Last June 22^nd, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized, in collaboration with ECOEMBES, a luncheon-debate with Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

Mr. Daniel Calleja, Director-General at DG Environment, also attended the event.

Between the participants, there were several members of the Chamber and representatives of Spanish and European companies and institutions.

Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, President of the Chamber, introduced the speaker and thanked for his contribution to the dialogue between the EU Executive and civil society and remarked the common interest on achieving the main goal of Circular Economy.

Under the title “CIRCULAR ECONOMY: THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN DEVELOPING GREEN ECONOMY”, Commissioner Vella underlined the importance of applying the principle “nothing is lost, everything is transformed”, premise that concerns circular economy and the need to implement it globally.

The speaker referred to the legislative package on Circular Economy presented by the Commission a year and a half ago, which he described as ambitious and responsible, emphasizing on the global approach and more practical measures which benefit environment and increase sustainability.

On the other hand, the Commissioner underlined the great potential identified in Spain by the biannual “Environment Implementation Review” report, which presented several examples of Spanish pioneer companies in innovation. According to Mr. Vella, innovation is the key to a Green Economy, which needs investment and, in most of the cases, it is afforded by the private sector, either big firms or SMEs.

To conclude, he expressed the European Commission’s will to establish an easily compliable regulation for the private sector, highlighting the importance of continuous collaboration between all actors.

The wide experience of Commissioner Vella, in high responsibility positions in the private sector, shows the realistic criteria which aims to avoid the obstacles in the application of the legal requirements that are projected.

The speaker recognized the excellence of General Director of Environment, Daniel Calleja, and congratulated the human team he leads.

The event was sponsored by ECOEMBES. Its CEO, Óscar Martín, thanked the Commissioner and all the participants for their presence, assuring the position of ECOEMBES in favor of the legislative package. Martín remarked the importance of EPR –Extended Producer Responsability- as a very important step towards a Circular Economy, which has also had a large social impact.

Moreover, he weighed on the need to promote eco-design and innovation, not only to protect the environment, but also to raise its awareness.

To conclude, a round of questions was posed and answered, a time during which participants had the opportunity to interact with the Commissioner.

Mr. Juan Rodríguez-Villa joined Óscar Martín to give Commissioner Vella a symbolic present to thank him for his participation in the luncheon-debate and his work related to the circular economy.

The President also made a special mention to the firm La Buena Vida, for contributing with excellent wines to the luncheon.

You can check the full speech of the Commissioner here.

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Brussels, May 12 2017

On May 12th, the Official Chamber of Commerce of Spain in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a luncheon-debate with Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety at NH Hotel Collection Grand Sablon in Brussels. At the event there were chamber members, business executives, members of the Spanish and international diplomatic bodies, as well as representatives of European institutions.

First of all, Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, President of the Chamber, made a brief introduction of the speaker thanking him and all the attendees for his presence. He stressed his long career as a doctor, his role as a signatory of the declaration of independence of Lithuania and his co-authorship of the Lithuanian Constitution, as well as his long experience at the institutions of his country. In addition, Rodríguez-Villa emphasized, on behalf of the Spanish Business community, the biotechnology and pharma industry and ultimately of the Spanish civil society, the great advantages that Barcelona would contribute as new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency.

Then Andriukaitis began his speech by saying that Europe has a good system of health and food safety, but it is necessary to keep working to improve several aspects. There is a need to involve more the governments and its decision-makers in the long term. He also emphasized the importance of communication; it is the key factor to keep the public informed. He also stressed the care that must be taken with the information disseminated through social networks.

Then, the Commissioner mentioned the major challenges facing the sector.

