A delegation from the European Parliament visits Madrid to learn about best practices in Spanish social economy enterprises.
A delegation from the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee will travel to Spain from February 21 to 23 to analyze good practices in social economy enterprises and the development of the European Commission’s Action Plan for the Social Economy, which was approved in December 2021.
There are 2.8 million social economy entities in the European Union, employing 13.6 million people. The action plan seeks to boost the job creation capacity of this business sector across the EU.
The Commission proposes to increase in the period 2021-2027 the €2.5 billion aid previously allocated to the social economy.
The delegation, chaired by MEP Katrin Langensiepen (Greens, Germany), will include MEPs Antonius Manders (EPP, Netherlands), Stelios Kympouropoulos (EPP, Greece), Marc Angel (S&D, Luxembourg) and Jordi Cañas (Renew, Spain).
They will be accompanied by Spanish MEPs Rosa Estaràs Ferragut (EPP), Alicia Homs Ginel (S&D), Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D), Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (ECR) and María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (La Izquierda).
Program
On Monday 21, the members of the delegation will meet with the Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérez Rey.
Later, they will visit the ILUNION headquarters where they will meet with ONCE executives, the president of the Spanish Social Economy Business Confederation, representatives of the Confederation of Associated Work Cooperatives, the Mondragon Corporation, the Spanish Confederation of Mutual Societies, the Federation of Labor Companies and the Federation of Insertion Companies.
On Tuesday 22nd the delegation will meet with the Spanish Economic and Social Council. Afterwards, the MEPs will visit the educational center Gredos San Diego (a cooperative in Madrid) to see the working methodology of this cooperative, which has a staff of 1,500 workers.
In the afternoon, the delegation will visit the headquarters of ILUNION Laundry, which has a leading project in the social inclusion of people with disabilities based on social and technological innovation. Eighty percent of its workforce (5,500 workers) is made up of people with disabilities.
On Wednesday 23rd, the MEPs will visit the ONCE Foundation’s digital talent training center, which works to improve the employability of people with disabilities in the digital and technological field. Later, at 11 am, the delegation will hold a meeting with journalists.
More information: European Parliament Office in Spain
A delegation of the European Parliament visits the natural environment of the Mar Menor to analyze its environmental degradation
A delegation from the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee will travel to Spain from 23 to 25 February in connection with a petition calling for an investigation into the environmental degradation of the Mar Menor natural area.
This delegation will be chaired by MEP Tatjana Zdanoka (The Greens, Latvia) and composed of MEPs Loránt Vincze (EPP, Romania), Alex Agius Saliba (S&D, Malta), Michal Wiezik (Renew, Slovakia), Kosma Złotowski (ECR, Poland) and Alexis Georgoulis (The Left, Greece).
They will also be joined by Spanish MEPs Dolors Montserrat (EPP), Marcos Ros Sempere (S&D), María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos (Renew), Jorge Buxadé (ECR) and Sira Rego (The Left).
Program
The visit will begin on February 23 with a meeting with the petitioners, including citizens, environmentalists and political representatives, among others.
Subsequently, the delegation will meet with the President of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, and other regional authorities. At the end of the meeting, the head of the delegation will make statements to the press (4:30 p.m., Hotel NH Amistad. c/Condestable, 1 Murcia).
The delegation will then meet with the mayors of Cartagena, Los Alcázares, San Javier, San Pedro del Pinatar, La Unión and Torre-Pacheco.
Afterwards, the parliamentarians will hold a meeting with the competent Spanish authorities, including the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hugo Morán, the Government delegate in the Region of Murcia, José Vélez, the president of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla, Francisca Baraza, among others.
On Thursday 24 MEPs will visit the affected areas of the Mar Menor: El Albujón, Salinas de Marchamalo, Los Urrutias, Santiago de la Ribera, the Regional Park of Salinas de San Pedro and Saladar Lo Poyo.
In the afternoon the MEPs will meet with scientists from the University of Murcia, as Professor of Ecology Angel Perez Ruzafa, the former director of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography Julio Mas, Professor of Marine Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Alicante Francisca Gimenez, among others.
In addition, the MEPs will hold a meeting with social organizations in the area as the collective Black Flags, For a Living Mar Menor, Collective SOS Mar Menor, etc..
This will be followed by a meeting with businessmen and trade unions, which will be attended, among others, by the president of the Regional Confederation of Business Organizations of Cartagena, Ana Correa, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Cartagena, Miguel Martinez, the secretary general of ASAJA Murcia, Alfonso Galvez, among others.
Finally, on the 25th in the morning the delegation will receive the spokespersons of all parliamentary groups of the Regional Assembly: Francisco Lucas (PSOE), Joaquín Segado (PP), Francisco Alvarez García (Citizens), Juan José Liarte (Vox) and María Martín (Mixed Group, Podemos).
Subsequently, the MEPs will hold another meeting with experts to address the final observations of the visit.
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