The Chamber and StepStone company have renewed their collaboration for the next 3 years

The Official Chamber of Commerce of Spain in Belgium and Luxembourg has renewed for the next 3 years its collaboration agreement with StepStone, a leading digital employment platform with more than 20 years of experience in the search of online workers, with the aim of helping all the users of the portal Empleobelux.com to find a job.
This collaboration will facilitate the job search for all users of the website managed by the Chamber as the number of offers published daily in which Spanish is in demand will be increased.
With this extension of the collaboration agreement, the Chamber seeks to provide a wider and more beneficial service for the users of EmpleoBelux, facilitating the recruitment processes in Belgium and/or Luxembourg thanks to a recognised company such as Stepstone.

 

Meeting of the Board of Directors

On September 18th the Board of Directors of the Chamber met telematically.

During the meeting, a review was made of the current situation that the Chamber is going through as a result of the Covid-19, the Competition Committee and the Spanish Financial Forum were discussed and the next events and activities programmed were detailed.

In addition, the candidatures received for the Chamber’s Business of the Year Award were discussed, which will be resolved in the near future.

In Memoriam of Carmen Bernad

I receive the news that Carmen Bernad passed away.

Along with sadness, a feeling of admiration and gratitude arises on me for all that Carmen Bernad has meant for the image of Spain in Belgium.

She was our Vice-President for decades, more than deserving the presidency, which she did not reach because of statutory reasons. Her dedication to the Chamber has no other explanation than her love to Spain.

Her services to Spain are countless. Her relationship with the Antwerp City Council and its Port Authority paved the way for Spanish business interested in the economic capital of Flanders.

Carmen’s father, born in Burriana, importer of orange, ended up opening a grocery store in 1919, which he named El Valenciano. Over the time, El Valenciano moved its headquarters to an old mansion near the city’s Grote Markt. Carmen and her brothers gave the business a cultural dimension, or even made of it a cosy public relations centre. I remember the wonderful sunset on the terrace of that building, surrounded by friends, listening to the concert of the carillon of the nearby cathedral. I also remember that, among the tourist attractions, El Valenciano was a postcard image. Carmen boasted of having a fig tree in her house, perhaps, she said, the only one in that latitude. During the winter she use to cover it with paper to “shelter” it. In the winery of El Valenciano you could be transported to La Rioja, to Ribera del Duero, to Jerez… Carmen was proud of the fact that “her wine” was tasted at the French Consulate in Antwerp, Marqués de Riscal. No doubt she ‘put a spike in Flanders’.

In 2013, aware of Carmen’s support, I suggested to Miguel de la Quadra Salcedo that the RUTA QUETZAL expedition should visit Flanders. Carmen, then Honorary Consul in Antwerp, opened the doors of the city to the young expeditionaries. A success in which her successor, Barbara Moreels, had a lot to do. Because of her age, this was the last service that the Chamber requested from her.

Carmen was awarded by King Albert II, as a member of the Order of Leopold I and, distinguished by King Juan Carlos I, with the Lady’s Bond of the Order of Civil Merit.

Carmen is a very important part of the history of our Chamber. A role model for all of us.

From here I express to her brother Luciano, the condolences in the mane of our Board of Directors.

May she rest in peace.

Juan Rodriguez-Villa Matons

President

Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg