General Assembly Meeting 2021
Last Thursday, June 24th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held its Ordinary General Assembly. Due to the current sanitary restrictions caused by the COVID-19, the Assembly was held for the first time in a hybrid format.+
After the agenda was read out, the President of the Chamber, Juan Rodríguez-
Villa Matons, took the floor. He first thanked the members present for their attendance and then announced his decision to resign as President. After an emotional speech, recalling the milestones of his work at the Chamber for 16 years, the President thanked all the people who took part in the resounding success of the institution. He highlighted the work of the Vice-President Pablo López, since his appointment in 2010, whom he acknowledged to have served as President “de facto”, during the long period of crisis in which we are still in. He also celebrated the positioning the Chamber as a point of reference for Spanish companies abroad, especially in terms of European agenda and visibility before the European institutions. Until the election of a new President by the Board of Directors, Vice-Chairman Pablo López Alvarez will act as Acting President.
Then, the Secretary General, Marta González Benguria, reviewed the main activities and events organised by the Chamber in the past year 2020. The Secretary General highlighted the positive trend in the increase in the number of members in the last year, with a growth of more than 8% compared to the previous year. This trend is positive not only in quantitative terms, as the Chamber has 6 new sponsoring members, from 34 to 40, an increase of almost 18%.
She also underlined the organisation of online events as one of the tools to continue with the traditional activities of the Chamber in a context of pandemic. Thus, the Chamber organised 53 events throughout 2020, mainly online, in close cooperation with its members. Of particular note were the online events developed in the framework of the “Business Circle” Platform which was able to attract important figures from the European institutions. The novelty of this 2020 were the working committees: the launch of “Competencia España”, focused on competition law and policy, and the “Spanish Financial Forum”, whose objective is to share experiences and generate business opportunities for Spanish companies in the financial sector.
Then, the Secretary General highlighted the role of the Chamber in the management of several European projects, two of which, for the first time, the Chamber has a coordinator role. In addition, the commercial area also remained active despite the paralysing effects of the pandemic on the economy, with 255 commercial consultations, and 9 direct trade missions.
Finally, she detailed the main items corresponding to the Balance Sheet for the financial year 2020, which was subsequently approved by all those present and represented. For the first time, the balance sheet exceeded one million euros and the profit was 125,177 euros.
The President then proposed the candidate members for presentation to the General Assembly and the General Assembly elected, for the first time with a telematic voting system, the following 8 members as vocals, representing their respective companies for a period of 3 years:
– Antonio Corpas (OneLife)
– Bert Dehandschutter (Racine; Degor)
– Sergio De Miguel-Jessel (Partner in his personal capacity)
– Abelardo García González (BBVA)
– José Gracia Barba (Meteora)
– Sophie Leconte (everis)
– Asier Marquina Sánchez (ArcelorMittal)
– Manuel Menéndez Barrero (Santander Consumer Bank)
After the vote, Vice-President Pablo López Álvarez intervened as Acting President to pay tribute to the outgoing President, Juan Rodríguez-Villa, whom he described as “the best President the Chamber could have had”. After acknowledging his admirable career and the important legacy he leaves behind, he proposed his appointment as “Past President”, for the remaining year of his mandate as Board Member. This appointment was unanimously approved by the members present at the General Assembly, who gave the President a heartfelt round of applause. The Vice President undertook to convene a Board of Directors meeting shortly to elect a new President and announced his candidacy.
María Palanca Reh, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the Spanish Embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg, then took the floor to recognise the excellent performance of the Chamber, especially in a pandemic situation. She thanked the Secretary General, 
her team and all the members involved in the Chamber’s activities. After reiterating the official nature of the Chamber from the Spanish public administration, she concluded by thanking the outgoing President for his dedication. Finally, tribute was paid to the former Secretary Generals, María Catalán and Miguel Ángel Arrimadas, who spoke briefly to convey their thanks to the Chamber and to the outgoing President. Additionally, the President of the Chamber thanked all the young trainees for their vitality and commitment to the Chamber.
On July 2nd, a telematic meeting of the Board of Directors will be held to vote and appoint the next President of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg.
