The Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve is to be the first protected area in the Basque Country to gain accreditation as a sustainable tourist destination.  The process of joining the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) began in February 2019 and will conclude with the visit of a team of independent auditors on 9-10 September. Once the audit is passed, Biosphere Reserve will have completed the 1st phase of the process and will become the only tourist destination in the Basque Country with EU recognition for sustainable tourism, and the only reserve signed up to the Charter.

The project, which will last for four years, has a budget of 15,667,498 euros, of which the European Union is contributing 12,997,935 euros from the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme.  Six Basque organisations are involved: Ihobe - the Basque Government's public environmental management company, Fundación TECNALIA Research & Innovation (which will coordinate the consortium), GAIKER Technology Centre, and the companies Serikat, Lezama Demoliciones and Viuda de Sainz.  The aim is to offer innovative circular economy-based solutions for producing high-value materials from the most common construction and demolition waste (C&DW).  

Chef José Andrés has been awarded the Basque Culinary World Prize (BCWP) 2020 for his World Central Kitchen project – a powerful, global and inspiring response to the COVID-19 …

Decisive for maintaining and developing employment            Brussels 21 07 2020   On Tuesday morning, European Union (EU) Governments reached an agreement for a recovery plan totalling almost two trillion euros to relaunch the Community’s economy after the coronavirus pandemic. The "Twenty-Seven" agreed to activate a recovery fund of 750 billion euros funded through the issue of shared debt, and a 1.074 trillion euro budget for the 2021-2027 period.