José Manuel Albares champions European values at UIMP course on the Spanish Presidency of the EU

as “more necessary than ever”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation inaugurates the first edition of the “Spain in the World” course in Santander.

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The European and Atlantic response to Russian aggression Ukraine, the results of the recent EU-CELAC summit, the process of expanding the Union or the challenge of the double ecological and digital transition are some of the central topics of the first edition of the course “Spain in the World”, inaugurated in Santander by Jose Manuel Albares, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.

Organized by Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), the three-day course is dedicated to Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and its main lines of action, and will feature the participation of numerous experts and those responsible for Spain's European and foreign policy.

At the moment of greatest political change in Europe since the fall of the wall Berlin, and after a decade of chained financial crises, a global pandemic, and now with Russian aggression in Ukraine, “the Presidency is a unique opportunity for Spain to show everything it can offer to Europe. We are aware of the challenge it entails, but we face it with full confidence in the values of the European project, which are more necessary today than ever,” said Minister Albares at the opening ceremony.

The course, which is being held at the Palacio de la Magdalena, one of the UIMP headquarters, until Wednesday, August 2, also had the participation of the rector at its opening, Carlos Andradas, and Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for the IEuropean and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, who connected by videoconference to have an interesting exchange with the minister.

The course is run by Federico Torres Muro, ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the NATO and will have Pascual Navarro, Secretary of State for the EU, and Juan Fernandez Wheat, Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in 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 in Ukraine.

Along with them and until Wednesday, experts in international affairs will also participate, such as Sven Bishop, director of the Europe in the World Program at Egmont-Institute for International Relations; Oana Popescu, director and founder of GlobalFocus Center; Enrique V. Iglesias, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay; or Kristina Kausch, researcher at the German Marshall Fund, among others.