— Galicia was represented at six different events in the latest edition of EU Regions Week, continuing a participation that began more than two decades ago.

— Fundación Galicia Europa organised two seminars at this year’s edition, one about artificial intelligence and the other about industry in the framework of the green and digital transitions.

Brussels, October 13th 2023. European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) has just concluded its 21st edition, held from the 9th to the 12th of October. Over the last four days, Brussels hosted more than 300 events on the programme of what has established itself after two decades as the biggest event on European cohesion policy.

Through the Fundación Galicia Europa (FGE), an entity representing the Xunta to the European Union, Galicia has been participating since its origins, more than two decades ago, and this 2023 edition was no exception. On this occasion, our region was represented in a total of six events, two of which were organised by the FGE, both held on Tuesday 10th.

Fundación Galicia Europa at EU Regions Week

The first of the events organised by the Fundación Galicia Europa addressed the role of European regions in the development of artificial intelligence, creating the ideal space to present to the European public the work that has been developed from Galicia in relation to this technology. The Xunta de Galicia’s commitment to transformation in this field was therefore evident, materialised in the work of the Agency for the Technological Modernisation of Galicia (Amtega) and, in particular, in the current process of drafting the law for the planning, organisation and promotion of AI in Galicia and in the granting of the first state agency for the supervision of AI (AESIA).

The meeting was moderated by María Bobillo, Director of Planning at Amtega, and counted with Beatriz Allegue, Head of Legislative Development at the General Legal Counsel of the Xunta de Galicia, as a speaker. She was joined by Thomas Wobben, Director of Legislative Work at the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and Miguel Valle del Olmo, Advisor for Digital Transformation at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU.

Although in a different setting, the talk given by Julio Pombo, director of Impulsa Galicia, also put our territory in the spotlight. Also organised by the Fundación Galicia Europa and under the pretext of portraying the adaptation of Galician industry to the green and digital transitions, it was useful to present some of the initiatives of this public-private entity promoted by the Xunta.

Among the projects on which Impulsa Galicia is working with the aim of speeding up business initiatives that have an impact on economic transformation is the construction of the first Ilyocell plant in Europe, which will be built in Palas de Rei by the Altria group. The generation of green hydrogen and the integral and sustainable recovery of the Galician countryside are two of its other priorities.

In addition, following the closing session of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2023, Fundación Galicia Europa participated with other Spanish regions in a tasting of typical products. Organised in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, it introduced European public to tarta de santiago, empanada, Galician cheeses and Ribeiro wine.

Other Galician representation at the EU Regions Week 2023

In addition to the two seminars organised by Fundación Galicia Europa, Galician interests were also represented at three other events. One of them was attended by Sagrario Pérez Castellanos, the Xunta’s Director General for Climate Change, who explained to the audience how the Covenant of Mayors has been implemented in Galicia.
During its four years of existence, the Technical Assistance Office for Local Councils has managed to bring together 285 Galician local councils in the fight against climate change from the local level.

Also within the programme of the European Week of Regions, professional qualitifacions in border areas between countries were discussed. The Galician-Portuguese perspective was provided by Nuno Almeida, the director of the European Group of Territorial Cooperation Galicia-North of Portugal.

Finally, although in a parallel event to the official agenda of the EU Regions Week, the Galician Food Cluster (Clusaga) was also represented. The Galician entity co-organised a seminar together with Flanders’ FOOD (from Flanders) and AgriFood Capital – FoodNL (from Brabant) in which the initiatives of the entities in the field of agri-food innovation were presented, as well as their collaborative projects.