The Confederation of European Business, shortened BusinessEurope, is a lobby group representing enterprises of all sizes in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

(EU) and seven non-EU European countries. Members of the confederation are 40 national industry and

employers' organizations An employers' organization or employers' association is a collective organization of manufacturers, retailers, or other employers of wage labor. Employers' organizations seek to coordinate the behavior of their member companies in matters of mutual ...

. The current president of the confederation is Fredrik Persson, while the Director General is

Markus J. Beyrer Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobârl� ...

. Based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, the confederation is officially recognised as a social partner at

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an level, is involved in a range of economic and social decisions and cooperates with a number of stakeholders and business partners. It promotes the interests of corporate citizens to ensure that

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...

supports the European economy. It is generally considered the strongest interest organisation in Brussels and represents 20 million companies through its member trade associations in 35 European countries.

History

In 2014,

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy ...

terminated its membership in BusinessEurope's Advisory and Support Group because it opposed the organisation's stance on

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...

emissions.

Leadership

The association is led by a president, which has been held by the following persons: * 1958–1961

Léon Bekaert Léon Antoine Bekaert ( Zwevegem, 9 December 1891 - Zwevegem, 19 December 1961) was a Belgian industrialist and politician. He was the son of Leo Leander Bekaert, who founded the family business in 1880. He expanded the family venture ''Tréfile ...

* 1961–1962

Georges Villiers Georges Villiers (15 June 1899 – 13 April 1982) was a French mining engineer who was Mayor of Lyon during World War II (1939–45), then was deported to Dachau. After the war for many years he was head of the national employers association. E ...

* 1962–1967 H. J. de Koster * 1967–1971 Fritz Berg * 1971–1975 * 1975–1980 * 1981–1983 Guido Carli * 1984–1986 Raymond Pennock * 1986–1990 * 1990–1994 * 1994–1998

François Perigot François Perigot (12 May 1926 – 7 January 2022) was a French businessman and trade unionist. He was President of the Conseil national du patronat français from 1986 to 1994 and President of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France from 1997 to ...

* 1998–2003 Georges Jacobs * 2003–2005

Jürgen Strube Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is cognate with George. Notable people named Jürgen include: A *Jürgen Ahrend (born 1930), German organ builder *Jürgen Alzen (born 196 ...

* 2005–2009

Ernest-Antoine Seillière Ernest-Antoine Seillière de Laborde (born 20 December 1937 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French entrepreneur and the heir to the Wendel empire (representing €730 million). He is a member of Le Siècle think tank, an officer of the '' Légion d' ...

* 2009–2013 * 2013-2018

Emma Marcegaglia Emma Marcegaglia (born 24 December 1965 in Mantua) is an Italian entrepreneur. She was president of Confindustria from 2008 to 2012, and president of the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli from 2010 to 2019. From ...

* 2018-2022

Pierre Gattaz Pierre Gattaz (born 11 September 1959 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France) is a French business executive. He serves as the Chairman of Radiall, an electronics manufacturer. In parallel with his activity as a company director, he holds various posit ...

* Since July 2022 Fredrik Persson BusinessEurope is administrated by a director general. Markus J. Beyrer has been holding that position since 2013.

Activities

The Confederation of European Business organises the biannua
BusinessEurope Day
in Brussels.

Member organisations

References

Sources

European Social Partners
as recognised by the Treaty of Lisbon

RFI 20 May 2011

External links

Official website
Business organizations based in Europe Employers' organizations Industry in the European Union Lobbying organizations in Europe Lobbying in the European Union Pan-European trade and professional organizations {{Industry-stub