More than 45 countries have participated
The Basque school "Lauaxeta Ikastola Sociedad Cooperativa" and the NoviaSalcedo Foundation received the top business awards in Athens at the annual forum held by the European Foundation for Quality Management EFQM.
The awards ceremony was held in the presence of a thousand businesspeople from more than 45 European countries participating in the "Building High Quality Organizations in Europe" forum, which concludes today.
Lauaxeta Ikastola received the Excellence Award, the most prestigious in Europe, along with the Tobermore cement company, the Cedar Foundation for the care of the disabled in Northern Ireland, and the Italian Villa Massa Institution, a leader in the production of Limoncello liqueur.
Lauaxeta Ikastola is a non-profit cooperative founded in 1977 to respond to a growing social demand for education in the Basque language (euskera).
Ramón Madariaga, the school's director, told Efe that "the top award guarantees that we are functioning well" and added that the results will be seen in the long term.
"We are proud to be recognized at the forum with an award that is the highest expression of quality management and a management model that is currently the most accredited among leading organizations in the Western world," said Madariaga.
This year, 18 companies were among the finalists for the Excellence Award.
NoviaSalcedo, a Spanish non-profit foundation founded in 1980, obtained the highest score in EFQM history for leadership in its activity and the professional integration of young university graduates at the European level.
"This is a stage in a journey that began in 1995, and we are very satisfied and will continue on this path to keep improving, bearing in mind that it is the only way to maintain quality," the foundation's director, Begoña Echevarría, told Efe.
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