The Diplomat
King Felipe VI chaired yesterday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria the XVII COTEC Europe Meeting, in which he defended “the voice of southern Europe” in the new cycle of the European Union, which will put “the emphasis on economic security and how to promote it through its own technological capabilities”.
Don Felipe, Honorary President of the COTEC Foundation, attended the event together with the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy. The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, also spoke at the event, although in his case online.
The Foundation for Technological Innovation (COTEC) was created in 1990 on the initiative of King Juan Carlos with the aim of promoting innovation as an economic and social driver. The summit, which has been organised since 2005 in a different country each year, in rotating order, brings together the heads of state of Spain, Portugal and Italy, the three countries in which the Foundation is established (of which the King is Honorary President), together with authorities, businessmen and relevant personalities from the field of research, development and innovation (R&D&I) in Europe.
Since 2017, each meeting has been dedicated to a monographic content. In this edition, the summit is dedicated to technological sovereignty, “a strategic issue for any country to make decisions about its future autonomously, without depending on third parties, based on its capabilities and forging alliances with trusted countries,” according to the organizers.
In the last meetings, held in Naples (2019), Mafra National Palace, near Lisbon (2020), Malaga (2021) and Braga (2020), the topics of Intangible Economy, Public Administration 4.0, Work 4.0 and Culture and Innovation were discussed. Spain has hosted the event on six occasions, the first four in Madrid (2006, 2009, 2012 and 2017), the one in 2021 in Malaga and the current one, in 2024, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
During the meeting, the King spoke in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, in which he stressed that the European Union “is beginning a new political cycle this year with renewed institutions.”
“It is doing so in a climate of great complexity” and, therefore, “we hope that Europe continues to work firmly and with a high vision for technological and industrial reactivation, understood as openness, innovation, diversification, risk reduction, commitment to research,” he continued.
According to the Monarch, “some transcendental events – a pandemic, a war and a succession of financial and supply crises – have led us Europeans to become aware that there are objectives that we can only achieve if we are united: strengthening technological sovereignty, committing to the energy transition, strengthening infrastructure and being guided by the highest social and environmental standards.”
In this context, and in its newly-launched mandate, the Union will therefore place emphasis on economic security and on how to promote it through its own technological capabilities, alliances with third countries and cooperation between Community partners. The voice of Southern Europe must be heard clearly in this joint reflection, he added.
