Monday
28 September
morning
10:00h - 12:00h
12:30h - 13:30h
Visit to entrepreneurship hub ‘Marina de Empresas Valencia’
Driven by Juan Roig in Valencia’s Marina, Marina de Empresas is a unique ecosystem dedicated to training, supporting, and investing in entrepreneurial talent. It brings together three complementary initiatives: EDEM, a business school focused on training entrepreneurs, executives, and business leaders; Lanzadera, an accelerator that helps startups grow; and Angels, an investment company that backs entrepreneurial leaders to build sustainable businesses. Together, they connect education, acceleration, and investment in one shared space, strengthening the business community and promoting wealth creation, employment, and innovation.
Afternoon
15:00h – 15:30h
15:30h – 16:00h
Official Opening of the Eurochambres Congress
Institutional opening of the Congress: a welcome to the host country and to the content of the Congress.
Vladimír Dlouhý
Eurochambres President
Vladimír Dlouhý is the President of Eurochambres and former President of the Chamber of Commerce of Czech Republic. In addition, he is a qualified mathematician with a PhD from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and a member of the International Advisory Group of Goldman Sachs International in London. He further sits on the Supervisory Group of Kooperativa, a.s. in Prague and Česka Zbrojovka Group SE. He also chairs the Advisory Board of the Meridiam Infrastructure in Paris.
From 1989 to 1990, he served as Deputy-Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Government. In June 1990 was elected to the Federal Parliament, appointed as the Federal Minister of Economy. In 1992, after the separation of Czechoslovakia, he became Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.
In addition, he is an associated professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University in Prague and a member of the Board of Directors of the Czech Technical University and the Brno University of Technology. Until 2013, he was member of the Board of International Overseers of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Mr Dlouhý holds degrees in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the Prague School of Economics and Mathematical Statistics and Probability from Charles University. He holds an MBA from the Catholic University of Louvain and a PHD from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He is fluent in English, Spanish and Russian and speaks French and German.
José Luis Bonet
President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce
16:00h - 16:45h
Plenary session | Strengthening Competitiveness Through The Single Market
High-level address on the Single Market’s current state, key barriers and reforms to boost competitiveness and business opportunities.
16:45h - 17:30h
Plenary session | Electrification: The Key to Europe’s Competitiveness and Security
Ignacio Sánchez Galán
Executive President of Iberdrola
He is Executive Chairman of Iberdrola and Chairman of the subholding companies of the Iberdrola Group in the United Kingdom (ScottishPower), in the United States (Avangrid) and in Brazil (Neoenergia).
Since he joined Iberdrola in 2001, his vision for international expansion and his commitment to electrification through renewable energies, networks and energy storage have transformed the company into one of the largest in the sector in the world, with a presence in dozens of countries, including Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy or Australia, supplying energy to more than 100 million people.
He holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde in the UK, and the University of Salamanca and Pontificia Comillas in Spain. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde, Chairman of the Social Council of the University of Salamanca and a Patron of the Comillas-ICAI University Foundation. He is also on the Presidential CEO Advisory Board of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ignacio Galán is partner of the World Economic Forum (Davos) and a member of the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), the JP Morgan International Council and the UNICEF Generation Unlimited Global Leadership Council.
Among other honours, in 2025 he was recognised as Best Chief Executive of European Utilities at the Extel Europe & Emerging EMEA Equities Awards. He was also named Business Person of the Year by Pompeu Fabra University – Barcelona School of Management. In 2023 Mr. Galán was included in the TIME100 Climate List of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action and was named Best CEO in the European utilities sector for the twelfth time by the Institutional Investor Research Group. He has also received the Medal of Honour from the World Jurists Association at the United Nations and the ESG Leadership Award given by The Foreign Policy Association, both for his promotion of environmental, social, governance and financial performance principles. In 2019 he was selected as one of the best five world CEOs on the Harvard Business Review Ranking, and he was recognised by Bloomberg as one of the 30 most influential leaders in the fight against climate change.
