President of the Government of Spain takes part in launch of European Government Foresight Network

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Spain will be a founding member of this network, which it will take part in through the National Long-term Country Foresight and Strategy Office, attached to the Presidency of the Government.

The European Government Foresight Network is a European Commission initiative that seeks to coordinate the work of the different foresight offices of the EU Member States and enhance their contributions to European strategic thinking. The network will be run by the Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight of the European Union, Maros Sefcovic, and will initially be made up of units from Austria, Germany, Finland, Portugal and Spain, although other Member States are expected to gradually join the network.

The President of the Government of Spain took part in its launch through a video-message, in which he highlighted the importance of anticipatory and foresight governance instruments that allow European countries to get ahead of the circumstances, bring forward the timeline of their political action and design long-term strategies at these times of uncertainty and radical change. Pedro Sánchez highlighted the work carried out by the National Long-term Country Foresight and Strategy Office of the Government of Spain and expressed his commitment to the European Foresight Network.

Henceforth, this national office will work in close collaboration with the other units in the European network with the aim of strengthening the capacity of anticipatory governance of the EU and of its Member States; incorporate foresight in the design of public policies and jointly address Europe's future challenges.

As well as Maros Sefcovic and Pedro Sánchez, the launch was also attended by David María Sassoli, President of the European Parliament; Angel Gurría, the Secretary-General of the OECD; Peter Altmaier, the Minister for the Economy of Germany; Karoline Edtstadler, the Minister for European Affairs of Austria; Jyrki Katainen, the former Prime Minister of Finland; Ana Paula Zacarias, the State Secretary for European Affairs of Portugal, other European officials and several experts in foresight.

Spanish foresight office

Spain's contribution to the European network will lie in the hands of the National Long-term Country Foresight and Strategy Office, which was set up in February and seeks to identify and analyse, empirically and objectively, the main challenges and opportunities that Spain will need to tackle in the medium and long term, and help the country prepare for them. This analysis will specifically address demographic, economic, geopolitical, environmental and educational matters, among others. Since April, this office has been working on drawing up the long-term national strategy Spain 2050, to analyse the main challenges our country will have to tackle in the post-coronavirus world.

Non official translation