Dear Sir/Madam,
On behalf of the President, Mr Tobias Wasmuht, we have the pleasure of inviting you to our General Assembly and Annual Conference that will take place as usual in the third week of March, i.e. on Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 March 2026 in Barcelona.
Barcelona Comerç, our member association, kindly supports this event and has helped prepare an interesting programme.
The meeting venue is Hotel Catalonia Eixample 1864 (C. Roger de Llúria 60 – 08009 Barcelona), in the famous Art Nouveau district Eixample in the centre of Barcelona. Rooms have already been pre-booked (see registration form below and information in the annex).
Wednesday 18 March – All participants are first invited to have lunch, followed by the General Assembly (please note that participation in the General Assembly is reserved to the leadership of the member organisations), the opening by Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) of the European Commission, a briefing on the Spanish market and on Barcelona Comerç, and a visit of some unique independent stores on Wednesday afternoon. Barcelona Comerç offers participants the possibility to visit La Pedrera – Casa Milà (an Art Nouveau masterpiece by Antoni Gaudí) before dinner.
Thursday 19 March – The Annual Conference on “Independent Retail, Heart of the Community” will start at 8.30. We count on the participation of Dolors Montserrat, Spanish Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Secretary General of the European People’s Party, Vice-Chair of the Group of the European People’s Party Presidency, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Petitions (PETI), member of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI).
The first session will be dedicated to Championing diverse and attractive high streets and lively local communities with inspiring presentations from Ireland, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic; and the second one to Tackling unfair competition from non-EU platforms to preserve local retail with a panel discussion. The last presentation of the day will be an entertaining keynote speech by Giuseppe Stigliano, a well-known global marketer with a “Mediterranean soul”.
Please note that the programme on 18 March, except for the General Assembly, as well as the Annual Conference are open to external guests and to all members and staff members of your organisation. We invite you to extend this invitation to your colleagues, members and retailers in order to enable them to have fruitful and constructive exchanges with their foreign peers.
You will find here all the practical information (accommodation, costs). The registration form is available below. Participants are kindly requested to fill it in by Wednesday 25 February. Should you need additional information, please contact Laurence (laurence.dessouroux@independentretaileurope.eu, +32 2 732 46 60).
We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona!
Kind regards,
Else GROEN, Director General