On one hand, tons of food that Europe throws away, an action that he described as wasteful, unethical and unsustainable. To reduce this waste, the Commission will undertake a series of initiatives to achieve the goal of sustainable development. They are also preparing the launch of a plan of action to stop the increasing antimicrobial resistance and a new Plant Health Law with the aim of avoiding the introduction of diseases and to protect us from the entry of non-native parasites. The Commissioner pointed out two examples of such diseases: the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which affects a large part of the Italian olive trees and sadly has now been found in the Balearic Islands, and the diseases in citrus fruits.

He also made special mention of the importance of public health. It is necessary to pay attention to the medical primary assistance because it will be reflected in an improvement of the health system and in the economy. This year, the Commission, will launch a joint action for the prevention of chronic diseases that will create guidelines and promote cooperation between the Member States.

Andriukaitis also addressed the problem of obesity. European countries have agreed targets to lower the consumption of sugars and salt.

The Commissioner concluded his speech by explaining the role of the European Union in relation to the management of health crises and pointing to Spain as one of the strongest competitors to achieve the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency due to the importance of the Spanish language and the technological progress of our country.

Finally, there was a round of questions & responses where participants were able to pose their questions to the Commissioner.

The event ended with a gift to Vytenus Andriukaitis from the Chamber in recognition to his work as European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.

From the Chamber we want to thank the collaboration to Bodegas Cornelio Dinastía for sponsoring the wine of the event.

Last April 20th the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a breakfast-debate about “the commercial agenda of the European Union in 2017”. The event took place at the Chamber’s headquarters in Brussels, with Miguel Ceballos Barón, Deputy Head of Cabinet of the commissioner Cecilia Malmström as the main speaker. At the event, there were members of the Chamber, business executives and representatives of European institutions and delegations.

Pablo López Álvarez, Vice President of the Chamber, made a brief introduction of the speaker, thanking him and all the attendees for his presence, as well as the importance of the commercial agenda in the current difficult international context.

Then, Miguel Ceballos began his intervention making a synthesis about the current context and the determining issues in the commercial field, like the beginning of Donald Trump’s legislature and the recent signing of an executive order to review a temporary visa programme used to place foreign workers in high-skilled US jobs. Between others, he underlined the Turkish referendum, the upcoming elections in France and the UK and the Brexit.

Furthermore, Ceballos explained the main commercial challenges at a European level, going through the different continents and the evolution on free trade agreements. He remarked, in first place, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which, after the stoppage of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States, stands up as one of the most important agreements for our exportations and companies, mostly in the public services sector, such as water or energy. Plus, the CETA assures an access to Canadian tenders avoiding big competitors such as China and Mexico.

On the other hand, the speaker explained the recent developments in different agreements such as in Mexico, in which they pretend to remove sanitary barriers for farming products, as well as improving the investment agreement, underlining the sectors of energy, telecommunications, financial and oil. Regarding Chile, Ceballos highlighted the modernization phase of the current agreement and their will to increase the services,

Regarding the Asian continent, Ceballos underlined the already stablished agreement with Japan, hightlighting the competitive advantage the UE has in this market as a consequence of the TTIP stoppage, avoinding the competence of USA, Australia or New Zealand. Moreover, he wanted to mention Singapur, which he defined as a small economy with a lot of potential for commercial relations in the future. On the other hand, he informed about the agreement with Vietnam, which is currently being translated and will be presented to the Parliament soon.

At last, Miguel Ceballos assured the importance of the agreement with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) which gather more than 250 millions of consumers similar to Spanish consumers, which turns out to be specially interesting for commecialization in all sectors.

The launching of this agreement, expected by the end of 2017, would imply a 400 millions of euros savings for Spain, which they are currently investing in custom fees. The new agreement pretends to increase transparency and objectivity of commercial relations.

Miguel Ceballos  finished his intervention underlining the importance of the current political and social background, and the evolution of  commercial agreements through the years, which include more regulations every day, like social and environmental dumping. As examples, he mentioned anti-corruption in the Mexico agreement and the gender issue with Chile. Finally, he thanked everyone for their presence and the contribution of the Chamber and the Spanish companies in the commercial field.

