36th ILAE Congress 2025

36th International Epilepsy Congress September 2025

International League Against Epilepsy

• Why Madrid
• Basic facts
• Access
• Transport
• Accommodation
• Culture & leisure
• Legacy Commitment

• City Support
• Miscellaneous

INDEX

The Capital of Spain: basic facts

• 3.340.876 Inhabitants
• Best World Destination for Meetings 2019/20/21/22 World Travel Awards
• Madrid is main and the natural gateway from Americas coming to Europe.
• 2.789 hours of sunshine per year
• 144 museums & 5.077 restaurants
• Second greenest city in the world (Casa de Campo, biggest park and former royal hunting reserve, is 4 times the size of Central Park)
• It is one of the top safest cities in Europe
• No VAT tax for congresses
• No tourisim tax

Madrid, easy access: the gateway to Europe

176 Direct connections with :

• 74 European
• 10 North America
• 26 LATAM
• 11 African
• 10 Middle East
• 29 national destinations.

• 51 million yearly passengers (2022)
• 70 million maximum capacity.
• Airport Madrid Barajas is 15km to the city center.

Madrid, easy access by train

AVE, high speed train in Spain. The central hub for high speed train services in Spain is the Puerta Atocha Station in Madrid. 33 spanish cities are connected by AVE with Madrid. Travel times vary between 15min - Toledo, a UNESCO World Heritage destination, and Barcelona, only 2h30min.

Madrid transport

Almost 300 km total network, 12 lines and 301 stations, 187 fully-acccesible stations, 2 million daily passengers and 690.000.000 yearly passengers, 1.50€ single ticket price, 5€ transfer from and to the airport.

The Madrid Public Transportation network includes light rail, the EMT urban busses and the Madrid Underground - the Metro. Line 8 connects all the airport terminals with Nuevos Ministerios, the transportations hub in Madrid’s financial district in 13 /16 minutes. A flat rate of 30 EUR for taxi trips to/from the Madrid Barajas airport. 15.970 taxis in the city, alongside Uber or Cabify services. Tourist travel pass: a full public transport pass for congress attendees from 1 to 7 days offering unlimited trips during the validity of the pass.

Madrid accommodation

Madrid has a very modern hotel infrastructure and offers a wide variety of accommodation options, with 835 properties, hostels included, and 45.759 rooms. There is no tourism tax.

6.189 rooms 400€-900€

22.771 rooms 190€-300€

1514* hotels

33 5* hotels

72 3*hotels

391* & 2* hotels

2.395 rooms 80€-120€

6.030 rooms 120€-225€

Culture and lesiure: pre-post tours

One of Europe's most famous streets, the tree-lined Paseo del Prado in the Spanish Capital Madrid, has been added to the Unesco World Heritage list - alongside the adjoining Retiro Park, Landscape of Arts and Sciences, in 2021.

Legacy and sustainability - Madrid Commitment

The Madrid Convention Bureau is aware of the change in the tourism model, and the growing relevance of sustainable growth, the positive contribution to local citizens and the construction of better cities, and destinations, for society as a whole. We want to invite you to join us in this process of co - creating sustainable business tourism by developing and implementing specific actions focused on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations 2030 Agenda. In order to carry out these actions, the Madrid Convention Bureau has a clear strategy and specialized, signature tools. The Meeting Sustainability Guide and the PLUS Platform for Legacy will continue to position Madrid as a destination clearly committed to the sustainability of events. The PLUS Platform is a free tool that allows the generation of specific sustainability and CO2 reports for each meeting held in Madrid, with recommendations to minimize their environmental and social impact.

Madrid Convention Bureau Support

• Presidential dinner in a special restaurant for VIP's, sepeakers and committee up to 60 participants.

• Help in securing an ample and cost-effective room block, in all accommodation segments , throughout the city.

• Facilitating the use of the public transport system at privileged rates of 30% discount on the official rates during congress days ( a minimum purchage is required).

• Complimentary use of the PLUS Platform to obtain sustainability reports, calcullate the CO2 footprint and study of the meeting's integration with the 2030 Agenda SDGs.

• Organization, coordination and subsidy of a site inspection and/or technical visit, up to 3 days and 3 participants ( accommodationm, transport and meals included).

• Welcome and information facilities at the Congress venue: a city hospitality desk with multilingual staff and tourist information.

• Asistance in identifying special veues for social events and experienced congress - services providers.

• Help with the social and cultural programme including a private historical tour for accompanying guests , VIP's, speakers (up to 50 participants ).

Miscelaneous

VAT/TAX Information The general VAT rate is 21%. VAT rate applied to restaurant, hotel and transport services is 10%. Spanish VAT Tax Law relating to meetings and congresses services is at present one of the most attractive in Europe. When organizing professional meetings, clients will no longer be charged VAT. To be applicable, the following conditions must be met:

• Event organizers need to be non-Spanish and non-resident.
• The habitual congress-related services are contracted by a business entity or business client as a single service/package (PCO service) via a professional local partner, a PCO or DMC.
• All the sub-services included in the service/package directly relate and are essential to the business, and professional, purposes of a meeting, be it a congress, or a trade fair. Therefore, in the cases of professional meetings held in Madrid and contracted in accordance with the legal requirement indicated above VAT does not apply, and it does not feature on invoices.