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The European Round Table for Industry (previously known as the European Round Table of Industrialists), abbreviated ERT, is a cross-sectoral forum and advocacy group in the European Union consisting of some 60 European industrial businesspeople working on competitiveness in Europe.
The European economy in the early 1980s was regarded by some economists as suffering from eurosclerosis; the European Economic Community (EEC) was perceived in some quarters as suffering from a lack of innovation and competitiveness.
Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, the CEO of Volvo, brought together 7 European business leaders on 6 and 7 April 1983 to create an organisation aiming to communicate that Europe needed to modernise its industrial bases. The initial members were Gyllenhammar, Karl Beurle (Thyssen), Carlo De Benedetti (Olivetti), Curt Nicolin (ASEA), Harry Gray (United Technologies), John Harvey-Jones (ICI), Wolfgang Seelig (Siemens), Umberto Agnelli (Fiat), Peter Baxendell (Shell), Olivier Lecerf (Lafarge Coppée), José Bidegain (Cie de St Gobain), Wisse Dekker (Philips), Antoine Riboud (BSN), Bernard Hanon (Renault), Louis von Planta (Ciba-Geigy) and Helmut Maucher (Nestlé). François-Xavier Ortoli. Étienne Davignon of the European Commission attended the latter part of the meeting. During meetings that followed later that year, the ERT was established.
Promoting the European single market would become ERT’s objective. In its first publication, a memorandum to the EC Commissioner Étienne Davignon in April 1983, the ERT catalogued the challenges' they saw in the European industry. Among these was the need to upgrade infrastructure, roads and communications.
In November 1984, ERT co-founding member Wisse Dekker (Philips) presented "Europe 1990: An Agenda for Action", a plan backed by the ERT on achieving a European Single Market, at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. The plan was then presented at a public speech in January 1985 to an audience with the newly appointed Commissioners, led by Jacques Delors. Delors’ speech to the European Parliament a few days later set out his ideas for completing the Single Market. In June 1985, the European Commission published its white paper "Completing the Single Market", which led to the Single European Act of 1986.
ERT promoted the construction of the Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden as part of its European Link project. This project also included several other international European infrastructural projects, such as the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link between Denmark and Germany. Later, ERT became active in the promotion of the earliest Trans-European Networks.
During the 1990s, the chairment of ERT were: Wisse Dekker (Netherlands), Jérôme Monod (France) and Helmut Maucher (Switzerland), with Keith Richardson as secretary general. During this time, ERT published reports encouraging the first global G8 cooperation on building common standards. Later, this work was recognised by several country leaders, including President Bill Clinton. The ERT was a vocal supporter of EU enlargement.
The ERT published its paper "Actions for Competitiveness through the Knowledge Economy in Europe" in March 2001, calling for national education systems to focus on in-demand skills and for employers to invest in lifelong learning. It stressed easier access to venture capital and intellectual property protection.
In September 2009, ERT called for the creation of a European coordinating body. This would eventually come into effect in 2011 in the shape of the European Coordinating Body in Maths, Science and Technology Education (ECB), which ran until 2014. The decline of research and development (R&D) investment in Europe was one of five main topics addressed in ERT’s "Vision for a Competitive Europe in 2025", published in February 2010.
In 2019, Secretary General Frank Heemskerk revised the name and brand of ERT and expanded its secretariat.
The Brussels Business is a 2013 documentary film by Friedrich Moser and Matthieu Lietaert with the topic on the lack of transparency and the influence of lobbyists on the European Union's decision-making processes. ERT figures largely in the film as an organisation that has had the closest links with the EU; those on European traffic networks borrowed heavily from ERT reports. [1]
In a report by the former secretary general of the ERT, Keith Richardson, entitled Big Business and the European Agenda, the Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment and Diversity Europe's (ASEED Europe's) report called Misshaping Europe is quoted.
Presenting a report under the name of the ERT seems to be the only way of getting the attention of the leaders of the EC (the European Community, as it then was). Time after time the ERT has succeeded in getting the EC to adopt the agenda of business at the expense of the environment, of labour and social concerns and genuine democratic participation.... The political agenda of the EC has to a large extent been dominated by the ERT......While the approximately 5000 lobbyists working in Brussels might occasionally succeed in changing details in directives, the ERT has in many cases been setting the agenda for and deciding the content of EC proposals." [2]
(Source: ERT.eu)
The European Commission (EC) is the primary executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission headed by a President. It includes an administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants. The commission is divided into departments known as Directorates-General (DGs) that can be likened to departments or ministries each headed by a Director-General who is responsible to a Commissioner.
The economy of Belgium is a highly developed, high-income, mixed economy.
