On June 26, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized, in collaboration with its member Schuman Associates, a conference on “The future priorities and budgets of the EU: Do they benefit Spain?“. The event was attended by several members of the Chamber and representatives of Spanish public institutions in Brussels.

The conference was given by Ruth Estrada, partner of Schuman Associates, a consultancy based in Brussels with more than 25 years of experience in financing and European Public Affairs.

As can be seen from the title of the conference, the exhibition focused on the new multi-year financial perspectives of the EU, which are prepared every seven years. This budget proposal is the first that is made without the participation of the United Kingdom.

These new budgets present several changes compared to the previous ones. In fact, the number of programs has fallen from fifty-eight to thirty-seven, multiplying the investment in digitalization, Erasmus program and security and defense programs, as well as borders contol.

In relation to these initiatives, one of the main novelties exposed by Ruth Estrada is that these budgets look for a centralization of the financing by increasing the control of Brussels.

As a consequence of this centralization, the European cohesion policy will also be seriously impacted, reducing funding for these policies by 10%, which will be compensated through centralized policies.

Estrada also explained the budget distribution foreseen for the new Horizon Europe (which will continue the work begun by Horizon 2020). This horizon plans to allocate more than ninety four trillion euros to programs grouped in various pillars, such as: the research and development of infrastructures, global challenges and industrial competitiveness and the strengthening of the European research area through the creation of a European Council of Innovation.

Likewise, the co-financing of Brussels in European projects will be significantly reduced, which will affect investment in regional policies, mainly affecting southern and eastern European countries.
Therefore, the five objectives through which investments in structural funds are conducted will be the search for a more digital, greener, better connected, more social and closer to citizens Europe.

As the speaker emphasized, sectors such as tourism and urban development are left out of the main core of these budgets. It is for this reason that Spain, although benefiting in many aspects, will try to introduce these matters in the possible modifications that may be carried out in the proposal. The final decision is scheduled to be approved in May 2019.

After the intervention of Ruth Estrada, numerous attendees had the opportunity to ask questions or comment on the draft budget of the European Union.

To conclude, the speaker informed on the reports published by Schuman Associates in relation to the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020, suggesting its reading for all those interested in European funding and the novelties that are proposed for the coming years:

More information on MFF reports: http://www.schumanassociates.com/newsroom

On June 14, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg organized, in collaboration with LaLiga, a conference on “the internationalization process of LaLiga“. The event was attended by several representatives of both Belgian and Spanish companies, as well as European organizations, who came to know the strategies that LaLiga implements to meet its international expansion objective.

Firts of all, Andrea Oriol, delegate of LaLiga in Benelux, gave a few words of welcome to the attendees and presented the work of LaLiga and the clubs that compose the competition.

As explained, the operation of LaLiga began to change in 2013 with the arrival of Javier Tebas to the presidency, who established new guidelines to strengthen the professional football league nationally and internationally. Thanks to the policies of financial fairplay, the centralization of the sale of audiovisual rights and the fight against piracy and match-fixing it was possible to economically clean up the organization and consolidate the foundations of what it is today, the best league in the world.

The key areas of work for the growth of LaLiga at an international level are the exploration of new business models and the improvement in the knowledge and consideration of each market. Thanks to this, a greater presence and support for the operators (rights holders) and the fans from all over the world, whatever the country they are and speak the language they speak, is assured.

On the other hand, digital and communication development are a very important factors to consider: specific contents must be created for each market, propose new alternatives and carry out a global strategy that in turn has a local impact.

With all this, LaLiga has offices in 10 countries and 12 cities, but thanks to its hiring of personnel for the Global Network project, which every day studies new market opportunities and analyzes the behavior of international markets, its influence reaches today to 84 countries.

Finally, Laura Vilches, responsible for European Affairs of LaLiga, briefly explained the collaboration that LaLiga has been developing since 2015 in Brussels with the European institutions and national delegations, as well as with the representations of professionals from other entertainment industries in key areas for the growth and consolidation of it. These included the centralized sale of the audiovisual rights of their competitions by LaLiga, the fight against piracy or the new FIFA tournaments and new rules of distribution of the UEFA Champions League.

The conference was held in a participatory environment, in which attendees had the opportunity to raise their doubts to the speakers who, after answering them, gave way to networking.

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The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg and the Chambre de Commerce Belgo-Portugaise, have the pleasure of inviting their members and network of contacts to watch the first game of Spain in the World Cup of Russia 2018 against Portugal. The appointment will take place next Friday 15th at 20:00 in La Tentation, Galician center in Brussels (Rue de Laeken 28, 1000 Brussels).

The match will be broadcasted on a giant screen and during the match it will be possible to taste typical Galician products  (drinks and food not included).

If you are interested in attending, you just have to send an email to info@e-camara.com including the names and surnames of the participants indicating “Spain-Portugal match” in the subject.

Sport means networking!
We will be waiting for you!

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