Casa de América in Malaga offers a conference on the connections between Mercosur, the European Union and Spain

León Herrera Santa María, a senior civil servant and economist in the State Administration, will speak at the conference 'Thirty years of Mercosur. The Agreement with the European Union. Relations with Spain' in the Assembly Hall of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Malaga, on Monday 22 November, at 19:00. 

This conference is part of the activities and series of conferences programmed by the Economic Society of Friends of the Country of Malaga to publicise and promote the Casa de América project in Malaga. 

León Herrera Santa María is a specialist in the financial world, international trade and knowledgeable about the European Union's economic relations with Latin American countries. As a Commercial Technician and State Economist, he has held various responsibilities in the State Administration, both in Spain and abroad. He has been Director General of the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Alternate Director for Spain and Mexico at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Director for European Cooperation and Strategy at the Council of Europe Development Bank. He has also been posted to West Africa and to the Spanish Embassies in Yugoslavia, Denmark, and Italy. 

During his speech he will analyse the current reality of Mercosur, a free trade and common tariff zone formed by Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia, which together represent the 5th largest economy in the world. It is the world's largest food producer and controls the largest energy, mineral, natural, water and oil reserves on the planet. Mercosur represents the "common market" of South America, with which the European Union has concluded, after 20 years of negotiations, an ambitious free trade agreement. A recent study reveals how Spain will be one of the countries that will benefit the most. 

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo consultant.