The Bilderberg Meeting is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defined as bolstering a consensus around free market Western capitalism and its interests around the globe. Participants include political leaders, experts, captains of industry, finance, academia, numbering between 120 and 150. Attendees are entitled to use information gained at meetings, but not attribute it to a named speaker. The group states that the purpose of this is to encourage candid debate while at the same time maintaining privacy, but critics from a wide range of viewpoints have called it into question, and it has provoked conspiracy theories from both the left and right.
Kissinger Associates, Inc. is a New York City–based international geopolitical consulting firm, founded and run by Henry Kissinger from 1982 until his death in 2023. The firm assists its clients in identifying strategic partners and investment opportunities and advising them on government relations.
Volvo Cars AB is a Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and sedans. The company's main marketing revolves around safety and its Swedish heritage and design.
Günter Verheugen is a German politician who served as European Commissioner for Enlargement from 1999 to 2004, and then as European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010. He was also one of five vice presidents of the 27-member Barroso Commission. After his retirement, he is now honorary Professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder).
The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a single market by 31 December 1992, and a forerunner of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) it helped codify European Political Co-operation. The amending treaty was signed at Luxembourg City on 17 February 1986 and at The Hague on 28 February 1986. It came into effect on 1 July 1987, under the Delors Commission.
Nestlé UK Ltd., trading as Rowntree's, is a British confectionery brand and a former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat, Aero, Fruit Pastilles, Smarties brands, and the Rolo and Quality Street brands when it merged with Mackintosh's in 1969 to form Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery. Rowntree's also launched After Eight thin mint chocolates in 1962. The Yorkie and Lion bars were introduced in 1976. Rowntree's also pioneered the festive selection box which in the UK have been a staple gift at Christmas for over a century.
Pehr Gustaf Gyllenhammar is a Swedish businessman. He is mainly known for his 24 years as CEO and chairman of Volvo, between 1970 and 1994. In the early 1980s he took the initiative for the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT).
Anna Diamantopoulou is a Greek civil engineer and politician of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) who currently serves as president of the Athens-based think tank "DIKTIO" Network for Reform in Greece and Europe.
Orgalim represents Europe’s technology industries, comprised of 770,000 companies that innovate at the crossroads of digital and physical technology. Our industries develop and manufacture the products, systems and services that enable a prosperous and sustainable future.
The economy of Sweden is a highly developed export-oriented economy, aided by timber, hydropower, and iron ore. These constitute the resource base of an economy oriented toward foreign trade. The main industries include motor vehicles, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, industrial machines, precision equipment, chemical goods, home goods and appliances, forestry, iron, and steel. Traditionally, Sweden relied on a modern agricultural economy that employed over half the domestic workforce. Today Sweden further develops engineering, mine, steel, and pulp industries, which are competitive internationally, as evidenced by companies such as Ericsson, ASEA/ABB, SKF, Alfa Laval, AGA, and Dyno Nobel.
The economic and monetary union (EMU) of the European Union is a group of policies aimed at converging the economies of member states of the European Union at three stages.
The 2013 Bilderberg Conference took place June 6–9, 2013, at The Grove hotel in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. It was the first Bilderberg Group conference to be held in the United Kingdom since the 1998 meeting in Turnberry, Scotland.
The U.S. – E.E.C. Businessmen’s Conference was an outreach initiative of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States which began in November 1970 with a series of exchanges and high-level meetings aimed at reassuring Europe’s business leaders and strengthening trans-Atlantic commercial ties during a period of trade and monetary instability. The turbulence became particularly acute surrounding the August 1971 Nixon Administration decision to decouple the Dollar from gold – a de facto devaluation along with the rise of protectionist sentiment embodied in the Burke-Hartke legislation advanced by American trade unions. After eight months of intense planning and numerous trips to Europe led by Chamber president Archie K. Davis and the Chamber’s international group executive Nicholas E. Hollis, the resultant framework and momentum produced a three-day conference at Versailles outside Paris. The conference convened nearly 100 top industrialists and bankers at the historic Trianon Palace Hotel—and led to the creation of an ongoing organization called the U.S.-E.C. Business Council, as well as laying the foundation for the Trilateral Commission.
The term digital single market refers to the policy objective of eliminating national or other jurisdictional barriers to online transactions, building on the common market concept designed to remove trade barriers in other commercial fields.
EuropeanIssuers is an association representing the interests of publicly quoted companies on European stock exchanges. Since 2008, its objective has been to ensure that European Union policy creates an environment in which companies can raise capital through the public markets and deliver growth over the longer term.
The Net Neutrality Regulation 2015 is a Regulation in EU law where article 3(3) lays down measures concerning open internet access.
The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium- to long-term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to its policies and institutions. It is intended that the Conference should involve citizens, including a significant role for young people, civil society, and European institutions as equal partners and last for two years. It will be jointly organised by the European Parliament, the EU Council and the European Commission. On 19 April 2021, the multilingual digital platform of the Conference futureu.europa.eu was launched.
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