PRESS RELEASE GEOLOGY CONNECTS TWO CONTINENTS • More than 50 General Directors of the Geological Surveys of 20 Latin American countries and 34 European countries, together with the United States and Canada, will gather in Madrid from the 19th to the 23rd October to explore new ways of cooperation. • EuroGeoSurveys, the Geological Surveys of Europe, and the Association of Geological and Mining Surveys of Ibero-America (ASGMI), will celebrate the Annual Assembly at IGME Headquarters. IGME is member of both organizations and will host the meeting. This combination of national geological organizations of both continents has never happened before, therefore representing a historically relevant fact. • EGS and ASGMI will share a joint two day-workshop titled “Closer Ties: International Cooperation in Earth Sciences between Ibero-America and Europe” and will sign, for the first time in history, a collaboration agreement that will involve more than 14.000 professionals working within the members of the both organizations, which joint budgets will reach 1.500M€. • The World Bank and the European Commission (Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Directorate General for Development and Cooperation) will contribute with proposals for financing the Earth Sciences cooperation between the two sides of Atlantic. Madrid, 16th October 2015 The Workshop (that will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation at the Gomez Pardo Foundation c/Alenza no. 1 on the 20th and 21st October) will be inaugurated by Marina Villegas, Director General of Technical and Scientific Research of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, together with Jorge Civis, IGME Director, Santiago J. Muñoz Tapia, ASGMI President, and Koen Verbruggen, EGS President. The Workshop will focus on geological risks, mining and environmental conflicts, as well as institutional strengthening, for which will be studied possible European and international sources...

EuroGeoSurveys Membership –composed solely by the Geological Surveys of Europe – keeps growing steadily. At the EuroGeoSurveys General Meeting, held in Brussels on 24th March, EuroGeoSurveys welcomed 3 new members: the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC), the Geological Surveys of Serbia (GSS) and the Geological Survey of the Republic of Macedonia (GSRM). The vote, held in the morning during a closed-door session, brought the EGS Membership to 37 Geological Surveys, therefore almost fully covering the whole Europe. Ms. Anita Drondina, Head of Environment, Climate Change and Regional Policy Division at the Permanent Representation to the EU of Latvia, current President of the EU, and Ms. Inita Stikute, LVGMC Board Chair person, gave a presentation on the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVGMC) and their interest in joining EGS as Full Member. The Geological Survey of Serbia (GSS) application as a Full Member was introduced by H.E. Ambassador Dusko Lopandic, Head of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, while Mr. Dragoman Rabrenovic, Director of GSS, presented the organization. H.E. Ambassador Andrej Lepavcov, Head of the Mission of the Republic of Macedonia to the European Union, introduced the application of the Geological Survey of Macedonia (GSRM). After the presentation of the Survey given by the Director Mr. Kostadin Jovanov, GSRM was officially introduced as Full Member of EGS. Moreover, in the afternoon session EuroGeoSurveys and the Geological Survey of Turkey (MTA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement was signed by EGS President Mr. Koen Verbruggen and the MTA Director General Mr. Yusuf Ziya Cosar and is aimed to exchange scientific and technical experience and knowledge in areas such as marine geology, waste characterisation, climate change, preparation of geochemical atlas, etc. The enlargement of the EGS Membership,...

The EuroGeoSurveys Director’s Workshop took place on 25th March 2015 in Brussels. The yearly meeting of the Directors of the European Geological Surveys and Geological Surveys from all around the world was focused on the theme “Geological Infrastructure priorities in Africa and beyond”, discussing the geological infrastructure needs in Africa and in other areas of the world. The Workshop topic matched the High level Conference ‘EU-AU Joint Session on Infrastructures for the Minerals Sector’ of the previous week, focusing on the infrastructure needs of the minerals sector in Africa (including transport, ICT, water and energy as well as all other types of infrastructure). EuroGeoSurveys welcomed high level guests from Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, etc. together with representatives of EU Institutions and stakeholders, resulting in a very high attendance of about 90 participants. Ms Françoise Moreau, Head of the Africa-EU Partnership, Peace Facility Unit at the European Commission’s DG for Internal Cooperation and Development, explained that in the context of the Joint EU Africa Strategy, of which Roadmap 2014-2017 was adopted last year, raw materials and mineral resources have been identified among the priorities for future cooperation and political dialogue between Europe and Africa. In this regard, the Pan-African Programme established in 2014, the first covering Africa as a whole, supports projects with added-value in areas of shared interest for the EU and Africa. This is why the EC supports the reinforcement of the cooperation between African and European geological surveys with a view to provide to interested African governments better information on their still unexploited mining resources. The economic boom of several African countries should be maximised and that growth should be translated in poverty reduction. This means that the exploitation of the benefits of raw materials should benefit local population. The DG...