Regional president greets vice-president Santos on his arrival at Ajuria Enea. JB

Memorandum de entendimiento.(pdf)

Basque regional president Juan José Ibarretxe today answered criticism levelled by the "right honourable Socialist spokesmen" (his words) to the effect that the Basque Country's real problem was not the economic crisis but regional president Ibarretxe. After rejecting the statement, Ibarretxe declared that the priority for the Basque government was to beat the economic crisis, which meant getting things right. He added that society "knows full well that what really concerns me is the fight against the crisis and to take advantage of the recovery when it comes, which it will do."
 
Ibarretxe made these declarations after his meeting at Ajuria Enea with Colombian vice-president Francisco Santos, currently in the Basque Country on an official visit.
 
During his appearance, Ibarretxe also called on the Basques to construct a region open to all-comers, because "people management in the 21st century is not just managing well for internal consumption. That kind of management needs outreach, we need friends in the world, doors that open when we come knocking." He added that the Basque economy needed to open up to the world to overcome the crisis and take advantage of economic recovery. From the political and economic viewpoint, he considered the region's relations with Colombia to be "preferential."
 
As Ibarretxe also noted, Colombia, which shared the stigma of violence with the Basque Country, was a "great country with great opportunities", a place for the Basques to develop their business ideas.
 
Furthermore, the Basque Country would, in Ibarretxe's words, be "forever indebted" to Colombia for taking in Basque immigrants "fleeing from persecution for their political ideas" after the Civil War. Curiously, the vice-president's grandfather, Eduardo Santos, was president of Colombia between 1938 and 1942.
 

Ibarretxe also insisted that everybody needed to work together against the economic crisis and referred to the commitment acquired by the Colombian and Basque authorities on issues like education, training, immigration and innovation. "There's so much we can do together," added the regional president. "One of our big opportunities," he concluded, "is to improve our relations with Colombia, which already fluid and rewarding."
 
Agreement on youth issues
 
In his reply, Francisco Santos declared his admiration for "the dynamism and vision of the future" of Basque institutions and business, a good example, being, he said, the spectacular renovation of Bilbao, a model he hoped he could transfer to his own country.
 
During his visit to the region, vice-president Santos signed a memorandum for cooperation on research and training in youth issues with Basque regional Culture minister Miren Azkarate. Heads of Colombian educational centres will be visiting Basque schools for first-hand information about their environmental education programmes.
 
Santos also met a number of Basque businessmen to talk about his country's "potential for investment." He said he intended to create the ways and means for cooperation on business initiatives.
 
Before his meeting with the regional president, Santos met the Speaker of the Basque parliament Izaskun Bilbao.