Ignacio Galán was also named Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2014 by Queen Elizabeth II.
16:45h - 17:30h
Panel Session | What does the geopolitical context mean for chambers of commerce and industry?
An interactive session exploring how geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping the operating environment for European businesses and how chambers are responding in practice.
Julian Kassum
Deputy Secretary General - Network and a member of the executive committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
Julian Kassum is Deputy Secretary General – Network and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He oversees ICC’s global network across more than 170 economies and serves as Director of the ICC World Chambers Federation. Julian leads major initiatives supporting SMEs and entrepreneurship and previously headed ICC Brazil and ICC Argentina. He is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris and holds French, Canadian and British citizenship.
18:30h - 18:45h
Summary Key Points
The host closes with the main conclusions of the day
Evening
20:00h - 22:00h
Welcome cocktail
An informal meeting to welcome all the participants of the Eurochambres Congress 2026, in a relaxed atmosphere designed to promote networking.
Dress Code: Cocktail attire
Tuesday
29 September
Morning
09:00h - 09:45h
09:45h - 10:45h
Panel Session | The impact of AI on the economy and chamber services
The session will explore how AI is reshaping European economies and what this means for the future role of chambers in supporting businesses.
Raquel Jorge
Director for European Affairs and Director of the Brussels Office at Adigital
Raquel Jorge is Director for European Affairs and Director of the Brussels Office at Adigital, the Spanish Association for the Digital Economy. As part of DigitalEurope, the European leading trade association on the digital industry sector, she is the Chair of the inaugural Executive Committee for Policy Advisory. She is an Associate Research Fellow at CEPS, leading the portfolios on technology diplomacy and the international angle of economic security. She is also an Associate Research Fellow at Elcano Royal Institute, where she led the Working Group on Technology Policy for more than four years. She is member of the Advisory Council at CDTI, the Spanish Business Public Entity responsible for the promotion of technological innovation and financing, on an unpaid, independent basis (2024-2027), part of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.
Raquel Jorge’s professional experience combines policy research and advisory with stakeholders’ engagement and negotiations in the public sector, think tanks and industry associations.
She has been Project Lead in the European Union’s project on the international dimension of Internet governance at the European University Institute (EUI), a project jointly funded by the European External Action Service and DG CONNECT (European Commission). In the past, she has worked as Technical Assistance Advisor in the consultation and negotiation phase of the then-prepared National Strategy on Technology and Global Order at Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has also worked as an independent expert consultant for the European Commission mapping national AI strategies and has provided trainings to EU diplomats on technology diplomacy. Internationally, she has supported digital public policy projects at the Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, has worked as independent expert for the Business Ready 2025 report at the World Bank Group, and has developed projects on humanitarian technologies at a UK-based consultancy firm, Development Initiatives Ltd., for governments and international institutions.
As a former Fulbright Fellow granted by the U.S. State Department, she holds a Master’s in Security Policy, specialized in technology policy, from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University (Washington, DC). Her background is on Political Science and Public Administration, and Sociology, from the University of Valencia (Spain) and Université Paris X Ouest Nanterre-La Défense in Paris (France). She is part of the Younger Generation Leaders Network at the European Leadership Network, and has been named as one of Emerging Young Leaders across Europe in the “35 Under 35” List from Santander Bank-CIDOB. Also, she has been selected as 2026 European Fellow in the International Strategy Forum (ISF) Fellowship, which yearly selects 25 global emerging leaders in global affairs and technology policy.
A Spanish national, Raquel Jorge is fluent in English and French, and has a pre-intermediate level of Mandarin Chinese.
10:45h - 11:30h
11:30h - 12:30h
Parallel thematic sessions – Part 1: expert perspectives
Participants will choose one of three thematic itineraries, which will guide their discussions throughout the day. Each itinerary opens with a moderated conversation featuring two expert speakers who will share insights on the latest policy developments, emerging trends and strategic challenges shaping the topic.
