Last Tuesday 25th April, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg and Agencia EFE presented their collaboration agreement during the breakfast-debate on “The role of Agencia EFE in Brussels”. The event was attended by Soledad Álvarez, Strategy Director of Agencia EFE, Catalina Guerrero, delegate of EFE in Brussels, and José Rodríguez, head of EFEcomunica.

The President of the Chamber, Pablo López-Álvarez, gave a short introduction, highlighting the work of Agencia EFE and explaining the nature of the collaboration agreement signed between both organisations.

Soledad Álvarez then put into context the history of EFE, the first Spanish news agency. She explained that the organisation has “a worldwide network of journalists of 60 nationalities”, as well as 42 delegations and 50 correspondents, with a presence on all five continents.

As Catalina Guerrero explained, the Agencia EFE has been covering news in Brussels for half a century, since 1^st January 1970. From a journalistic point of view, the Belgian capital is “one of the most complex destinations” due to the large amount of information that the different European institutions and organisations issue on a daily basis.

The diversity of sources, the bombardment of information and its technical nature are the main challenges faced by EFE in Brussels. Guerrero stated that in order to manage current affairs, the delegation team works by portfolios, dividing coverage into news areas.

Finally, José Rodríguez presented the EFEcomunica brand and the communication services offered to companies and organisations to improve their dissemination and notoriety in the media.

After the presentation, there was a round of questions and answers in which topics such as the uncertainty of recent times in social networks and the relevance of diversifying EFE’s services were discussed.