April 16 and has already been endorsed by the European Parliament and most of the member countries.

This strategy has also been presented to the institutions of Latin America and the Caribbean and to different companies, with the intention of knowing their positions and with the goal of strengthen the political partnership for an effective, rule-based multilateral order, building global consensus around important themes such as human rights, climate and sustainable development.

Ms. Hrdá emphasized the need to update the bilateral agreements between the EU and the countries of the region. Currently, Europe has many initiatives in progress, in some cases the opinion of the counterpart is still unknown, but there are also projects that move forward quickly and positively, including a Joint Communication with new cooperation projects between the European Union and the Pacific Alliance, a renegotiation with the four member countries of Mercosur, and a new bilateral agreement with Mexico and another with Chile that is expected to be signed by the end of the year.

Thanks to these projects and the new strategies that are on the way, Latin America and the Caribbean will be the area, on a global level, with more bilateral agreements with the European Union.

After the presentation, a round of questions was started where the participants could raise their doubts about these new agreements and the current situation of some countries in the region

Ingelia presents its HTC technology in Brussels within the Spain Means Innovation program

Last 4th June 219, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg , in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain in the Kingdom of Belgium, organized the conference “Spanish Science Diplomacy. Ingelia, the success of a Spanish business model in Belgium based on HTC technology” within the Spain Means Innovation program.

During the conference, Marisa Hernández Latorre, founder of Ingelia and nominated last year for the EU Prize for Women Innovators, presented the technology developed by her company for 12 years, which has the aim of transforming waste into raw materials. Hernández highlighted the importance of HTC technology to support the local circular economy, not just because waste becomes raw materials that could be used for other industries, but because CO2 emission from transport could be reduce by installing transformations plants near the cities.

Moreover, the representative of Renasci, Luc Descender, partner of Ingelia in Ostende, standed out the difficulties that innovative technologies have to face, both administrative and funding, as well as the ones in product exportation.

The speakers remarked the relevance of this Spain means innovation’s kind of conferences in order to interact with other innovative companies and technologies, due to the fact that it was in a scientific forum where both companies met and started to collaborate together.

Lastly, Andrés Martínez, representative of the CDTI, highlighted the funding opportunities offered by his institution to innovative companies such as Ingelia, with which they have collaborated in its launch and growth.

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“Connecting you with the World of Finance” Seminar, organized in Madrid with the participation of Pierre Gramegna

The Vice-president of the Chamber, José Luis Rodríguez Álvarez, and the Secretary General, María Catalán, participated in the seminar “Connecting you with the world of finance” organized the 4th June in Madrid by Luxembourg for Finance.

The seminar was attended by Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg, who presented his vision regarding Brexit, the challenges facing Europe and the respective positioning of the Grand Duchy.

Nicolas Mackel, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance,  and representatives from lhoFT, Luxembourg Green Exchange and Fondation de Luxembourg also took part in the seminar. They presented, from different points of view, the opportunities offered by the Luxembourg financial sector.

Thereafter, there were several discussion panels on wealth management, life insurance, alternative investments and private assets, among other topics.

The seminar had a wide audience mainly specialized in the financial sector.

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs consortium meeting in Valencia

On the 29th and 30th of May, the Chamber participated in the consortium meeting for the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) programme. This EC initiative that has been run by the Chamber for 3 years now has the objective to connect entrepreneurs across Europe and to promote the exchange of experiences among them.

The meeting took place in Valencia, city where the two leaders of the consortium are based. 15 partners representing the 10 institutions in the consortium attended the meeting. The event concluded with a dissemination session where future entrepreneurs and potential host entrepreneurs learned about the possibilities in each of the represented countries.

The chamber will be running the programme for 3 more years and this was an excellent opportunity to discuss the future strategy of the partners and the priority lines of actions. The Chamber has considerably increased its number of exchanges; since February 2019 it has managed nearly 15 exchanges between European entrepreneurs.

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