Last October 10^th, ONCE and its Foundation promoted in Brussels a Lucheon- debate with Nadia Calviño, Director General for DG Budget at the European Commission, under the topic “60 years of Union: enterprises and human capital, added value for the future of a more competitive and inclusive Europe”. The event counted on with the support of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg and gathered more than a hundred business representatives, associations and authorities of the European communities’ institutions.

Juan Rodriguez-Villa Matons, President of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg said a welcome word and expressed his recognition to ONCE team and its Foundation for the humanitarian and business work developed in favor to people with disabilities.

Alberto Durán López, Executive Vice-president at ONCE Foundation, during his intervention, explained that the Foundation, through his large experience, contributes to strengthen day to day the social dimension of Europe. As an example, the European Social Found, which celebrates its 60th  anniversary, and being trusted by the EU and the Spanish Government for more than 17 years, more than 240.000 people with disabilities have profited the training and labor insertion programs developed by ONCE Foundation, and more than 70.000 have found a job. Durán qualified the European Social Fund as an essential instrument of inclusion and social cohesion, and as a fundamental tool for more than 85 million people with disabilities in Europe. This collective has significantly improved its situation during the past 60 years, in different areas such as education, employment or social services, counting with the work from European Institutions, as well as the representative entities for people with disabilities, specially the European Disability Forum.

However, Durán pointed that there are still many barriers to tear down, in order to build a Europe for everyone, more competitive, inclusive and accessible, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Following this way, the European Social Fund must play still an important role in the following budget period. The Executive Vicepresident of ONCE Foundation, also highlighted the role of big companies and SME, which contribute every day to include people with disabilities into their employment opportunities, and which also develop accesible products and services. As an example, Alberto Durán mentioned the Forum “Inserta Responsible” from ONCE Foundation, which compiles more than 70 companies and other organizations, and whose activity counts as well on the support from the European Social Fund.

Among other remarkable landmarks, Durán mentioned the European Citizen Award granted by the European Parliament to ONCE and its Foundation in 2016. This award was also received this year by the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI), which recognizes the commitment and the willingness of people with disabilities in Spain for working towards a more social and equal Europe.

Finally, Durán presented the advertising campaign as a tribute for the 60^th anniversary of the European Social Fund: Together changing the lives of people with disabilities, through the interactive video “You decide”, which at the end of the luncheon-debate was followed by other pieces entitled ”Just so you know”,  which aimed to spread the European Social Fund’s value.

Lastly, Durán introduced Nadia Calviño, Director General for DG Budget at the European Commission, and thanked her participation in the luncheon-debate by giving her a commemorative coupon.

Nadia Calviño, based her intervention in the European budget investment for reaching a stronger, social and solidary Europe, particularly facing the next financial framework “post 2020”. Calviño highlighted that currently, the two main challenges faced by the European Union regarding the future European budgets are: in one hand, the Brexit with the budget restructuration that it involves, and, on the other hand, that Europe needs to fulfill the European citizens’ expectations, with better social policies and ensuring not to leave anyone behind. The most important thing is not how much money we have, instead, is about investing it in the best way possible, claimed Calviño.

Additionally, the Director General, who reminded that the 75% of the EU budget is invested, among others, into the Cohesion Policy, undertook an overview along all the steps made as well as the upcoming ones, concerning the next budgets’ approval, something in which her Directorate is currently working. Thus, the Commission has started an expenditure review, and is developing a reflection and analysis about the different ongoing programs and how do they function. The Commission hopes to be prepared, based in this previous work, to integrate the expectations of the 27 European leaders by the end of the year, to have a consensual proposal by mid-2018 and to approve the whole budget before the elections to the European Parliament in 2019.

As a conclusion, Calviño mentioned this goal by saying the words of the current President Jean Claude Junker, to lead us to “a more prosper, competitive, secure, sustainable and solidary Europe”.

