José Vicente Morata, vice-president of Eurochambres, and Vladimir Dlouhy, president of Eurochambres.
Antwerp, 13/06/24.- The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Valencia, José Vicente Morata, has spoken at the 134th General Assembly of Eurochambres, as vice-president of Eurochambres, representing the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. In his speech, Morata defended the importance of the single market and the need to strengthen it to increase the competitiveness of our SMEs.
Once the Assembly concluded, the Eurochambres 2024 Congress took place in which the chambers of commerce of Valencia, Castellón, Orihuela, Alcoy, Bilbao, Valladolid, Gijón and Barcelona participated together with the Delegation of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce to the EU. This is the first Congress in a face-to-face format since 2019.
In the opening session, Vladimir Dlouhy, president of Eurochambres, highlighted that one of the main concerns of companies is the continuous loss of competitiveness they have experienced, so he recalled the need for a strong Single Market and to progress towards the Capital Markets Union.
Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, insisted that "competitiveness is our top priority. It is therefore necessary to make Europe's green transition work for the new global reality, while ensuring the conditions for our industry to thrive here and compete globally."
Spanish chambers at the Eurochambres Congress
The Congress had presentations by the Chamber of Valencia and the Chamber of Barcelona.
Jorge Linares, general director of the Chamber of Valencia, highlighted the main role of the Chambers in the sustainable transition, and the importance of initiatives that move companies towards more sustainable business models. To this end, the Valencia Chamber of Commerce has TICNegocios, a platform for Valencia's digital ecosystem, which acts as a marketplace whose objective is to promote the digital transformation of SMEs by providing resources, advice and financing for their technological projects.
For her part, Leonie Hehn, project manager of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, presented the Lab 3040 initiative, with which they seek to position Catalonia as a benchmark for innovation. To do this, its platform acts as a link between the different large companies and startups, where the former propose challenges and the latter offer solutions. In this way, innovation is promoted, while knowledge is shared; adapting the Chamber's business model to the needs of companies.
The Eurochambres Congress is attended by more than two hundred participants from forty countries: EU members, accession candidates and other invited countries.