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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.

History

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.

The Single Market

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.

1990s

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.

2000–2019

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.

Criticism

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]

Chairs

1983–1988: Pehr G. Gyllenhammar (Volvo)
1988–1992: Wisse Dekker (Philips)
1992–1996: Jérôme Monod (Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux)
1996–1999: Helmut Maucher (Nestlé)
1999–2001: Morris Tabaksblat (Reed Elsevier)
2001–2005: Gerhard Cromme (ThyssenKrupp)
2005–2009: Jorma Ollila (Nokia)
2009–2014: Leif Johansson (Ericsson)
2014–2018: Benoît Potier (Air Liquide)
2018–2022: Carl-Henric Svanberg (AB Volvo)^[3]
2022–present: Jean-François van Boxmeer (Vodafone Group)

List of members in 2023

Hilde Merete Aasheim (Norsk Hydro)
Jean-Paul Agon (L'Oréal)
Zoltán Áldott (MOL)
José María Álvarez-Pallete (Telefónica)
Nils S. Andersen (AkzoNobel)
Cláudia Azevedo (Sonae)
Rodolfo De Benedetti (CIR)
Leonhard Birnbaum (E.ON)
Dolf van den Brink (Heineken)
Martin Brudermüller (BASF)
Pierre-André de Chalendar (Saint-Gobain)
Jean-Pierre Clamadieu (ENGIE)
Vincent Clerc (A.P. Møller-Mærsk)
Claudio Descalzi (Eni)
Stefan Doboczky (Heubach Group)
Henrik Ehrnrooth [fi] (KONE)
Börje Ekholm (Ericsson)
Aiman Ezzat (Capgemini)
Guillame Faury (Airbus)
Ignacio S. Galán (Iberdrola)
Óscar García Maceiras (Inditex)
Belén Garijo (Merck Group)
Christel Heydemann (Orange)
Timotheus Höttges (Deutsche Telekom)
Roy Jakobs (Royal Philips)
Jan Jenisch (Holcim)
Ilham Kadri (Solvay)
Ola Källenius (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
Christian Klein (SAP)
Thomas Leysen (Umicore)
Helge Lund (BP)
Pekka Lundmark (Nokia)
Martin Lundstedt (AB Volvo)
Nancy McKinstry (Wolters Kluwer)
Florent Menegaux (Michelin)
Mathias Miedreich (Umicore)
Aditya Mittal (ArcelorMittal)
Dimitri Papalexopoulos (TITAN Cement)
Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial)
Benoît Potier (Air Liquide)
Patrick Pouyanné (TotalEnergies)
Gianfelice Rocca (Techint Group of Companies)
Björn Rosengren (ABB)
Güler Sabancı (Sabancı Holding)
Wael Sawan (Shell)
Mark Scheider (Nestlé)
Severin Schwan (Roche)
Kurt Sievers (NXP Semiconductors)
Tony Smurfit (Smurfit Kappa Group)
Jim H. Snabe (Siemens)
Jakob Stausholm (Rio Tinto)
Carl-Henric Svanberg (AB Volvo)
Jonathan Symonds (GlaxoSmithKline)
Jean-François van Boxmeer (Vodafone Group)
Jacob Wallenberg (Investor AB)
Peter Wennink (ASML Holding)
Oliver Zipse (BMW Group)

(Source: ERT.eu)

References

^ "The Brussels Business - Who Runs the European Union". Archived from the original on 2013-07-18. Retrieved 2014-01-25.
^ Keith Richardson, Big Business and the European Agenda (2000), The Sussex European Institute, p.30
^ Members of the ERT

Cowles, M., G., Setting the agenda for a new Europe: the ERT and EC 1992, In: Journal of Common Market Studies, 33, 1995,
Cowles, M., G., The rise of the European multinational, In: International Economic Insights, 1993
ERT, Will European governments in Barcelona keep their Lisbon promises?, Message from the European Round Table of Industrialists to the Barcelona European Council, March 2002. Brussel, Feb. 2002
Marchipont, J.-F. (1997). "La stratégie industrielle de l'Union Européenne". Revue d'économie industrielle. 71 (1). Luxemburg: Éditions Continent Europe: 17–37. doi:10.3406/rei.1995.1555.
Preston, M., E., The European commission and special interest groups, In: Claeys, P.-H., Gobin, C., Smets, I., Lobbyisme, pluralisme et intégration Européenne. Brussel, Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes, 1998, ISBN 978-9052018034
Richardson, K. (2000). "Big business and the European agenda". Sussex European Institute Working Paper. 35. University of Sussex.