The Confederation of European Business, shortened BusinessEurope, is a

lobby Lobby may refer to: * Lobby (room), an entranceway or foyer in a building * Lobbying, the action or the group used to influence a viewpoint to politicians :* Lobbying in the United States, specific to the United States * Lobby (food), a thick stew ...

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 de ...

(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. 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 entirel ...

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 p ...

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 dri ...

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 trans ...

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 ''Tréfiler ...

* 1961–1962 Georges Villiers * 1962–1967 H. J. de Koster * 1967–1971

Fritz Berg Rudolf Fredrik Berg (31 May 1846 – 8 December 1907), also known as R.F. Berg and Fritz Berg, was a Swedish engineer, industrialist and politician. He also founded the Swedish construction and development company Skanska. Career Between 186 ...

* 1971–1975 * 1975–1980 * 1981–1983

Guido Carli Guido Carli (28 March 1914 – 23 April 1993) was an Italian banker, economist and politician. His father was the prominent fascist sociologist Filippo Carli. Biography He was the son of Filippo Carli (1876–1938), a university professor of ...

* 1984–1986 Raymond Pennock * 1986–1990 * 1990–1994 * 1994–1998 François Perigot * 1998–2003

Georges Jacobs Georges, Count Jacobs de Hagen (born 1940) is a leading Belgian businessman. Jacobs obtained a PhD degree in Law (1962) and a licentiate in economics (1964) from the Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). He also obtained a MA degree in e ...

* 2003–2005 Jürgen Strube * 2005–2009 Ernest-Antoine Seillière * 2009–2013 * 2013-2018 Emma Marcegaglia * 2018-2022 Pierre Gattaz * 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