StartCraft, a project adapted to craft entrepreneurs needs.
Last 16th June, the Chamber organised the second consortium meeting of the StartCraft project.
This project, launched in September 2020, seeks to develop training and practical education for craft entrepreneurs in 6 European countries. During this second meeting online, the Chamber, as coordinator of the programme, shared with the rest of the partners an overview of the project implementation and reporting.
Additionally, the representative of InnoHub, the quality lead of the consortium, Marta Fernandez, presented the quality results obtained in this area by the consortium so far. the overall balance is very positive, highlighting the good communication among partners.
Kainotomia, the communication and dissemination lead of the consortium, showed the main project communication achievements so far. All the partners had the possibility to share their ideas to increase the engagement and participation of craft entrepreneurs and VET organizations through social networks.
Finally, the lead of the development of the training modules, the organization Smooland, presented the work to be developed by each partner and the materials to use. designed considering the needs of the artisans. These needs were identified by the consortium in a research developed in January through focus groups and surveys.
For that reason, the project will soon put at craft entrepreneurs and future craft entrepreneur’s disposal different learning modules on how to draft contracts, internet sales, social media marketing, SEO marketing, pricing products and services, well-being and work-life balance, and cultural value of craft products, among other online courses.
The Chamber thanks all the project partners their participation and hopes to continue enhancing these collaborations to benefit entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs in the craft sector.
To stay updated about the project progress follow the project Facebook and LinkedIn or contact the Chamber at startcraft@e-camara.com.
Online Breakfast-debate with José Antonio Zamora, Coordinating Counselor for Trade of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU
On Wednesday 16 of June, 2021, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized another virtual debate in the scope of its platform “Business Circle”, a meeting platform between Spanish companies to their institutional representatives. In this debate took part José Antonio Zamora, Coordinating Counsellor for Trade of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union.
The topic of this debate hinged on “Where is the EU trade policy heading, prospects after the US-EU Summit”.
Pablo López Álvarez, Vice-President of the Chamber and moderator of the event, welcomed the participants and briefly presented the speaker, whose presence and the participants’ appreciated.
José Antonio Zamora briefly discussed in the first place the EU “open autonomy” concept and the Spanish role in terms of commercial openness.
Thereupon the speaker explained the different results of the US-EU Summit, underlining the different changes in the relationship with the new Biden administration. In general, he highlighted in a positive way the new agenda, which includes propositions such as the new Bilateral Council for Commerce and Technology, the resolution of disputes between Boeing and Airbus, new investment controls and different actions regarding cybersecurity.
He also mentioned the progress made towards the reduction disputes introduced by the former US administration, by engaging in talks to solve the commercial war with the EU through tariffs reduction in the steel and aluminium sector, as well as, in digital and technological sectors.
Regarding the UE commercial relations with other countries, Zamora explained the good relationship with MERCOSUR countries, Mexico and Chile, with some bilateral agreements already closed or in their final stages, as well as future collaborations to be explored with Australia and New Zealand. India is also included among the countries which proposed to explore new commercial treaties by 2024, although with certain reservations from EU officials.
Finally, the speaker set some pending challenges after the EU- US Summit, such as the restoration of the Open Method for Coordination (OMC) functioning, currently blocked by the US, or the resolution of positions regarding the vaccines’ intellectual property liberalization by the US.
During the questioning time, the participants were able to express their doubts and to make comments about numerous matters of interest. Thus, different topics were discussed such as the OECD bilateral commercial agreement, the changes in the Biden administration in respect to the former one, the MERCOSUR agreement’ elements to be improved or the differences between the new India proposition and the former one and finally the US position in terms of pharmaceutical intellectual property liberalization.
The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg would like to heartly express its gratitude to José Antonio Zamora for his participation in the debate and to all participants for their presence.
MobiliseSME programme, giving SME’s staff the opportunity to travel and develop cross-border partnerships in current times
Beata Vlnková and Rudi Verhoest are the owners of two companies who started collaborating through the MobiliseSME programme at the end of March 2021.
Beata has travelled from Slovakia to Belgium to partner up with Rudi during six months in the wine business sector.
