The Granada Conference Center is the center this week of the Third Summit of the European Political Community and the meeting of the Informal Council of the EU, the main activity of the Spanish presidency of the European Union. And to do this, it has undergone a significant change in its main room, the Federico García Lorca, which will also give fame to the name of the universal poet from Granada.
The Palace has also been the center of important events in its thirty-year history but not at this level in terms of personality and security. The closest thing is to 1992 at the meeting of the European Space Agency Council inside the Granada Congress & Exhibition Center. Although connecting the gap, it is also necessary to adapt the room to the activity, like this occasion, to set up a large meeting table as will be done today.
The difference is that, as the Conference Center itself points out on its website, this meeting will rely more on technology, it will be passed around the world and will have a broader focus on security and cybersecurity.
It has to be the Palace to change 500 square meters of the room by eliminating 500 seats, installing a large curtain divider in Union blue and tables in a rectangular design for the heads of state for the summit on the 5th and in an oval shape for 300 people on the occasion of the informal meeting of the Heads of State on the 6th. Around, above, 18 simultaneous interpretation booths will be installed.
The floor should also be carpeted to cover the more damaged wooden floor and all the holes and sockets for seats and connections.
On the -3 floor, a press area with 2,000 square meters has been installed for a thousand journalists, technical system and global broadcasting of the summit, opening the entrance through the ramp area.
All this work will allow a unique event to be held in the Palace of Congress, which will also take advantage of its exterior for the entrance of the leaders by the stairs and the official photo on the first terrace.
Other major visits by world leaders
For these summits, Granada will host the leaders of 51 European delegations together with the heads of State and Government of the countries of the Union: the Turkish Erdogan, the Englishman Sunak or the Frenchman Macron, in addition even Pedro Sánchez and the Kings themselves at the official reception. Also the Italian Meloni and until the end the attendance or not of the Ukrainian Zelensky cannot be confirmed.
This is not the first visit of senior world leaders to Granada but it is the first where they will all be together. The city has hosted several important visits such as Eva Perón in 1947; the historic meeting between Yasir Arafat and Shimon Perez in 1993 with an oath for peace; the visit of Bill Clinton in 1997 or of Berlusconi in 2001 for the Spanish-Italian summit with Aznar as President of the Government. The visits are also important in terms of security but they are not close to the two European summits this week.
