Europe Programme - [01/10/2008]

The Spain-France Forum presents its conclusions at the Paris Summit

The Forum has drafted conclusions on the areas of interconnections, transport, energy, culture, communication, higher education and research.

The French President Nicolás Sarkozy and the Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, together with the ministers present at the 20th Spain-France Bilateral Summit (held in Paris on January 10), have heard the conclusions of the studies and action proposals of the Spain-France Dialogue Forum, and which were presented by the organisation's co-presidents.

The Forum, which was held in Paris in parallel with the Summit, was attended by more than 50 leading representatives in France and Spain from the worlds of science, culture, business, journalism, politics and academia. After two years of meetings, the Forum members have drafted several documents proposing action to promote interconnections and exchange in the fields of transport, energy, culture, communication, higher education and research.

With respect to infrastructures, the Forum called on the governments to announce a coordinated timeframe for establishing interconnections on both sides of the border, a process that will facilitate the use of the infrastructures as they are brought into service (for example, the Jonquera - Le Perthus railway tunnel, expected to open in 2009). The Forum also advised as pushing forward with key projects such as electrical interconnections, bearing in mind the possibilities of reducing the impact on the environment by measures such as covering over sections of the railway line.

As for culture and communication, thanks to the work done by the Forum members it seems increasingly likely that ARTE will find a partner in Spain to promote the works it produces, and to function as a co-producer. The Forum's cultural proposals include promoting a bi-national commission of historians to reflect on the War of Independence, as well as preparations for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the great exile of April 1939, exhibitions by artists such as Picasso and Julio González and debate on the issue of teaching languages.

Finally, the Forum made some very specific proposals in the fields of research and higher education to encourage exchanges between students and researchers and to create a pole of researching excellence in Southern Europe. These proposals include the creation of two bi-national research and innovation institutes in two fields that are of key importance to both countries, one is medicine, and the other, microeconomics and business management.

The Spain-France Dialogue Forum is jointly organised by the CIDOB Foundation and Veolia Environnement, and the Forum's meetings are funded by sponsors. This year, the Spanish sponsors were AGBAR, ACS and Alstom España.

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