They have joined forces to develop their projects, each bringing their own expertise to the table. Although it isn´t easy during the current situation, their collaboration is bringing out the best in both.
Beata is the President of the Association of Sommeliers of the Slovak Republic and CEO of Wine Wave Travel, a wine travel agency based in Slovakia that wants to expand its activities to Belgium.
Her aim is to promote and sell Slovakian and Austrian wines in the Belgian market and expand her network in the country, meanwhile acquiring new competences, such as the Dutch language.
On the other hand, Rudi has thirty years of expertise in the bank and insurance sector in Belgium. He is a wine enthusiast and a cuisine lover who has decided to make a career change: from finance to wine.
He wants to increase his knowledge on the wine sector, improve his tasting skills, learn all about wine sales and eventually, consider opening a future wine business.
Both are currently collaborating on a market research in the region of La Roche, in Ardennes. Together they scout for potential customers and contact the tourist office and gîtes in the region. 
Since April, they have organized several wine tastings adapted to the Covid measures. They started with only two attendees but were able to welcome fifteen people last week with the cooperation of the local agency Back-to-Nature.
They have also been presenting their project to the Ambassador of Slovak Republic to the Kingdom of Belgium and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and talked about a future event at the Embassy to put in contact Slovakian wine producers and Belgian customers.
Through their alliance, both are exchanging their knowledge in their fields of expertise, sharing their practises and contact networks, while developing their abilities, even languages.
Both are developing a business plan and setting up future collaborations to prepare a scenario after Covid, with the organization of wine tasting events and wine trips between these countries.
Beata and Rudi have seen in MobiliseSME programme the opportunity to partner up and adapt to the current challenges. They are confident many more activities will come towards summer.
Click here to discover more about MobiliseSME programme.
Contact us to register in the programme by sending an email to mobilisesme@e-camara.com.
Online Breakfast-Debate with Luis Garicano, MEP, Head of Ciudadanos Delegation to the European Parliament, Vice-President and Economic Coordinator of Renew Europe
On Friday the 4th of June 2021, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a virtual debate within the scope of its platform “Desayunos con la Eurocámara”(Breakfast with the Eurochamber), created with the aim of bringing the EU Parliament´s debates closer to Spanish companies. As part of these debates we invited MEP Luis Garicano, Head of Ciudadanos Delegation to the European Parliament, Vice-President and Economic Coordinator of Renew Europe.
The topic of this debate was “The priorities of the Renew Europe group for this legislature”.
Pablo López Álvarez, Vice-President of the Chamber and moderator of the event, welcomed the participants and briefly presented the speaker, whose presence, together with the participants’, he acknowledged.
MEP Garicano analyzed, in the first place, the current situation of the Next Generation European recovery funds as well as the establishment of a Resiliency and Control Mechanism by the European Commission.
The speaker positively assessed the consensus reached within the Renew Europe group in these matters, as well as the responsibility of the Spanish and Italian representatives to show the efficiency of NGEU and React EU funds.
Thereupon MEP Garicano highlighted the different spending criteria and conditions established by the European Commission and supervised by the European Council through the European Semester. He also highlighted the low materialization achieved in matters such as the maintenance of market unity and the importance of complying with the required measures in social services and employment.
Next, the speaker explained the different transparency accomplishments of Renew Group in the European Parliament, regarding supervision, access and control rights by the Antifraud Office and the European Court of Auditors. Additionally, MEP Garicano expressed his concern about the European recovery funds management. In this sense, he centered his speech on the funds oriented at training programs or the low investment in youth employment.
During the Q&A session, the participants were able to express their doubts and to make comments about numerous matters of interest. Thus, different topics were discussed such as the lack of competition in certain technological sectors in Spain comparing to other European countries, the PERTE allocation criteria, SME’s position to access these aid funds, regulatory challenges in the European liberalization of the telecommunications sector and finally the disparities between the allocation of European funds.
Finally, MEP Garicano concluded his intervention by highlighting the lack of political consensus as one of the main barriers to an effective European funds’ distribution, which were closely analyzed.