Itinerary 1: Sustainable competitiveness
An expert perspective on how sustainability and competitiveness can reinforce each other in the current European framework. The discussion will explore how chambers can help companies reconcile regulatory requirements with growth, innovation and resilience.
María Antonia Izquierdo Caballero
Project Officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre
María-Antonia Izquierdo is an environmental project officer at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Seville, where she serves as BREF Author in Unit B5 – Circular Economy and Sustainable Industry, within the EU-BRITE team (European Bureau of Research for Industrial Transformation and Emissions). Her work focuses on supporting the development of the EU Industrial Emissions Directive through the drafting and revision of Best Available Techniques Reference Documents (BREFs), which help industry, permitting authorities and policymakers identify effective and economically viable techniques to reduce environmental impacts.
Drawing on technical exchanges with industry representatives, Member States, environmental NGOs and other stakeholders, she analyses industrial processes, environmental performance and emerging solutions to support the definition of Best Available Techniques (BAT). Her work contributes to the EU’s objectives on industrial transformation, pollution reduction and sustainable competitiveness.
She holds a double degree in Civil Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and ESTP Paris. Her professional background combines experience in environmental regulation, public policy implementation and technical project management in both the public and private sectors. She has received several distinctions, including the “Leonardo Torres Quevedo” National Innovation in Engineering Award and the European Mobility Week Award.
Georg Riekeles
Associate Director and Head of Europe's Political Economy Programme, European Policy Centre
Georg E. Riekeles is Associate Director at the Brussels-based think tank, the European Policy Centre (EPC), and co-Director of the Brussels Economic Security Forum. He has 20 years of experience at the heart of EU policymaking. Before joining the EPC, he spent eleven years at the European Commission, the five last as diplomatic advisor responsible for strategy and interinstitutional relations in the EU-UK Brexit negotiations. Prior to that, he worked in the Commission President’s in-house policy planning team as adviser on security and defence, as a member of cabinet of the EU Internal Market Commissioner, and in French civil service. His research interests cover today’s geopolitical and economic shifts, EU trade, internal market, energy and tech policies, as well as security and defence issues.
Itinerary 2: International Trade
Sofía Muñoz
Director of Resources, Information and Policy Coordination at the European Commission
Sofia Munoz Albarran, a Spanish national, holds two Master’s Degrees in international politics and European Law and a PhD in political transitions in Eastern and Central Europe. Before joining the Commission in 1998, she worked as a lawyer responsible for Spanish competition cases. During her long career at the Commission, she acquired extensive knowledge in various fields of trade policy. Between 1998 and 2001, she was handling trade defence investigations, including overall legal consistency and multilateral aspects in the WTO. Moreover from 2001 to 2005 she was bilateral coordinator for trade relations with Russia and Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2015 she worked as Head of Unit and Deputy Head of Unit at DG TRADE handling, among others, trade relations with Eastern Partners, Turkey and Russia, Association Agreements with Southern Mediterranean Partners and Euro-Mediterranean trade regional aspects. From 2015 until 2023 Ms. Munoz led the unit responsible for Resources, HR Correspondent and Planning for many years as Head of Unit.
In September 2023 she was appointed as Director for Resources, Inter-Institutional Relations, Communications and Civil Society.
In this position she oversees the Directorate’s responsibilities, aiming to provide a high quality service that supports the delivery of the DG’s policy goals both in headquarters and in EU Delegations, in particular, by
· ensuring that the DG has the necessary human, financial and IT resources to do our job;
· maintaining open and effective relations with the other EU institutions, our Member States and with civil society
· communicating clearly about what we do and why we do it
· supporting the work of the Chief Operating Officer to enhance collaboration and innovation in the way we work together, and knowledge management.
Itinerary 3: Talent and training
An expert insight into Europe’s skills gap and labour market challenges, highlighting
implications for business competitiveness. The discussion will focus on the role chambers
can play in training, talent attraction and workforce adaptation.
