The president of the CEG, Juan Manuel Vieites, highlighted the opportune moment for this forum to strengthen cooperation and territorial competitiveness in Europe. "We must make the border cease to be a cost and become a competitive advantage," he stated, emphasizing the CEG's work in cross-border cooperation through initiatives like EURES Cross-Border North Portugal–Galicia and Enterprise Europe Network.
Vieites noted that in 2025, nearly 7,500 contracts were formalized in Galicia with Portuguese workers, while over 15,000 Galician workers were displaced to Portugal during the same year. "We cannot speak of a true economic euroregion if there are still difficulties for a person to live in one country and work in the other normally," he added.
The forum's main objective is to help build a shared Galicia–Northern Portugal business agenda, addressing key points such as advancing the Cross-Border Worker Statute to facilitate labor mobility and provide legal certainty.
Other highlighted points include improving rail and logistics connections, with special attention to the Vigo–Porto link and the development of the Atlantic Corridor, as well as eliminating administrative and fiscal barriers that hinder cross-border business activity.
It also proposes fostering cooperation between companies, especially SMEs, facilitating their access to markets, financing, innovation, and public procurement. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen industrial, energy, and technological cooperation, and to present the euroregion jointly to Europe and international markets as a competitive territory.
Vieites also recalled the CEG's advocacy for reducing bureaucracy and simplifying procedures. "We don't necessarily need more regulation. We need the existing regulation to be simpler, more coordinated, and easier to comply with," he stated, mentioning initiatives like BID4TENDERS that demonstrate the potential for SMEs to collaborate in public procurement.
Among the forum's participants were Luís Ceia (AEP), Diego Calvo (Xunta de Galicia), Juan García (Grupo Economía Digital), João Luis de Sousa (Vida Economica), Paulo Vaz (JANUS), Fernando González Laxe (UDC), Javier Guerra (Clúster Textil Moda de Galicia), Lurdes Fonseca (AEP), Francisco Carballo-Cruz (Universidade do Minho), and Luis Magalhães (KPMG Portugal).