The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg would like to wholeheartedly express its gratitude to MEP Luis Garicano for his participation in the debate and to all participants for their presence.
Webinar “European Tenders and Opportunities as an Expert”
On the 6th, 7th and 8th July the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, organised the webinar “European Tenders and Opportunities as an Expert”.
During the three days our member Karine Brück, founding partner of Karine Bruck International (Ecosolve SL), shared her experience on European tenders with the participants.
On the first day, Karine Bruck explained the difference between a European call for projects and a call for tenders, as well as the new financial framework 2021-2027. She also shared some tips on how to identify opportunities at the European level.
During the second and third day, participants discovered the complete process to prepare an offer, from creating international consortiums to finding experts, through both theoretical knowledge and case study analysis.
On the last day, participants had the opportunity to present their questions and get advice from an experienced consultant.
From the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, we would like to thank Karine Bruck for her collaboration and dedication and the participants for their presence.
Webinar on “EU Funding Week for non-profit organizations- Project Management”
On May 27th and June 1st and 3rd, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized the training on “European Funding for Non-Profit Organizations – Project Management” in collaboration with FondosEuropeos.eu and LocalEurope.
During these three days of virtual sessions, the best tools and competences to access and manage European funds in the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 were presented to the participants.
In addition, during these three sessions, different topics were discussed, among which it is worth highlighting the European funding, the search for partners and projects, as well as the administrative, financial and communicative Management necessary for a succesful operation.
From the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg we would like to thank FondosEuropeos.eu and LocalEurope for their collaboration and dedication and the participants for their presence.
Online Breakfast-Debate with Nicolás González Casares, MEP, Member of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer and of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and substitute for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
On 2nd of June 2021, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a virtual debate within the scope of its platform “Desayunos con la Eurocámara”(Breakfast with the EuroChamber), created with the aim of bringing the EU Parliament´s debates closer to Spanish companies. As part of these debates, the MEP Nicolás González Casares, member of the Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA), the Commission of Industry, Research and Energy and substitute in the Commission of Environment, Public Health and Food Safety was invited.
The topic of this debate was “The role of the BECA Committee in the European plan to fight cancer”
Pablo López Álvarez, Vice-President of the Chamber and moderator of the event, welcomed the participants and briefly presented the speaker, whose presence, together with the participants’, he acknowledged.
Nicolás González discussed, in the first place, the importance of BECA Commission to design strategies to prevent cancer expansion within the European Union.
Thereupon the speaker highlighted the different inequalities originated since the start of the pandemic regarding early cancer diagnosis and access to treatment amongst member states, especially in southern and eastern Europe, and explained the important work carried out by the BECA Committee, created in June 2020, in terms of implementing prevention measures.
MEP González also highlighted the actions carried out by the Commission regarding the fight against tobacco, presenting the importance of advancing the revision of the EU Commission directive scheduled for 2023.
Following on, the speaker explained the different key dates established by the Committee, such as the deadline for the draft proposal, scheduled for the 17th of June, amendments presentation on the 14th of September or the final vote to be casted on the 6th of December, prior to the Committee’ dissolution the 23rd of December.
During the Q&A session, the participants were able to express their doubts and to make comments about numerous matters of interest. Thus, different topics were discussed such as the importance of implementing shared health data systems, the roles of tobacco’ alternatives, the effect of diets on the mitigation of possible carcinogenic effects of wine, the Spanish anti tobacco law’ effectiveness, the European Medicines Agency or the European vaccination card’ implementation.
In his view, the creation of databases at an European level with the aim of reducing inequalities between member states is fundamental, as well as exploiting the increase in vaccine production capability derived from the pandemic.
The speaker also expressed his wish to give continuity to the Committee once dissolved the 23rd of December through a constant dialogue with the European Commission in order to propose legislative initiatives, such as new product labeling obligations on alcoholic beverages. He also expressed the importance of the EU to coordinate and establish wide political lines in public health policy, as well as its duty to expand these activities amongst all member states.
The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg would like to wholeheartedly express its gratitude to the MEP Nicolás González for his participation in the debate and to all participants for their presence.
With the support and recognition of