Jasper van Loo
Department coordinator for skills and labour market at Cedefop
Jasper Van Loo is coordinator of Cedefop’s department for VET and Skills. He currently coordinates the labour market and skills analysis work of the agency. He is also part of the skills intelligence and foresight team. Jasper has a master’s degree in quantitative and general economics and holds a Ph.d. in social sciences.
Eva Revilla
Team leader responsible for Skills for Competitiveness, European Commission DG EMPL
Eva Revilla is Team Leader responsible for Skills for Competitiveness at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Previously, she held several positions across the Commission, including overseeing the business creation pillar of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, supporting industrial clusters and SMEs, and serving as a development cooperation officer in Latin America. She was a member of the Start-ups and Scale-ups Task Force and the Task Force for the Increase of Industrial Production of COVID-19 Vaccines.
She holds a Master’s by Research in Macroeconomics from the University of Limerick, Ireland, and bachelor’s degrees in Business and Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain.
12:30h - 14:00h
Afternoon
14:00h - 15:00h
Parallel thematic sessions – Part 2: collaborative workshops
Building on the discussions from the first session, participants will remainin their chosen thematic itinerary to explore how chambers can translate strategic challenges into concrete action. Through best practice presentations, peer exchange and facilitated discussions, the workshop will focus on practical approaches, innovative solutions and lessons learned from across the chamber network.
Itinerary 1: Sustainable competitiveness
Itinerary 2: International Trade
Itinerary 3: Talent and training
15:00h - 15:30h
15:30h - 16:15h
Plenary Session | Partnerships for competitiveness and growth
A forward-looking reflection on the role of international partnerships in supporting sustainable growth, business opportunities and shared prosperity.
16:15h - 17:15h
Plenary Session | Securing Europe's industrial revival
Discussion on strengthening Europe’s industry to boost investment, innovation and competitiveness.
Román Arjona
Chief Economist, European Commission Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
In addition to his role at the European Commission, Román Arjona is Vice-Chair of the OECD’s Committee for Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). He is also a member of CEPR’s European Economic Policy Network.
He was Chief Economist and Head of Strategy and Foresight at the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, and Vice-Chair of the OECD’s Committee for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP). He previously served in the Spanish government as Secretary-General for Science, Technology and Innovation, and before joining the Commission he was an adviser to the Spanish State Secretary and the Spanish Minister for Science and Technology.
Mr Arjona worked for the European Investment Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as for the OECD as an economist. He is a former member of the World Economic Forum’s High-Level Advisory Group of the Europe Inclusive Growth and Competitiveness Lab, and of its Global Agenda Council on New Growth Models.
Román graduated in Economics at the University of Valencia with a special distinction and holds a Masters’ degree in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence.
Lucía Cusmano
Head of the SMEs and Entrepreneurship Division, OECD
Lucia Cusmano is Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Division at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), where she leads the OECD agenda to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems, enhance SME innovation, resilience and competitiveness, foster SME performance through the digital and green transitions, enhance SME participation to global trade and value chains, and support innovation-driven, inclusive growth.
Prior to this position, Ms Cusmano served in various positions in CFE, leading the development of the OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Strategy and authoring main OECD reports on SME financing, innovation and sustainability, and benchmarking of SME and entrepreneurship policy.
Ms Cusmano holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pavia (Italy) and an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick (UK). She has published widely in international journals on SMEs, entrepreneurship, innovation, globalisation, structural change and economic development.
17:15h - 17:30h
Summary Key Points
The host closes the first day with the main conclusions of the day.
17:30h - 17:45h
Evening
19:00h - 20:00h
Cultural Visit: Guided tour of the City of Arts and Sciences and the Port
A guided bus tour of two of Valencia’s most iconic areas of Valencia: the Port, linked to the commercial and maritime identity of the city, and the City of Arts and Sciences, one of its great architectural landmarks.
20:00h - 23:00h
Gala dinner with an exclusive concert
A unique experience to close the congress with a gala dinner and an exclusive classical concert. An evening designed to enjoy music, culture and meeting in a unique environment.
Dress Code: Gala attire