The president of the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce, José Ignacio Zudaire, attended this Thursday, November 16, in Saint-Malo (France), the 51st General Assembly of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), where he took part in the meeting ‘Forward with the Atlantic macro-region’, organized within the Plenary Session of the Atlantic Arc Commission.
Specifically, Zudaire participated, together with the rector of the University of Cantabria, Ángel Pazos, and the co-rapporteur of the report on the Atlantic macro-region of the Economic and Social Committees of the French Atlantic coast – CESER de l’Atlantique –, Jean-Pierre Girod, as a representative of civil society in the meeting chaired by the Secretary General for EU and External Action of the Basque Government and President of the Atlantic Arc Commission, Mª Ángeles Elorza Zubiria.
During the event, Zudaire, representing the Chambers of Commerce of the Atlantic Arc, presented this initiative of the Chambers of Commerce of Northern Portugal, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Burgos, Navarre, the Basque Country and Nouvelle-Aquitaine to strengthen the mechanisms of inter-chamber and inter-institutional cooperation that contribute to joint work on the economic, social and environmental challenges faced by the regions that make up the Atlantic Arc.
In his speech, the president of the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce expressed “the willingness of the Chambers of Commerce of the Atlantic Arc to create a forum for reflection and cooperation around the challenges we must address in order to position ourselves in the new competitive environment”, as well as their “firm determination to act as facilitators and catalysts, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to launch actions that allow us to move towards a more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable space”.
He also highlighted the advantages provided by “their public nature and the representation of the defense of general interests”, which places the Chambers in an optimal position to play “a key role in the construction of the Atlantic macro-region” and “transform our territory into a more competitive, more prosperous one, with a higher quality of life for its citizens”.
Likewise, he outlined the lines of work on which the Chambers signing the Declaration of the Chambers of Commerce of the Atlantic Arc will focus to address the risk that the peripheral condition of the Atlantic Arc may lead to a loss of competitiveness, territorial attractiveness and capacity for influence.
With this objective, the Chambers of Commerce of the Atlantic Arc will cooperate with each other and with other entities to improve connectivity; act in a coordinated manner to enhance their capacity to influence; work towards sustainable diversification and entrepreneurship; promote sustainability, innovation and internationalization; encourage strategies to address the demographic challenge; and activate the necessary levers to create an attractive territory that retains and attracts talent.
Last June, the Chambers of Commerce of A Coruña, Álava, Associação Empresarial de Portugal – Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Avilés, Bayonne, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Burgos, Cantabria, Gijón, Gipuzkoa, Lugo, Navarre, Oviedo, Santiago de Compostela, Torrelavega and Tui signed their adhesion to the Declaration of the Chambers of Commerce of the Atlantic Arc, drafted on the basis of a shared diagnosis of the main challenges, opportunities and areas of cooperation to improve the competitiveness of the regions of the Atlantic Arc, and through which they commit to collaborating among themselves and with other institutions and entities to address the economic, social and environmental challenges facing the Atlantic region.
150 regions and 24 EU states represented in the Conference
The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions brings together more than 150 regions from 24 European Union states and represents around 200 million people, with the aim of working together for more balanced territorial development in Europe, collaborating with European institutions and national governments. Its work focuses mainly on aspects such as society, the economy, territorial cohesion, maritime policies and blue growth, or accessibility, as well as governance, energy and climate change, relations between regions and their development.
Within the framework of the Conference, the plenary session of the Atlantic Arc Commission has taken place. This Commission was created in 1989. It is one of the six geographical Commissions of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), made up of regions from Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal and Canada and, with approximately 60 million inhabitants, represents 12% of the European population. Its objectives include cooperating to address issues related to accessibility, climate change, energy or maritime safety; defending regional interests before EU institutions and Member States; and promoting cooperation to provide the Atlantic Arc with new tools for the future.