After the interventions, the participants had the chance to ask questions to the Executive Vice-president at ONCE Foundation and to the Director General for DG Budget at the European Commission. The main topics discussed were the investment of the European budget in accessibility improvements for people with disabilities, and the entrepreneurship aids for them.

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The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg hosted last June 13^th a luncheon-debate with Pablo García-Berdoy, Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union, on “European Agenda”. At the event, we had the presence of Ms. Cecilia Yuste, Ambassador of Spain in Belgium, and there were chamber members of the Chamber, business executives, members of the Spanish and international diplomatic bodies, as well as representatives of European institutions.

Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, president of the Chamber, thanked the Ambassador for its presence, highlighting his diplomatic career in representations like Bonn and Manila, Cabinet Chief of the Secretary of State of External Policy and for the European Union, Cabinet Chief of the President of the Congress of Deputies and Ambassador of Span in Rumania and Germany, between others. Plus, he underlined the importance of the Official Spanish Chambers of Commerce in different countries as a tool to contribute in economic diplomacy.

Afterwards, Íñigo de Palacio, Global Director of Institutional Relations of Indra, made a consideration -from the big company’s perspective– about the current European framework. De Palacio underlined that we are in a decisive moment, in which trust in European institutions and its integration project are a key for society and for companies, despite the uncertainty and the economic recession.

On the other hand, the representative of Indra proposed two important challenges for Europe: security and migrations, for which international cooperation and humanitarian aid are essential. Furthermore, he underlined the importance of globalization and the process of digitalization in the current political framework. At last, he pointed out the need to provide shared security services, through connectivity of European economies, technological innovation and mobility.

Pablo García-Berdoy, Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union, after thanking all the participants for their presence, he started his intervention considering globalization as one of the main current challenges, mainly in the technological sector, but also in terrorism and migrations.  To face it, he explained different EU policies regarding interoperability and borders’ improvement.

 

As a second challenge, Berdoy mentioned about how to face competitiveness and to maintain our social model, underlining the importance of integration measures and the White Paper of the European Commission, in which different scenarios for the future of Europe were presented.

In a third stage, he focused on the Brexit subject, assuring all member-states should get prepared, especially in the company sector, besides negotiating financial perspectives in an economical context which reduces our spending capacity. At last, he wanted to highlight the requirement of consideration by the European Union in the security field, given Russian policy and the new North American administration.

Pablo García-Berdoy finished his speech with conciliating words, remarking the importance of national and European politicians to work together and share projects.

To finish up, there was a question and answers turn, in which the participants could ask their questions to the ambassador, mainly about the post-Brexit political scenario and EU exportation policy.

Juan Rodríguez-Villa gave an award to the Ambassador as a thank you for his participation in the luncheon-debate and his work as a head of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU.

The president also wanted to make a special mention to Bodegas La Emperatriz, sponsors of the event’s wine.

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Event sponsored by:

 

The past April 25th, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg hosted in its Brussels’ headquarters a breakfast-debate with  José Blanco López, MEP and member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and Alejandro Ulzurrun de Asanza y Muñoz, Head of Unit at DG Energy, about the “New legislative package of the European Commission on Renewable Energy and the design of Electric Market”. Between the participants, there were members of the Chamber, business executives and representatives of European institutions.

Pablo López Álvarez, Vice President of the Chamber, started by introducing the speakers and thanking their participation and all the attendees’. Before starting with the speeches, he made a brief introduction about the relevance of the current energy sector and its regulation in the European Union agenda.

Afterwards, Joaquín Mollinedo, Chief Institutional Relations, Sustainability and Brand Officer of Acciona, took part and pointed out Spain as a reference in the renewable sector, as well as the interest of Acciona in taking part on this sector from an industrial perspective and along with the EU commitment. Therefore, he wanted to underline his conviction on the new legislative package to promote a cleaner Europe, the energy sector and innovation.

