Fernando Menéndez
This week Brussels has held the Forum -Spain in Europe: a future in common, organised by EL PAÍS newspaper. During the event, a large assembly of renowned guests, such as the politician Jean-Claude Juncker, journalists like Juan Luis Cebrián or writers such as Mario Vargas Llosa and numerous business owners have addressed the relationship between Spain and Europe and have held debates on the challenges they face today on the continent.
Enrique Medina, Chief Policy Officer of Telefónica, has participated in the round table “Competing in a global world” along with Verónica Pascual, Director General of ASTI Technologies Group, and Rufino Pérez, Chief Operations Officer & Global Transformation Leader of the NH Hotel Group.
Javier Ayuso (moderator), Rufino Pérez, Enrique Medina and Verónica Pascual.
Verónica Pascual launched the debate by commenting on the new global competitive environment: “The world requires us to go at a speed in which it is necessary to collaborate. In ASTI and Telefónica we are carrying out cutting-edge projects”.
Enrique Medina highlighted that Spain is a case study for super-fast broadband networks: “Today everyone talks about broadband networks, but we forget that the infrastructure we built during the monopoly era was made of copper. Spain is an example of super-fast broadband development. It has more fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) than Germany, England and France together. This milestone allows us to be ready to face new challenges like thr 5G “.
Then, Verónica Pascual remarked that “the industry is experiencing a major change and talent is the major catalyst of this change”. In this regard, the Telefónica executive spoke of Wayra, Telefónica’s digital start-up accelerator, which showcases its commitment to talent, innovation, development and collaboration with the entire digital ecosystem.
The director concluded the debate stating that it is necessary to apply a level-playing-field for all the players in the digital ecosystem given that, for example the arrival of instant messaging applications do not have the regulatory burden of large companies. “We are living a revolution in which large companies who exist as a business and which operate with a certain inertia have had to adapt very quickly. And we have come to realise that the regulatory ecosystem was starting to become very important.”
This forum has been organised to commemorate 40 years of democracy in Spain. The EL PAÍS newspaper was responsible for programming these series of debates in Madrid, Brussels and London which addressed the magnitude of these years of democracy and discussed how to deal with the problems, reforms and challenges not only for our country, but for the whole of Europe with renowned social, cultural and political figures.