After the speaker’s interventions, our Vice President Pablo López opened the debate, which was marked by a high participation of the attendees. Between the main issues, the topics were the resistance to the inclusion of financial services in trade agreements, the recently presented White Paper of the European Union and, most importantly, the future of the United Kingdom after Brexit.

Moreover, there was a discussion on the issue of the agreements of the African continent, in which Ceballos highlighted the agreement with South Africa, and the progress on the ones with Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Ghana. At last, they referred to the commercial agenda of growing countries, mentioning the asymmetric agreement with the Caribbean area.

The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held last 8 December a luncheon-debate with the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, about “The role of private sector in EU Development Cooperation in light of the 2030 Agenda”.

The event, sponsored by the technological consultancy firm Indra, was attended by members of the Chamber, corporate executives, members of the Spanish and the international diplomatic corps, and European Union representatives. The luncheon-debate began with the welcoming remarks by the President of the Chamber, Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, who thanked the Commissioner for his participation, and Iñigo de Palacio, Director of Institutional Relations of Indra, for the collaboration of the company as sponsor company.

De Palacio gave a short summing up of Mimica’s professional background and announced the main development projects which Indra is currently implementing in Africa. Thus, he highlighted the importance of the collaboration of the private with the public sector, providing it its experience in different fields, such us in the energy one, transport or health, in order to make the cities more stable and the citizens more secure. “There should be a greater coordination between the companies and the European Union”, he said.

The Director of Institutional Relations of Indra gave the floor to the Commissioner Mimica, who started his intervention thanking the Chamber for his invitation to the tribune “Business Circle” as a honour guest. The speaker first reminded that in 2015, the European Year for Development, numerous agreements were signed to promote the cooperation. For example, in July of that year the Third International Conference on Financing for Development was held in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and ratified afterwards in New York. Then, he pointed out the Agenda 2030 scopes and highlighted the higher investment for development. In this sense, Mimica stressed the EU’s willing to combine the traditional funding sources with new public-private partnerships.

The speaker introduced the new package of proposals announced last week by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO). Those include the creation of new employments in Africa and helping the most vulnerable sectors of the population in the integration into the workplace. “In this way, we will create new markets and big opportunities will emerge for Europe”, he said. Mimica stressed, however, that for achieving these goals the collaboration with the private sector is essential. The European Commission, in this sense, can offer to the companies the right business environment with the developing countries as well as helping them to invest in order to address the market weaknesses.

The European Commission can encourage dialogue between the private sector and the developing countries through, for example, the business forums in which they take part in. The Commissioner also referred to the European External Investment Plan, announced last September, which promotes the investments in Africa and in the EU neighbour states, in particular to help the economic and social infrastructure as well as the SMEs to address the obstacles for the private investment.

Mimica also explained the steps that a company has to follow to implement a project cofinanced by the EU: firstly, the company has to present the project to the Commission; this reviews it; the EC takes the final decision and, if it approves it, it looks for the financing in the European banks.

The Commissioner expressed as an example the success of the projects implemented in Latin America in the energy, transport, climate change and health sectors. Moreover, he highlighted the one developed in Nicaragua to improve the quality of the water.

Mimica finished his speech emphasizing that «cooperation is not about charity; it’s about the actions carried out and not only the words”. During the question time the attendees could raise him their doubts. Those included questions about the European External Investment Plan or the guarantees which the EC must ensure to the companies for letting them implement the projects in the Agenda 2030 framework.

Mimica answered in detail to all the questions and highlighted the EU’s willingness to review and monitor the sustainable projects carried out by the private sector. “These should look for the human development, seek to eradicate diseases in Africa, for example, and reinforce the healthcare system”, he said.

The Chamber and Indra concluded the event giving a gift to Neven Mimica in recognition to his work as Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development.

We would like to thank the winery Bodegas Corral for sponsoring the wine of the event.

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