Last week, the Presidents of BusinessEurope’s 40 member federations gathered in Madrid at the invitation of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, CEOE, at the annual Council of Presidents.
The Presidents of BusinessEurope’s member federations had an extensive agenda for the two daylong meeting. Several roundtable discussions were held as well as the annual meeting with the recurring points of decisions. They also had discussions with extinguished guest such as Margaritis Schinas, Vice President of the European Commission, Nadia Calviño, First Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for the Economy and Digital Transformation and had an audience with His Majesty King Felipe VI.
Antonio Garamendi, President of CEOE, pointed out that ”We need competitive companies to strengthen Europe’s global position, ability to stand up for our values, secure high living standards and deliver on the green and digital transitions. We trust that the incoming Spanish Presidency of the EU will build on the work started earlier this year to launch an ambitious European competitiveness strategy.”
On behalf of BusinessEurope’s member federations, Fredrik Persson, President of BusinessEurope, handed over the Madrid Declaration to Nadia Calviño. The declaration emphasizes the European business community priorities for the incoming Spanish presidency. He also stressed that that ”Falling energy prices through the mild winter helped steer the EU economy away from recession, but some countries are in recession and the situation remains challenging for many businesses. We expect growth to reach just 0.7% in the EU in 2023 and 1.6% in 2024, provided downside risks such as continuing geo-political instability don’t materialise. When steering negotiations on EU policies, the Spanish Presidency should promote a strategic approach to competitiveness, help reduce regulatory burden for companies, deepen the Single Market integration, and secure energy supply at competitive prices. Trade is key and we need to diversify sources of supply of critical raw materials and export markets. We fully support the incoming Spanish Presidency intention to give a new impetus to the conclusion and ratification of trade agreements with Chile, Mexico and Mercosur.”
Spain will take over the presidency in the Council of the European Union from Sweden 1 of July.
EUCompetitiveness