The European and Atlantic response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the outcomes of the recent EU-CELAC Summit, the EU enlargement process, and the challenge of the twin ecological and digital transitions are just a few of the core topics of the first edition of the “Spain in the World” course, inaugurated today in Santander by José Manuel Albares, Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
Organised by the Foreign Ministry together with the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), this three-day course is dedicated to the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and its main pillars of action, with the participation of many experts and policymakers involved in Spain’s European and foreign policy.
At this moment in time, with the greatest political change in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, after a decade of one financial crisis after another and a global pandemic, and now that we are facing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, “the Presidency is a unique opportunity for Spain to showcase all that it can offer Europe. We are aware of the challenge this poses, but we are facing it with full confidence in the values of the European project, which today are more necessary than ever”, declared Minister Albares at the inauguration ceremony.
Also participating in the inauguration of this course—held at La Magdalena Palace, one of the UIMP’s campuses, and which will conclude on Wednesday 2 August—were its Rector, Carlos Andradas, and Olga Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, who joined the event by videoconference and held an interesting dialogue with the Minister.
The director of the course is Federico Torres Muro, Ambassador-Permanent Representative of Spain to NATO. Speakers include Pascual Navarro, Secretary of State for the EU; and Juan Fernández Trigo, Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish around the World; as well as María Lledó, Secretary-General for the EU; Marcos Alonso, Ambassador-Permanent Representative of Spain to the EU; and Ricardo López-Aranda, Ambassador of Spain to Ukraine.
Also participating are experts in international relations, such as Sven Biscop, Director of the Europe in the World Programme at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations; Oana Popescu, Director and Founder of the GlobalFocus Center; Enrique V. Iglesias, former Foreign Minister of Uruguay; and Kristina Kausch, Senior Fellow with the German Marshall Fund; among others.
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