The Brussels Business Page #2

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And Jerome Mono was the

head of Lyoneaisse des eaux, ...

... very large French

multinational.

So, the authors of

this report were ...

... three CEO's from some of the

biggest companies in Europe.

It was a political manifesto

written by these industry leaders.

Meeting in Dublin

is mentioned.

45 CEO's.

All from multinational

companies, ...

... representing billions

of euro's of turnover.

Companies like

Fiat, La Farge, ...

... British Petroleum,

Hoechst, Nestle, ...

... Shell, Unilever, Siemens

and many others, ...

... all of them supported

what is in this book.

What was

stunning was that ...

... these three CEO's would

sit down and actually write ...

... report that was a detailed

set of recommendations ...

... for how to change

the face of Europe.

I finished my job with the

Commission in April 1990.

And I have decided that maybe is best

place is, actually, where the money is.

So I went to the European

Banking Federation.

I have worked

a long time.

Nine years in the European

Banking Federation ...

... and I started

also to discover ...

... an additional work to

Europe, which was ...

... international trade.

It was just before

1992. single market.

Jacque Delors at that

time was the president ...

... and he had

really givin' impetus.

He emphasised that

Europe was something ...

... and that we

have a role to play.

And that was really pushing

everybody in the city to say ...

... 'There is something that

all of us together can do.'

It was a feeling that

if we act together ...

... we can be friends

and change the world.

I can say that I

represent around 80% ...

... of all of the services

exporters and investors.

I can say that I represent

around 60 million workers.

As a turnover it is, let's say 50%

GDP of the European Union.

I dont really

believe in to chance.

It's part of it, but most of the

time you will provoke a chance.

And then it's gonna

be up to you to ...

... see opportunity when

the chance is there.

In December 1993., NGO

network I worked for ...

... had it's

annual meeting.

And the meeting should

take place in Brussels.

They decided that this was

the perfect opportunity ...

... to do something

a little provoking.

Night before we

wrote press release ...

... and in the early morning

we went to the ERT office.

One of us rang the door bell

and told the secretary that ...

... he is a student looking

for some documents.

When the door opened we all

run up the stairs quickly ...

... and we all managed to get

in the ERT office that way.

I remember it very well.

I was at some meeting ....

... in the morning, so I think

it was mid-morning ...

... when I came

into the office ...

... and found banners

hanging around the office ...

... and a lots of

strange faces around.

So I said,

'What's happening?'

'Will somebody please

tell me what's going on?'

And they said, 'We've come to

occupy your building and ...'

Possibly they

wanted a confrontation.

Possibly they wanted

me to ring up the police ...

... and have the police come

and throw them out, but ...

... it didnt seemed to

be a good idea at all.

Indeed finally, there

was some reasons ...

... but we had

the office lunch ...

... so I took everybody, my

people out to lunch and ...

... left them there.

We were surprised by the reaction

that we got from the ERT that day.

He went often

to a room and ...

... talked about that aparently

and decided to leave.

What we did was that

we used ERT press lists.

We faxed press release

to the international media.

We expected that the

occupation of this ...

... very shadowed

but a powerfull ...

... business lobby group would

really interest thet media.

But things were

a little bit different.

I think we talked

to one newspaper ...

... and there was a radio

program that was interested.

For the rest,

it was silence.

We did not know when the

ERT staff would come back.

But on the tables there were

positioned papers we quoted later on.

But there was also a very

neatly organized archive.

Everything sorted.

So we decided to be fast

and copy as much as possible.

In those documents were

letters from the ERT ...

... and demands from the ER to the European Government ...

... and to the

European Commission.

And there were

the responses.

It really showed us the degree

of access that they had.

And incredible influence that

was clear from those documents.

So when we tracked back

the history of the ERT, ...

... we found that it

started in the early '80s.

ERT represent the first time

that multinational firms ...

... organized purposely and

politically at the European level, ...

... to try to influence

European policy.

In the early 1980s,

Europe was behind.

You had rising Japan and ...

... of course, strong

United States and ...

... Europe was really

concerned about falling behind.

What happened

actually is that ...

... Pehr Gyllenhamar from

Volvo started talking about ...

... trying to find a way to create

a marshall plan for Europe.

Gyllenhamar himself was

known as a political animal.

He loved a limelight.

So Gyllenhamar drew up a list

of heads of multinational firms.

Individuals who might

come together ...

... and come up with some ideas

and actually participate ...

... in finding solutions to

economic problems at the time.

From the Commission, ...

... the member of the Commission who

was really keen was the Belgian ...

... called

Stevie Davignon.

He had diplomatic and

business background ...

... and he could see

the need and he said, ...

... 'If I want to talk to European

industry, who do I talk to?'

What I found out when I was

commisioner for industry ...

... that there was an insufficient contact

inbetween the Commission and the ...

... economic apparatus.

The relation which existed

was a relation with ...

... federations of Industries at,

I would say, the official level.

But not at the level of

the people who were ...

... responsible for a

individual businesses.

And I felt that we

are missing this.

And so we

decided to set up ...

... group of industrialists,

which later became the ERT, ...

... so as to have the capacity

to listen to the CEO's.

There were Agnelli's

who run Fiat in Italy.

There was Wise Dekker who

run Philips' in the Netherlands.

There was Pehr Gyllenhamar

who run Volvo in Sweden.

People from Siemens and big

German chemical companies.

French, Spaniards and the British.

A small number of people who run

the biggest companies in Europe ...

... and were ready to talk

about big policy issues ...

... with those people who were

in charge in the European ...

... goverment machine.

And then when they meet ...

... a visionary president of the

Commission Jacques Delors, they find ...

... that Jacques Delors is thinking

in entirely the same terms.

So why dont we get together

and pull their ideas?

That's the

breakthrough we made.

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