Furthermore, Alejandro Ulzurrun, Head of Unit at DG Energy, made a summary of the Commission’s proposal, which he defined as “the chance to upgrade the European economy”. In his speech, he underlined the year 2015 for the energy sector, in which there was a record on global investments and around 8 million jobs were created.

Between the main elements of the project, Ulzurrun established four priorities: renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric market and governance. This project, defined by Ulzurrun as balanced and ambitious, covers almost all legislation they want to approve in order to achieve the EU goals.

Finally, Ulzurrun reminded the common interest between the Commission and the Parliament, giving as example their joint declaration of legislative priorities they agreed to pursue a significant progress through the year 2017, in which the new energy legislative package is included”.

José Blanco, MEP and member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, started his speech thanking the the European Commission’s cooperation in the energy sector and explaining the two main goals of the Parliament in this field: recovering the leadership of the EU in clean energy and pursuing the goals set in the Paris Summit for 2020, like decarbonisation.

On the other side, Blanco highlighted the importance of legal safety in the EU, which he considers “essential to assure investements, which are so necessary”. In addition, he pointed out that, from the Parliament, they have the responsibility to learn from their own experience and to look for a regulation framework in the energy field that allows the economic modernisation and to build qualified jobs.

Finally, he insisted in the will of the Parliament to listen to different proposals in order to find a balance that enables the approval of the new package draft, in order to be able to present it to the plenary by the end of the year.

Once the speeches were given, our Vice President Pablo López began the debate, which had a high level of participation with different points of view from representatives of the main companies of the energy sector, consultants and members of the European institutions.

The main topics of the debate were about legal safety, the efectiveness of the legislative proposals in the energy field, the sources of financing for renewable energy and the different positions about the binding nature of the proposals and their legal framework.

 

Event sponsored by:

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On January 25th, the Official Chamber of Commerce  of Spain in Belgium and Luxembourg organized a luncheon-debate with Roberto Viola, Director General of DG Connect, on the “Digital Single Market and Cybersecurity” at the Warwick Hotel in Brussels. At the event, sponsored by Deloitte Spain, there were chamber members, business executives, members of the Spanish and international diplomatic bodies, as well as representatives of European institutions.

First of all, 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 collaboration of Deloitte.

 

 

Roberto Viola began his speech by highlighting the importance of Europe’s role in the digital single market, which has served as a model for professionals in South America, Japan and even Africa.

In its definition of “state”, Viola explained the need to open borders of traditional industry (financial, aerospace, pharmaceutical, etc.) as a key factor for the transformation of the labor market and the interaction of citizens in the future .

On the other hand, he confirmed that “Europe is on the right direction. However, member-states have the duty to teach young people how to continue working on the future of digital society.” He also recalled the responsibility to clearly explain to citizens the advantages of technology.

 

 

For the single market as well as for cybersecurity, Viola assured that the only way to achieve improvements is to “work together in the same direction, both nationally and internationally.”

In terms of cybersecurity, Viola recognized the value of sharing information between countries and national bodies in order to prevent cyberaccidents, as well as any threat to the stability of our market system. Among them, he highlighted the support of Spain and the European Commission.

Viola answered in detail to all the questions raised around the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP), the EU-US information agreement, compatibility with institutions such as NATO or OECD and legislation on cyber-security of minors.

Finally, Fernando Picatoste, Leader of the Security Practices of Deloitte, closed the ceremony thanking the attendees, Roberto Viola and the Chamber. In addition, he wanted to point out the work of the European Union, concluding that “we are going in the right direction, improving and advancing rapidly” in cybersecurity.

 

 

Picatoste underlined the importance of raising awareness among citizens of the need to advance in digital single market and cybersecurity. In order to progress, the collaboration of all countries, the proactivity of member-states and the flow of information for greater protection will be required.

The event ended with a gift to Roberto Viola from the Chamber and Deloitte in recognition to his work as General Director of DG Connect.

From the Chamber we want to thank the collaboration to Paul Van Dinter and Bodegas Tierra, for sponsoring the wine of the event.

 

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