A delegation of businessmen from the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF), the homologue of CEOE in France, has visited the headquarters of Spanish businessmen on the occasion of the trip of its president, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, to Spain. The objective of the meeting has been to explore ways to strengthen business cooperation between the two countries, in addition to discussing the main issues that interest companies.
On this day, it has been decided to hold a high-level annual business meeting between both employers in order to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Spain and France. This event will be held at the end of the first half of 2020 in France and it is considered that it will be accompanied by awards to companies that stand out for their work of integration and development of economic-commercial relations between both territories.
Both the CEOE CEO, Antonio Garamendi, and MEDEF, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, have agreed on the importance of relaunching relations between the two countries and, in particular, on fostering collaboration between French and Spanish companies. The meeting held these days between CEOE and MEDEF is the first of its kind in more than three decades and takes place at a crucial time for the future of Europe.
On the day, in addition to Antonio Garamendi and Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the French ambassador to Spain, Jean-Michel Casa; the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Méndez; the vice president of CEOE, Íñigo Fernández de Mesa; the president of Cepyme, Gerardo Cuerva; and the CEOE General Secretary, José Alberto González-Ruiz, among others.
Among the topics that the participants in the working meeting have addressed are the international business cooperation between Spain and France, the challenges and challenges of the European Union, as well as the European economic relaunch and the role that both countries should play in this new scenario . The international market situation and, in particular, the importance for both countries of free trade agreements, which are essential for promoting the competitiveness of French and Spanish companies in third markets, have also been part of the agenda.
MEDEF is the employer of France, which brings together 122 territorial organizations, 77 professional sector federations and 14 associated organizations, representing a total of 173,000 member companies, of which 95% are SMEs.
The commercial relations between both countries have an important specific weight in the Spanish economy. France is the first destination of Spanish exports, with 15% of the total exported by our country and a value of 42.9 billion euros during the past year.